PUTNEY, Vt. – Next Stage Arts announces the lineup for the fourth summer of its outdoor cultural performance series running from May-October throughout Windham County. The series will include 20 performances ranging from a diverse group of musical styles and dance that will take place in fields, farms, and parks throughout the area.
“The Bandwagon Summer Series is an opportunity to cultivate friendships, experience new music, and bask in Vermont’s outdoor beauty,” says Keith Marks, executive director of Next Stage Arts. “The series began as a response to Covid, and it has blossomed into something the community looks forward to every summer. Kids running around, Vermont-made food and drinks, and the lineup add up to be an attractive way to meet friends and family. This year’s lineup is easily the best we’ve had yet.”
The full lineup, with information about ticket options, can be found at www.nextstagearts.org. The series invites children under 12 into any concert for free, boasts a kids’ play zone, and the organization donates free tickets to every public library in Windham County and to select social service agencies. Vermont-made food and drinks will be available.
The Bandwagon Summer Series kicks off on Saturday, May 18, at 6 p.m., (all venues TBD) with prominent Persian musician, film score composer, singer, violinist, and master Kamancheh player Mehrnam Rastegari, joining forces with Mediterranean surf trio Habbina Habbina. The trio connects Brooklyn indie to Middle-Eastern psychedelia and guitar twang mastery.
The following week, Saturday, May 25, at 6 p.m., brings award-winning Dominican composer, guitarist, vocalist, and producer Yasser Tejeda. According to the Chicago Reader, Yasser’s “elegantly polished compositions contain a fascinating, delicate interplay of past and present…underlined by raw, ancestral music meant to move bodies and bring about communion,” while Juan Luis Guerra, the most influential Dominican artist in the world, praised his mission, calling it a “marvelous example of what’s happening with Dominican music.”
The series continues with contemporary klezmer/rock ensemble Midwood. Led by violinist Jake Shulman-Ment, the ensemble is a celebration of freedom and the Jewish tradition of wandering and migration. This new supergroup, featuring some of the most exciting young performers on the international world music stage, seamlessly traverses borders through original compositions, expansive improvisations on traditional melodies, and heart-wrenching reimaginings of Yiddish folk songs. They perform on Saturday, June 1 at 6 p.m.
The series continues throughout the summer and fall with performances by Bristol Lightning, offering an “Odyssey of America Music” on June 8; psychedelic chanson ensemble Combo Daguerre on June 15; Bondeko, performing a mix of hypnotic Roma melodies, festive Cumbia rhythms, and Malenke sing-alongs, on July 6; contemporary Mexican folk/jazz/classical fusion ensemble Villalobos Brothers on July 13; electronic Latin fusion project Pahua on July 20; Bombay Rickey, a five-piece band with a unique sound evocative of 1960s movie soundscapes, on July 27; the return of New Orleans jazz favorite Glen David Andrews and his band on Aug. 3; a repeat performance by Balkan brass/funk band Slavic Soul Party on Aug. 9; singer-songwriter Myra Flynn on Aug. 17; Soles of Duende, a multicultural trio based in the rhythms of tap, flamenco, & Kathak dance, on Aug. 24; Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars, purveyors of high-energy Eastern European party music, on Aug. 31; the return of Reverend Vince Anderson and His Love Choir, bringing their signature “dirty gospel” on Sept. 7; “sweet crazy psyche-tropical” ensemble La Sonora Mazurén on Sept. 15; Brazilian-born jazz and world music percussionist Cyro Baptista on Sept. 21; the return of Yemen Blues, with their fusion of Moroccan gnawa, Nigerian Afrobeat, ecstatic jazz, and global soul, on Sept. 29; and acclaimed global music exchange OneBeat, bringing a showcase of music from around the world, on Oct. 10. One more performance, still to be finalized, will round out the roster of this summer’s series.
Series passes, ticket bundles, and individual show tickets are available for purchase now. Please visit www.nextstagearts.org for more information.
Sponsors of the 2024 Bandwagon Summer Series include The Porch Café and Catering, Brattleboro Reformer, Oak Meadow, The Grammar School, Southern Vermont Solar, The Commons, Barr Hill, The Richards Group, AARP Vermont, and Lawson’s Finest Liquids.