FossFest WrapUp

FossFest 2009 happened on Saturday September 5th in the Broadway & Fellsway W corridor of Saxton Foss Park. This first-time event was made possible with support from The Somerville Arts Council, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and The Department of Conservation and Recreation with help from WMBR 88.1 Cambridge and First Baptist Church in Arlington. The event ran from 2pm-6pm and featured performances from four musical acts as well as booths by a range of artists and vendors.

The Master of Ceremonies was Jeff Breeze, local radio personality and ice cream blogger who emceed, DJ'd and was on keyboards and vocals for the final band of the day, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players. The afternoon of music started with a fine outdoor-summery-southerny rock set by The Brooklyns, followed by a hootenanny of modified gospels by the well adorned, They Will Hate Us. The second half of the day opened with a collection of new wave pop songs provided by The Diamond Mines, and the performances were closed out by the far out sounds of the Concord Ballet Orchestra Players. This final set included a tribute to Sam Walter Foss, the librarian-poet father of Saxton Conant Foss (for whom the park, and likewise the Festival, is named), by putting the elder Foss’ verse to music:

"Bring me men to match my mountains, bring me men to match my plains, men with empires in their purpose, and new eras in their brains."

-- Sam Walter Foss, from "The Coming American", July 4, 1894
--Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, “Tribute to Sam Foss”, September 5, 2009

Particular thanks to Mike Reed, who engineered the sound for the event.

Julia Fairclough gave the event a nice write-up in the Somerville News.

We have a fossfest flickr pool. Please feel free to add photos if you have them.

We're in the process of putting together our video from the event, but Somerville Community Access Television (SCAT) has put some of their footage online.

Thanks to all that made this first FossFest happen.
You can continue to support the contributing artists, vendors, and organizations online!

Sponsors and Supporters:
Somerville Arts Council
Massachusetts Cultural Council
Department of Conservation and Recreation
WMBR 88.1, Cambridge
First Baptist Arlington

Music:
The Brooklyns
They Will Hate Us
The Diamond Mines
Concord Ballet Orchestra Players















Artists & Vendors:
JJ Artworks
ESPressions Designs
Leanne Tremblay
Vagabond Jewelry
Leora Mallach
Danielle Festa
Lucky Dog Organics
Timora’s Touch
Allison Krzanowski
Angela Manzi
David Tibbetts

Partners:
Somerville Homeless Coalition
East Somerville Main Streets
Friends of Foss Park

Special thanks: Jennifer Bonardi, Erin Cheek, Carrie Dancy, Terri Nista, Joe Rotondo, Richard Scott, Rachel Strutt, Peter Ungar

Planning and Execution Crew: Jim Barletta, Jeff Breeze, Nathanael Hevelone, Kristen Lyman, Christopher Player, Michael Reed, Allison Stevens, Andre van der Kouwe, Alexandra Zaleta

Video Crew: CJ Adams, Dave McBride, Lynn Weisman, Donald Bilodeau

Credits:
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.