It’s going to be another beautiful weekend in Massachusetts. If you’re looking for something to do, we have just the thing for ya! The inaugural Beach Road Weekend is taking place on Martha’s Vineyard. It’s a three-day music and media festival at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven.
The festival will kick off Friday, August 9, 2019 with a special screening of Jaws on three large LED screens. Jaws was originally released in 1975 and was filmed on the island. The special part about this showing however, is that the movie will be shown with the accompaniment of the Cape Symphony. They will be playing the entire film score, as written by John Williams. Saturday, August 10, 2019 will have performances by; Mason Jennings, North Mississippi Allstars, Alejandro Escovedo, Dispatch, and headliner John Fogerty. Fogerty is best known as the frontman of the famed Creedence Clearwater Revival. The boys in Dispatch are certainly no strangers to the area, as lead singer Chadwick Stokes was born in Massachusetts. Sunday, August 11, 2019 will have performances from; The Original Wailers, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Matisyahu, Galactic, Grace Potter, and Phil Lesh and Friends will close out the weekend. Phil Lesh was a founding member and bassist of the legendary Grateful Dead. This is one star studded weekend on the island that you do not want to miss!
I was able to speak to Adam Epstein, the founder and producer of Beach Road Weekend. We touched on the festival and what they have in place to make this one of the greatest weekends on Martha’s Vineyard. They have been working on a lot to make this an amazing, family fun event. They’ve worked with Both The Steamship Authority (Falmouth/Hyannis) as well as The SeaStreak (New Bedford) to run ferries after the show. The last Seastreak ferry departs from the island at 10pm, while the last Steamship Authority is at 9:30pm. The Sea Streak will be picking up passengers from Vineyard Haven, which is just steps from the venue instead of their usual Oak Bluffs port. This will not only help to get people back to New Bedford, it will also shave 15 minutes off the trip. They have also recruited some local bands from the Vineyard to provide entertainment between main stage sets which will help keep you grooving all day long. Food will be readily available with seven local restaurants who will have booths as well as four food trucks. Also, after working for over eight months, they’ve obtained the first ever issued special day permit to sell beer and wine in Vineyard Haven. I asked Adam will this become a yearly event and he explained that, being the first year they have worked hard with the local community and have spared no expense to make this a safe and fun event for all, as well as help them to understand what may need improvement and what may have been overkill, to work to make this as great as possible in the upcoming years.
Weekend and single day tickets are on sale now, and can be found at beachroadweekend.com . Make sure to grab yours today so you don’t miss what is sure to be an amazing weekend for the whole family!
Mitchy Dread
Media Correspondent
Dance Your Face Off