New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas switches gears
The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which had planned to put on a full orchestra concert on New Haven Green for Labor Day weekend, has arranged two days of smaller acts and transformed the event from an “Arts for Labor” theme to a “Vaccination & Vibes” COVID-19 awareness weekend.
The free “Vaccination & Vibes” event, planned for Sept. 4 and 5, will feature a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic, a celebration of frontline workers and pleas for attendees to get vaccinated if they haven’t been already.
The New Haven Symphony concert has been moved to next year’s Arts & Ideas festival in June. The concert was to feature not just the orchestra but two guest vocalists — Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and operatic soprano Harolyn Blackwell. Both will still be appearing with the symphony when the concert next year.w
“We have a strong relationship with the symphony, so we have worked to get that show rescheduled not canceled,” said Arts & Ideas executive director Shelley Quiala. “Once that was done, we were able to organize [“Vaccine & Vibes”] in short order.
“We’re still on the Green, but now we’re pushing a vaccine.”
The two day event features:
Sept. 4 performances by DJ Fire (aka Jamaican-born SCSU grad Tafari Turner), rocker S.G. Carlson’s new outfit The Tines and Dawn Tallman, starting at 5 p.m.
It’s a varied bill, starting with pop/dance sounds, shifting to indie rock and then gospel.
Sept. 5 performances, starting at 4 p.m. by Connecticut-based poets
Darlene Kascak and Josh Brown (who writes as AnUrbanNerd and is the reigning New London poet laureate), dances by Team Leggoo and Mulan Art School Dance Ensemble and music from Derby-based neo-soul singer/songwriter Durand Bernarr, R&B band The Kennedy Administration (from Brooklyn, New York) and the Ecuador-born accordionist/pianist/ composer Paco Godoy and his Gran Orquestra Internacional. The hosts are Alisa Bowens-Mercado of Alisa’s House of Salsa and the spoken word artist
Withlove,Felicia, who hails from Omaha, Nebraska.
A mobile clinic offering free vaccinations and COVID-19 information will be available both days. The clinic is a partnership between Arts & Ideas and the New Haven Health Department.
Two of the scheduled performers, David Tallman and Durand Bernarr, were scheduled for the main Arts & Ideas festival in June, but their shows were compromised by rainfall, so they are getting a second chance.
The International Festival of
Arts & Ideas, which has been held annually in June for over 25 years, has often presented events at other times of year, but there is no tradition of Labor Day concerts. “Arts for Labor” was conceived, Quiala said, as a way of spreading out large festival events to reduce crowd sizes and interactions. “It was planned so we could have smaller audiences in June.”
It was also seen as a good time to host what would have been the first live performance of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in a year and a half. The symphony has been working in small ensembles during the COVID-19 pandemic, and an outdoor show in late summer seemed a good time to make a full-scale return.
But then the COVID-19 delta variant intervened. “The symphony came to us and said, ‘This is not the right time to have a comeback with the full orchestra,” Quiala said.
Now, the Labor Day weekend is a way to “celebrate and support frontline workers. We are using this opportunity to message deeply.”
Quiala said she doesn’t know how many people may turn out on New Haven Green for the shows, but “if we use the festival as a gauge, we could expect maybe 500 — certainly not thousands of people.”
In late June, New Haven streets are often deserted and the Arts & Ideas event exists as a motivation for people to come downtown.
In, September the many colleges in the area are starting their fall semesters, and the downtown is more bustling.
The festival is asking attendees at the live shows to wear masks. Quiala said there will be socially distanced seating available and there will be no gates restricting any parts of the Green.
Many of the Arts & Ideas events for the main festival in June were simultaneously in-person and livestreamed, and the Labor Day shows will be as well.
Arts & Ideas is requesting that those who plan to attend “Vaccines and Vibes” in person RSVP at artidea.org/LaborDay or by calling its box office at 203-498-3771.
“Vaccines and Vibes” will likely be the final official Arts & Ideas event of the 2021 season. The 2022 festival schedule will likely be announced in late winter or early spring.
“For the festival in June, the goals was to show up safely, and I think we accomplished that,” Quiala said.
And for this event? “Vaccination is the goal,” Quiala said.