Next music festival on tap

Four bands will perform, with music starting at 2 p.m. Aug. 1

“The Jerry Garcia Birthday Celebration” on Aug. 1 in Fairport Harbor has gotten a bit bigger.

Another band has been added to the event, which is actually the second music festival taking place as part of the 2021 Live @ the Lighthouse series.

The Rustbelt Ragtops will kick off the daylong musical program at 2 p.m. and join a lineup of three other previously scheduled groups.

Also slated to perform are Papa Bear at 3:15 p.m.; Sunshine Daydream at 4:30; and Dupree’s Dead Band, which will play two sets between 7 and 10 p.m.

Admission is free of charge to the festival, which will be held at the Lighthouse amphitheater, located just north of the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse at 129 Second St. The hill beside the historical attraction serves as a seating area, where people are invited to bring blankets and lawn chairs.

Local food trucks are stationed at the festival for spectators who want to buy snacks, meals or refreshments. Alcoholic beverages can be bought and consumed on-site.

The Aug. 1 festival will commemorate what would have been the 79th birthday of Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia. This event is the second of three Live @ the Lighthouse musical galas being sponsored this year by the Fairport Harbor Arts and Culture Alliance.

Besides providing free music in a scenic lakefront setting, alliance leaders also are hoping that guests arrive early on the day of each festival to visit shops and restaurants in the village’s commercial district, as well as Lake Metroparks Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park. All of those locations are within walking distance of the amphitheater.

“Our events help bring visitors to our village and we know once they visit and see all we have to offer … they’ll come back again and again,” said Chris Pinta, cochairman of the alliance.

Pinta said the alliance was “blown away by the success and support” of the first festival in the 2021 series, “Reggae in the Harbor,” which occurred on July 10. Based on feedback from spectators and volunteers regarding ways to enhance the event, the Aug. 1 festival will provide more food trucks, restrooms, garbage cans and vendors, he said.

Looking ahead to the 2021 Live @ the Lighthouse season finale on Sept. 25, the alliance has booked a second featured band for the event, which is billed as “The Fall Funky Jam.” Wanyama has been added the jam’s lineup and will serve as a co-headliner along with Broccoli Samurai, Pinta said.

By sponsoring Live @ The Lighthouse, the alliance is continuing a tradition that began eight years ago and has been carried on in the same location by various sponsors.

An event known as the Fairport Harbor Summer Concert Series was launched in 2014. Fairport Harbor Heritage Foundation created the event and sponsored it through 2018. In 2019, the group turned over administration of the series to community volunteer Casey Conrad. She proceeded to rename the 2019 summer concert program as “Fill the Hill.”

Pinta said he was asked by Conrad at the conclusion of the 2019 concert series if his group wanted to take over planning and conducting the event.

“And of course I said yes,” Pinta stated in a 2020 Facebook post.

One of the group’s first decisions as the event’s new administrator was to give the concert series a new name: Live @ the Lighthouse.

The Fairport Harbor Arts and Culture Alliance, a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to the support and growth of the arts and culture community in Fairport Harbor.