New Bedford Festival Celebrates Local Music and Culture This July

Note: This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube. Please be aware that there may be spelling or transcription errors.

There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. Toast is designed for both. With tools to keep you humming and help turn grind into growth. That's how you turn busy into business. Toast. Built for busy. Good morning and welcome to Town Square Sunday. This program highlights nonprofit groups in our area and the work they do to make the South Coast a better place to live and work. I'm your host, Jim Phillips. This is the fourth year for a very popular event, NB Roots and Branches Festival in downtown New Bedford. Uh it is starts really on Friday evening and continues through Saturday. Uh it is completely free 100%. 100%. You don't have to drop any money to come in and enjoy the performers. You want to eat something? Well, you can spend a little money there. You want to take part in a sidewalk sale, you can spend some money there. But the attractions, the music, it's all free. And here to tell us about it is Jeff Angelie, the owner, not the owner, the founder of NB Roots and Branches. Jeff, it's great to have you back and congratulations. you know, uh, year one started small. It's grown ever since. This is the fourth year and, uh, it's becoming, I think, uh, a special event in New Bedford. I hope so. It's, uh, it's been wonderful for us, too. Uh, well, Jeeoff, let's, uh, talk a little bit about, uh, the mission of this event. Uh, yeah, it's entertainment. It's fun, but I think uh your goals are really coming alive here. You wanted to bring music back after a previous event shut down ended its run. Really? You said, "Hey, we're going to bring music back to the downtown." And you've done that. You've done that. Yeah. and and uh you know with our event since the very beginning uh it's been a an important focus for us to be featuring local music in local establishments and uh getting as many different groups of people who are making music around in the area all in one place for one big kind of party of an event and you've uh you've done that you've got a lot of cultural groups involved this isn't just [clears throat] Jeff Angel's preference for acoustic music perhaps you want everybody involved, Portuguese, Latino, on and on in New Bedford. Mhm. So, tell us about the cultural aspects, if you would. Well, we feature a lot of traditional music, really intentionally. I'm a big lover of traditional music and I think um the festival in general is designed to be representative of all of the people who are in the area. And traditional music is uh maybe the best place to build the foundation of that. We expand out from that with all different kinds of music, but we always have traditional music at our foundation. And we also work with partners who um have connections in different communities. So like for example, we work every year with Hamilton Tvars who uh curates a whole slate of Cape Verdian traditional bands and and and not just traditional but Cape Verdian dance bands that go beyond traditional music as well. And from what I've read o over the past week here, roots and branches really has a special meaning. I mean, you're branching off into all types of music. It's not just the the same stuff every year. I mean, you are bringing in new types of music, uh, entertainment, uh, whatever they're doing. It's true. Yeah. I I we will always have uh large traditional music offerings, but from there we try to feature every kind of music that people bring to us and we actually specifically seek out as many different things as we can. So we have everything from the folk music that people expect to jazz music and rock music and blues music and experimental music and uh we have a sca band and all kinds of things. Portuguese dancing. Portuguese dancing indeed. Uh the DLA Language Learning Academy brings us a whole group of kids that are Portuguese dance experts. Yep. Cape Verdian music. Uh I know a lot of Cape music because of our wonderful relationship with Hamilton who brought us every year brings us a couple more bands and and they've been fantastic. Let's talk a little bit about the Friday schedule for a moment. Um it's a dance. It's called the Contra Dance. Yes. What does that mean? What is uh what is a contra dance? Contra dance is an old New England tradition. Um people largely don't know what it is until they've gone to one. Uh the easiest explanation, although not super accurate, is it's almost like a square dance. In a square dance, you have fiddle music and then you have people dancing in a group of four, which is a square. And a contra dance, instead of just dancing with a little group of four people, we form into really long lines or big circles and dance uh with larger groups of people. Okay. And uh I mean you don't have to be an expert dancer to take part in the contra dance. No, if you can walk, you can dance at concerts. The contra we have um a fantastic caller. I actually my um uh my nonprofit Epic South Coast puts on contra dances pretty much every month and we work with this caller Paul Wild specifically because he does such a good job working with both true beginner dancers and people who've been dancing for a long time and uh as part of the collaboration you're working with uh AHA which is a group that has puts on you know the Thursday monthly program but also So, the summer sound series, they were charged with putting together the summer sound series and so you'll be working with them that Friday. That's right. Yeah. Um, we collaborated with them for the first time last year uh as an overlap for the Friday event and this year we're doing the same thing. So, they'll be running a summer sound series event with, I believe, the Groovadoo. And we don't have the Groovados on our festival, but we have some members of that band playing the next day, too. So, it's a really nice overlap. was a good introduction to some some acts that'll be around for the whole weekend. All right, so that's what's happening on Friday. Where is the contra dance happening? Our contra dance is in Wings Court. So, it's an outdoor dance in Wings Court. Um, it's that wonderful little space between Destination Soup and Brick Pizza. All right. So, you talked about what the contra dance is, and it's an old New England kind of tradition. Mhm. Um, the festival features all day music on Saturday as we mentioned with some top regionally known performers and local performers for sure. My question is how do you keep this event free? You've got all kinds of entertainers. I'm sure some uh, you know, realistically speaking more successful, more well-known than others. M but the fact is um there's a lot of talent there. We have to pay a lot of people. It's not a it's not a free event for us. Yeah. Um it's a free event for the public, but it's very expensive to put on because we pay every performer um and we pay a sound crew and you know we have PAs at every stage and that kind of thing. So um 11 stages by the way. Yeah. And and then the culminating event and the and the dance. So it it actually functions even bigger than that. Sure. So, we have um we have a bunch of different ways that we receive funding. We receive grant funding from New Bedford Creative, which is uh through the Economic Development Council of New Bedford, and through the Cultural Council, and then we have stage sponsors. I I couldn't even list them all now in the time that we have, but every individual stage has a group that sponsors them. Uh Symphony Music Shop is a huge sponsor for us every year. They provide funding and equipment for us. And then uh another really big one for us every year is the um the folks at Fiber Optics Center. Fiber Optic Center and Whailing City Sound are two separate entities, but it's the same group of people that we're working with. So we have um on our web page, we have a nice feature for all of our sponsors. We have Served Well Hospitality and Trembley Bus Company and uh number of people that are working with us to make this thing possible. You're listening to Towns Square Sunday. I'm Jim Phillips. My guest is Jeff Angelie, founder of Envy Roots and Branches Festival. It's happening in downtown New Bedford on July 17th and 18th. And again, there's no admission charge. You walk right in, enjoy the music, uh maybe a sidewalk sale to, you know, enjoy that. It is just a wonderful event. July 17th and 18th. Jeff, uh, I know you probably hate to single any performer out, but give me three or four of your favorites you're hoping to hear on the 18th on Saturday. Oh, that's a tough one. Um, well, uh, I just did an event a little bit ago with, um, that was a dance event and my good friend Michelle Kaminsk's Kinjun band was just phenomenal. So, the Cinjun hobos that are playing uh on Per Purchase Street are a mustsee for me. Um I got to see uh Luchia last year at the New Bedford Art Museum because I actually I played a set with some kids that were playing traditional music right afterwards and I just got to see like a tiny bit of it cuz I was setting up and I'm very excited for Luchinia's set that was uh really wonderful. And then if I was to pick one more, um, I'm gonna go with like a New Bedford favorite. Uh, the Jethro seem to always get people out dancing in the streets, so it'll be exciting to to see them doing their thing, too. All right, just three. That's Jeff's favorites. Uh, and you can hear them all on the 18th this weekend, that of July, the 17th and 18th of July. Uh, it is a really a tremendous number of very talented performers. And again, it's all free. That's that's the magic of Roots and Branches. It's all free. There has been tremendous growth in this festival over the past four years. An estimated 1,000 visitors in year 1. More than 13,000 estimated visitors last year, which is a big number. It's getting bigger and more popular. Uh why do you think that is? And I listen, I'm going to tell you, free pays free plays a big role in that. Not much for free today. Uh we have a small team of people, but we have a very very good team of people. Um you know, I'm working with uh Christian Camaro as I did before and with Lauren Pewy who's doing just a tremendous amount. Um we get better at what we're doing. Uh and I think that the downtown business community being involved with the sidewalk sale helps a whole lot. They're excited about the event. It's nice to have an event that the space that we're in, the people who are there already are excited about it and helping uh pitch it. And then I think also having a focus on there are so many talented local bands here and presenting them on their home turf where they get to bring their friends and their family out and really enjoy the event. There's so much overlap between is a synergistic event. there's so much overlap between the performers uh audiences that everybody gets to know everybody and is excited to see one band after the next. Now Jeff, you and I have talked before about this next subject cuz I know deep in your heart you love a porch festival. I do love a porch festival. Deep in your heart you love [laughter] to walk into a neighborhood and see different acts performing on porches in that neighborhood. Yeah. Uh, will that ever happen in New Bedford, do you think? I don't know. I mean, Summerville, it's going great. Guns. We certainly have the We certainly have the porches. Um, uh, the West End is is ripe for it for sure. Um, it's tricky. It's the same deal as this. So, running a large scale festival, there's a lot of payroll, you know, so to come in and do it, I this is this is a full year. We work on this for 12 months. So, I would I would be happy to talk to anybody who wanted to do it and help them out figuring out how to get going. But I don't know if I could personally take on another large payroll festival because [clears throat] I don't think this event, Roots and Branches, is going anywhere. I I think it's here to stay. Yeah, we would love to keep this going for as long as we possibly can. Has the festival produced a a tangible boost for downtown businesses? Have you seen any numbers to back that or is it kind of too early? I mean, I don't have economic data on it, but I do know um I hear from people who are in the downtown business community that are friends of mine that they do love the festival that they feel like um not singling out any events, but some events in the city tend to bring people in who shop in the businesses and understand the businesses are not fast food restaurants or or what have you, right? Um, and some of some events are more specific for people coming in outside and have outside vendors and stuff like that that don't uh give them as much of a boost. We have tried since the very beginning to have performers in the showrooms and uh with having local talent and that kind of thing. We have the opportunity to have people coming down who appreciate the businesses and then they're just kind of right there where they would um be able to patronize them. So, uh, I know that we are having an impact because I hear from people who work downtown, who own restaurants and businesses downtown that it helps them, but data I don't have. I just have that, you know, that foot traffic is pretty big. There's a major emphasis this year on participatory art, street performers, sidewalk sale, as we mentioned from the times. How important is it to you that attendees aren't just spectators but active creators uh during the event? That's what I've always been doing uh personally with um things that I organize. It's always a goal for me. So uh like you said, we have the sidewalk sale, we have street performances, we also have a maker space, so we'll have uh instrument painting in the central area of the festival. And even the culminating event has like a hands-on component where people will be able to we've built a a five- foot long kaleidoscope and people will be able to build new kaleidoscope slides. Uh and we have some some shadow art stuff that people will be able to uh get hands-on with as well. Um, I feel like it gets people really engaged and it also uh I think is really culturally important that we all feel like we have um ownership of a piece of a thing instead of just being uh viewers of culture. All right. There's a big wrap-up scheduled at 6:30 at the vault. Mhm. What's going to happen there? Well, it's a whole bunch of different pieces that combine together um that uh present h a take on how our perspective is affected by um outside influence and how we can uh change our perspective. So there's a mosaic musical piece that actually I'll be performing where the piece will come together slowly over the course of 45 minutes. It'll start as single notes and then eventually be one solid piece. There's that uh kaleidoscope that I mentioned. Uh there's um some shadow art and then there is a massive poem um that's made from pieces of um people's social media walls. So to kind of give us a sense of the uh of what it is that we're consuming. So when we when you see it all in one place, uh it kind of really does show you what we take in all the time. And and also uh we hope that the piece will give people not just a sense of what we take in um without noticing it, but also a sense of the possibility of uh what things can be if we look at them with clear eyes. All right. So that's happening at the vault at 6:30. It is airond conditioned with food. [laughter] And that's that's a big wrap up to uh Envy Roots and Branches. Uh Jeff, what do you hope the people of New Bedford and surrounding communities uh will take away from this year's event, this year's festival? Um well, I think again because it's got that local focus, I like the fact that every year we have people come in and they're surprised to learn about bands that are right here all the time. And um you know among many many other things there's a lot of goals for the festival but it's exciting to me to think that somebody might come into the festival see a band that they've never seen before be excited by that band and go hey I can see this band again before there's another roots and branches and similar with the businesses. People go to a sidewalk sale and they go I had no idea that Cune was such an amazing business. I'm going to make sure that I drop in here again soon. So I hope that the festival gives people a really really wonderful fun day and also helps them really uh um discover the place that they already are is uh vibrant and richer than they even realized. That is pretty darn good. Bedford is a really a very promising place with some wonderful things happening like NB roots and branches. Uh yeah, we've had tough times and we'll continue to have some tough times. M uh but um I don't know events like this continue to make New Bedford a very special place. Really? I mean that. I love it there. I love I love New Bedford. My guest has been Jeff Angelie, founder of NB Roots and Branches Festival. He's also a performer himself and he teaches music at South Coast Lessons. It's true though I did just take a job so I'm teaching less on my own. I'm going to be the music teacher at uh Alma Delmare School next year as well. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. Again, NB Roots and Branches 17th and 18th downtown New Bedford. Admission is free. All are invited. To learn more, you can check out information at nbrootsandbranches.com. Is that right? That's right. NBrootsand branches.com. and we're on all the socials, so we have uh you know a lot of interactive capability at the socials, so you can kind of keep up with us in those. Good to see you again, Jeff. Thank you so much, J. Good luck with this. Thank you. Next on Time Square Sunday, the city of New Bedford faces a budget crisis. Did the city council do enough to write the ship during its recent budget cutting session? [music] Well, New Bedford Lights Jack Spelain and I will attempt to answer that question and more. Towns Square Sunday continues. [music] [music] Shop the Sherwin Williams Fourth [music] of July sale and get 30% off paints and stains June 26th through July 6th. [music] Whether you're refreshing your interior or exterior, we've got the colors to bring your vision to life. And with delivery, getting everything to your door is easier than ever. Shop online to have it delivered or visit your neighborhood Sherwin Williams store. Click the banner to learn more. Retail sales only. Some exclusions [music] apply. See store for details. Delivery available on qualifying orders. There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. Toast is designed for both. With tools to keep you humming and help turn grind into growth. That's how you [music] turn busy into business. Toast.