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The Independent Weekly proudly announces the Hopscotch Music Festival, the Triangle's biggest music festival yet and a strong addition to the country's festival circuit. Scheduled for Sept. 9-11, 2010, in downtown Raleigh, with 120 bands in 10 venues over three days, Hopscotch offers fans high-quality local, national and international options in just about every genre you can imagine--rock, hip-hop, alt-country, heavy metal, dance, punk, classical, noise, drone, folk and more. Tickets go on sale Thursday, April 1, at www.etix.com and www.hopscotchmusicfest.com.

The festival will be headlined by two nights in Raleigh City Plaza, downtown's crown jewel, which opened last fall. Indie rock giants PANDA BEAR and BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE will headline Friday, Sept. 10, with support from Triangle favorites THE ROSEBUDS. Hip-hop's most legendary group, PUBLIC ENEMY, will headline with a rare full-band set on Saturday, Sept. 11. Los Angeles trio NO AGE and Raleigh's THE LOVE LANGUAGE will open. More than 110 bands will be spread between nine clubs throughout the festival's three days. A sample of those bands includes: Dungen, Raekwon, American Aquarium, Washed Out, Tortoise, Lucero, 9th Wonder, Akron/Family, Marissa Nadler, Harvey Milk, Fucked Up, Javelin, Richard Buckner, Megafaun, Kylesa, Atlas Sound, Harlem and Bear in Heaven.

Partnering with local staples Edward McKay Used Books and Raleigh City Museum, Hopscotch Music Festival proudly announces its Edward McKay Artist & Author Series, featuring discussions with Grammy winners, Grammy nominees, bandleaders and some of the best music critics in the country.

During three late afternoon sessions on Sept. 9, 10 and 11, musicians like Andrew Whiteman of Broken Social Scene and Apostle of Hustle and hip-hop producer 9th Wonder will talk about music's cultural and social impacts with critics and authors like Spin and Village Voice writer Christopher R. Weingarten and acclaimed author and Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal. Other guests include Dolph Ramseur of Ramseur Records, Phil Cook of Megafaun and Charlie Smarts of Kooley High, with more panelists to be added as Hopscotch Music Festival approaches.

Partnering with local staples Edward McKay Used Books and Raleigh City Museum, Hopscotch Music Festival proudly announces its Edward McKay Artist & Author Series, featuring discussions with Grammy winners, Grammy nominees, bandleaders and some of the best music critics in the country.

http://hopscotchmusicfest.com

You were blown away by them at Smilefest.  They had you jumpin at All Good. You wanted more of them at FloydFest...well, The Get Down has listened and are thrilled to announce that The Pimps of Joytime have been added to the bill and will be performing and gettin' down on Sunday night!!!!  So come early and stay late! ;-)  Remember, no one has to work Monday...so, feel free to camp out Sunday night as well.  If you have never seen or heard of the best thing from Brooklyn since The Dodgers then you do NOT know what you are missing!!!!  Check them out here:

Visit: http://www.thepimpsofjoytime.com/

In addition, we are extremely happy to announce that Widespread Panic tribute band MoonWater has also been added to the line up, along with Archnemesis playing a killer late, late night set in the newly added Solar Lounge!!  Visit: www.archnemesismusic.com. 

~ Harness the sun, sing and dance; Be as ONE ~

There are even 'rumors' of a few other select acts and DJ's (and VJ's) that just *might* be showing up to make you sweat...come and find out who as you don't wanna miss all of the FUN mayhem that's in store!  ;-)

Wait!  There's even more good news! 

This year at The GETDOWN! will be attempting to break an actual Guinness World Record!  That's right; come get cozy with us and BE PART OF HISTORY!!  Check it out:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/12/625259/spooning-theyll-get-down-but-not.html 

The GETDOWN is back along with more great food, arts and crafts vendors, as well as ice for sale and even an ATM - back with everything available on-site for all your festival needs.

And don't forget that the hot showers, parking, tent camping and love are all FREE! 

Online Ticket Sales END in less than two weeks!!!! (Sunday, August 29th @ Midnight); so go here NOW: http://www.thegetdown.org/get-tickets and get your tickets saving you both $$$$ and guaranteeing your admittance into The GETDOWN!

The Performance Schedule is forthcoming; please check the festival website for updates later this week.

The rest of the Lineup can be found here:  http://www.thegetdown.org/the-lineup

BRIDGEPORT, CT (August 6, 2010) – The fifteenth annual Gathering of the Vibes wrapped Sunday night (August 1) to the sounds of Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved”, performed by one of his surviving sons, Damian Marley along with Nas.  The four-day festival at Bridgeport’s Seaside Park saw magnificent weather the entirety of the weekend excepting a brief drizzle when the gates opened early Thursday morning. 20,000 people per day were on hand to celebrate friendships, love of music, and on the last day of the event, Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia’s birthday.  Bridgeport Mayor Blll Finch welcomed the Vibes crowd to the Park City’s crown jewel. “Seaside Park provides an excellent showcase for the City of Bridgeport to visitors from all over the region and the country” said Finch. “This is a unique venue for a gathering of this size – where else can you enjoy four days of great music in a beautiful waterfront park?” Camping numbers were down this year, but were offset by an increase in single day, local attendee sales.

 

The Vibe Tribe stepped up this year in significant numbers by contributing to several local causes.  $23,000 was donated to the families of two Bridgeport Firefighters who lost their lives the previous weekend.  $25,000 was raised for Headcount, a voter registration not-for-profit.  $20,000 was raised for China Care Foundation, dedicated to providing medical care and facilitation of adoption of Chinese orphans to families within the US.  5,000 + pounds of food and personal hygiene items were donated to stock the shelves of the Connecticut Food Bank and Bridgeport Veterans Affairs program. The food donated will provide upwards of 3,000 meals for those in greatest need.  Financial support was also provided to the Bridgeport High School music program and Children’s Center for the Arts in Bridgeport.

 

Less than 3 days after the last song was performed Sunday night, the entire 370 acres of Seaside Park was cleaned and reopened to the public.  Throughout the event, the West Beach remained open and accessible for Bridgeport residents to enjoy.  This mass clean-up and removal was no small task as 225 Porto Potties, 6 flushable bathroom trailers, 1.5 miles of chain link fence, 12 – 56 foot mobile office trailers, a 53 foot shower tractor trailer, 40 tents ranging from the enormous 140 x 60 hospitality tent to the 20 x 30 media tent along with 160 cubic yards of recyclable plastics and aluminum had to be removed from the park.  Vibes executive director Ken Hays is pleased with the load-out.  “It’s always our goal to leave this beautiful park in a condition cleaner than when we started our load-in.  I’m incredibly appreciative of the job both the Vibes and City did to return Seaside to its pristine condition. The park looks just great – we could use some rainfall to green up the grass, but other than that, we’re looking good.” Twenty temporary power structures were erected that fed power off the UI electrical grid.  Through a partnership with Vibes and Community Energy, all of the coal power used for the festival will be offset by renewable, wind energy credits.  These credits provide the capital needed to bring new clean energy facilities online.

 

More than forty bands on three stages combined, performed more than 90 hours of music.  Five members of the Grateful Dead performed with their respective bands.  Astonishing sets were turned in by Furthur, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Primus, Galactic featuring Cyrus Neville, Umphrey’s McGee, Jimmy Cliff and more.  After their sets, several main stage artists went to the Teen Scene/Kid’s Corner stage to perform with young attendees.  Jackie Greene, Ryan Montbleau and John Molo were amongst the artists that headed across Seaside Park for double duty.  

 

Forty nine year old attendee and Fairfield, CT resident, Goffe Briggs summed up the sentiment of Damian Marley’s closing song and felt that everyone there was loved and part of a family.  “No matter what kind of music, age, (or) background, we all came together” said Briggs, and added that this year’s Vibes was the “greatest festival of my life”. 

Over the last seven years U-Melt has enjoyed all the unique experiences of being a touring rock band. We have criss-crossed the country, released three albums, and built a family of amazing friends and fans throughout the US. Recently we have found ourselves struggling through the economic downturn along with the rest of the country. After much discussion we have decided that it is time to close this chapter of U-Melt. Without naming everyone, we want to thank the numerous agents, promoters, managers, artists, friends, and family that made this trip possible.

In addition to our currently announced dates, we have added two more U-Melt shows which will be our final festival appearance and final show. On Friday November 26th, U-Melt will return to New York City for our farewell show at the amazing Highline Ballroom. Details of the event and pre-sale info will be announced soon. This will be a memorable evening in our hometown of NYC and we hope to see everyone together one more time. Before that, on September 19th, U-Melt will perform at our last Wormtown festival -- tickets can be purchased at http://umelt.com/l/uystbg/5608098;http://www.wormtown.com/new_wormtown.com/. No U-Melt dates will be added between the Wormtown Music Festival and the Highline show in November.

As for the future, we will all be spending time exploring new sonic spaces, seeking out fresh musical territory, pushing ourselves into new directions, and as always, striving to make the best music we can possibly make. In the upcoming weeks, we will be announcing some new projects and collaborations which we are all very excited about, so please stay tuned... this journey is far from over. Thanks again to all of the fans who joined us for this incredible adventure, we love you all.

Aug 6 - Pet Zoo 3 Freehold, NJ
Aug 7 - Weekend Off Fest Warsaw, NY
Aug 20 - *Non U-Melt* Zac Lasher joins Everyone Orchestra Gig in the Sky Fest Windham, NY
Aug 22 - Gig in the Sky Fest Windham, NY
Sept 11 - Catskill Chill Music Fest Hancock, NY
Sept 18 - Sterling Stage Sterling, NY
Sept 19 - Wormtown Music Fest Greenfield, MA
Sept 19 - *Non U-Melt* Brooklyn Sound Lab featuring Zac Lasher and Josh Parrish Wormtown Music Fest Greenfield, MA
Sept 23 - *Non U-Melt* Brooklyn Sound Lab supports Jimkata on Half Moon Boat Cruise NY, NY
Nov 26 - Highline Ballroom NY, NY (Final U-Melt show)