A day of sights, sounds and tastes in Chester, NJ
A former farming community turned antiques haven Chester, NJ is home to a fantastic day of art, music and family fun. It’s the kind of event that normally fills me with cynicism when attempted in a bigger city. Like one day could somehow bring back the feeling of warmth and home to a cold environment. But Chester already has that warmth and this day was not a way to conjure it, rather to celebrate it.
This is a free, day-long event filled not only with art, crafts and antiques but all kinds of music from some of New Jersey’s finest musicians and bands. Another difference between this and other such festivals is these bands are virtually unknown outside of their circle of admirers. And that’s pretty much the idea. To use the festival as a way to give exposure to those who need it and not use some big name artists to draw people in to buy this or that.
Cleverly, organizers have found a way to set up five stages throughout the very small downtown area. None of which really overshadowed another. Except for a couple of moments when the louder bands on the largest of the stages on Perry Street got a bit much for the music students in the nearby family area. But this brief discomfort was minor compared to the shear brilliance of the day.
On the other hand, my own timing really sucked. I left later in teh mornign than I wanted and could only stay for a few short hours. The chunk of time I was there seemed to fall perfectly into a void where I missed all of my friends who were playing. That’s not to say I didn’t discover some great new music, and I did run into a few friends like Rik Mercaldi of The Swan Vestas, Carmen Sclafani of Wiser Time and Jared of WRSU radio during my wanderings.
