Dragonfly Music & Arts Fest on Saturday, September 26th

We are excited to annouce festival number three (out-of-four) that PlusVibes Productions is sponsoring this year.  This round it is the Dragonfly Music & Arts Fest at Blue Falls Grove, near Reading, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, September 26th, 2009.

It will be the final outdoor event this summer, at least in the Reading area – one remains on October 3rd at Snipes Farm, Morrisville. 

This one-day festival (with camping available*) is in celebration of the Autumnal Equinox (on 9/22) and features our friends and jam band veterans, the Juggling Suns headlining the pavilion stage.

Festival organizer, Todd Jones, returns to Blue Falls Grove, approximately 10 miles north of Reading, after a successful 1st Annual Jammin’ For The Animals Benefit show for the Humane Society of Berks County back in July 2009. 

The primary sponsor will be Dragonfly Studio and Glass, in West Reading, a prominent glass, art, and tattoo studio owned by David Dragonfly.  David has always been a kind friend to the live music & arts scene in Reading over the years, building a faithful clientele for his business along the way.  He will be doing tattoos all day on the festival grounds, for those of you up for some true body art!

The festival features live music from 1pm until 10:30pm with a side stage to provide music while the main stage is in transition.  A LARGE camping area is on site, not far from the stage, with car-side camping, and tree lines on both sides for shade, although it stays cool because it sits right off the water on a low level area.

Overnight camping is encouraged and the family-friendly event will include a kids pavilion (dedicated to activities for kids [or adults who feel like kids]), hula hooping and juggling workshops, swimming (at a small additional cost), and assorted food & arts vendors in between the pavilions.

A solid four-punch-combination of live music is this round’s primary focus, with the jabs coming in the form of bluegrass powerhouse jam band Cabinet, out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania starting off at the main pavilion, followed by excellent West Coast newgrass string band Montana Slim String Band Thirteen Days out of San Francisco. 

Cabinet is a 6-piece blugrass ensemble, pushing the limits in the “duels” of each jam, creating beautiful improvisational moments, and making their shows both dance-filled and jaw-dropping (from back-and-forth seamless duels) from beginning to end. 

They are a Pennsyl-tucky favorite that have been filling up rooms such as the Brass Lantern and the River Street Jazz Cafe for the last couple of years, and currently are scheduled for a very special holiday celebration, billed as “Christmas with Cabinet“, at the Brass Lantern on December 26th.

Montana Slim String Band, hailing from San Francisco, is  a SOLID bluegrass 5-piece known for their “invigorating live performances, peppered with dueling melodic fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar improvisation.”

They most recently set up and played impromptu sets each night at Yonder Mountain String Band‘s Northwest String Summit, in North Plain, Oregon in early August 2009 and a writer for Jambase.com described them as, “Tenacious troubadours from San Francisco with snappy rhythms that inspired some delightfully dirty dancing, they won over several new fans before the weekend was over.”

They will be doing warm up shows (2 full sets) at Zeno’s in State College on Thursday (9/24) and at the Brass Lantern on Friday, (9/25)  to make a run of the time that they are in the area.  So show your support if you are able to attend any of the 2-set shows. 

The fight then moves on to the body shots, with conscious dub, roots reggae rockers, I Yahn I Arkestra.  Hailing from the “boondocks of Baltimore”, Kaseopi and Jah-D relocated to Philadelphia and, since forming in 1997, they have been sharing their positive conscious Rastafarian vibe to many of the city’s hottest jam band area clubs, such as The Middle East and the World Cafe Live.  

They have grown to become one of America’s most unique and original reggae bands, offering up cosmic rhythms – psychedelic, herb-induced soundscapes with an uplifting message and positive vibes.

The smooth riddums, Rastaman chants, including spoken word by “Joseph I”, and Nyabingi drums are the perfect opportunity to trance the mind and open up your consciousness for the knockout punch that is the called the Juggling Suns.

The Suns have been tearing up the jam band circuit since 1997, shredding up clubs, halls, theatres, and festivals along the way, and often referred to as extremely under-rated.

Their original songs have been covered by the Disco Biscuits and Keller Williams, and the Suns have hosted numerous guest musicians up on stage beside them, including Buddy Cage, Tom Constanten (Grateful Dead), Martin Fierro (Legion of Mary) and Jon Gutwillig (Disco Biscuits).

Guitarist Mark Diomede, who has been on the road as a musician since 1989, received the Asbury Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Diomede has shared the stage with Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Herring, Santana, moe., Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, and many more.

This event is fully packed with talented musicians on the bill, and will surely be an epic celebration of the beginning of the Autumn season.

PlusVibes Productions will be providing security, front gate meet & greet, and most importantly, spreading the word throughout the live music scene about a great festival in the Reading area.

For more information and to purchase tickets, please contact Dragonfly Studio & Gallery in West Reading.

JUST ANNOUNCED:  Superb guitarist & singer/songwriter, Mike Miz will be kicking off the festival at 1pm with a very special set, and also immediately after Cabinet during changeover to Montana Slim.

We hope to see all of you there!

A limited number of tickets are also available at the Brass Lantern (see ChrisK).