The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
DIGGING THAT ‘HIPPIE VIBE’
First-ever Still River Music Festival deemed a success
“If you build it, they will come” is the famous line from the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams” after the hero has converted his farm into a baseball field. The same adage could be applied to the first-ever Still River Music Festival at the Riverton Fairgrounds at 12 Riverton Road on Saturday.
The event was the brainchild of organizer and promoter Darcy Abbott of New Hartford, who was on hand supervising the procession of rock groups and folk duos among the 12 musical acts throughout the day taking the event’s simultaneous two stages.
With her husband, Ron, Abbott also managed the event’s 30 volunteers, among them local police and firemen, and a raffle table that offered as such prizes as a hand-crafted banjo, car wash gift certificates, and a vocal effects machine. Additionally, there were the 30 vendors ranging from henna tattoos to pulled-pork sandwiches to “pig candy” (or bacon slices baked with brown sugar and whiskey, among other things) as well as the growing-in-popularitythrough-the-day Beer Garden.
“I am just taking it all in,” Abbott said during a rare quick break. “I am watching all the nine months of labor. I won’t exhale until the end of the day when everyone is off and home-safe.”
The event opened at 11 a.m. with about 70 people, Abbott said. By 2 p.m., there were approximately 200 visitors. She said that by the time the headlining musical acts, including rock bands Soul Tsunami and Flipper Dave, play their concerts and the event closes at 10 p.m. they expect to reach 750 visitors.
“I really wanted to do the festival in this location because I love Riverton,” Abbott stated. “The Fairgrounds is the perfect infrastructure. The Fair Association and the Lions Club were so helpful.” She added, “This is a branching out of the whole community.”
Abbott said the proceeds for the event go in part toward AIM for a Better Tomorrow, a local nonprofit organization founded to help service providers offer programs in therapeutic art and music programming aimed at children and adults dealing with homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health issues. She added that proceeds also will go toward the Dale Avery Memorial Scholarship Fund, established for a Bristol musician who passed away unexpectedly recently.
Abbott said that she hadn’t been certain the event would happen after she required major surgery on her neck back in January. She credited her friends and especially her husband Ron for supporting her through the ordeal so that she could continue planning the event. “My husband is my ‘true North,’” Abbott said. “He is my biggest supporter.”
Abbott hosts a weekly radio show called “The Hot Spot with Darcy” on Torrington’s WAPJ. In addition to working as a home health care worker, she also has a history of organizing prominent local events as the Riverton Fair and the Relay for Life in the Northwest Corner.
Saturday’s festival’s music played on two venues: the Fairgrounds’ bandstand and a stage farther along the event’s midway. The band Con Coyote Doty and Moses Bones played blues-influenced rock to a bandstand audience seated mostly in the shade of the 83-degree sunny weather. Meanwhile, on the other end of the Fairgrounds, under a tented stage, the folk duo Martha and Andy entertained the crowd seated along the hill cover songs such as Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s duet “Jackson.”
Joey Sexton, lead singer and guitarist for the Joey Sexton Band, mingled with friends and fans along the Fairgrounds’ midway as he and his band prepared to go on later. Sexton, who is from Torrington and sings Americana-styled original songs, said, “The songs are all uptempo. Our songs have been selling a lot lately online.” Some of Sexton’s songs that he planned to play that afternoon included “These Horses” and “Falling.”
In a nearby barn, Barkhamsted First Selectman Don Stein was on hand helping out with the Riverton Merchant’s Association’s exhibit. The Association displayed handouts about the town, images of prominent locals in a digital picture frame, and gave people copies of its newlyminted second-edition of the area’s free visitor map. Stein said of the festival, “We are hoping it becomes an annual event.” Barkhamsted contains two villages, Pleasant Valley and Riverton.
Nora Bishop, who is part of the Association with her husband, said, “Riverton is sort of like ‘Brigadoon.’ It goes through its busy season and then goes back to sleeping. We are hoping this promotes tourism. The bands all sound wonderful today.” Bishop referred to the 1954 musical film about a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years.
Jake Lewis, owner and DJ for Karaoke Junkies, played music for participants to sing along to. One of the potential singers included Ayerland Baker, 18, who added that she perhaps later planned to sing a karaoke number of Radiohead’s song “Creep.”
Baker, who is part of the local River Steward Team as part of the National Wild & Scenic River team, was also on hand educating visitors at her nearby table about the work the group does, including litter pick-up along the nearby Farmington River. “It’s about raising awareness for the river,” said Baker, who will be a sophomore studying environmental science at Northwest Connecticut Community College in Winsted.
With her friends, Alissa Bumstead of Burlington watched the musical duo Martha and Andy perform. She said of the event: “It is really good. I really like the whole hippie vibe.”
Attendee Deirdre Whelan of Winchester Center added, “It is great they have something going on in Riverton. They should have more of these events.”