Community Corner

Gathering of the Vibes Returns to Bridgeport July 25

Later this month, tens of thousands of music fans will once again flock to Bridgeport's Seaside Park to put on their dancing shoes -- or take them off -- at the 18th annual Gathering of the Vibes music festival.

Featuring acts like Phil Lesh & Friends, The Black Crowes, Gov't Mule, Galactic, The Roots and Railroad Earth, the festival returns to Seaside Park for the seventh consecutive year.

"After Sandy came through, there was a sizeable amount of damage to the seawall and also the electrical and drainage infrastructure," explains Ken Hays, the festival's executive director. "The city of Bridgeport did a great job in completing the repairs. The park is in perfect shape. It's beautiful."

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Hays, who lives in Weston, said ticket sales have been doing great and if they continue on their current pace, camping passes will be sold out shortly. There are a variety of ticketing options available for those wishing to go, and they can be seen here.

Founded in 1995, the festival celebrates the life of Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist for the Grateful Dead. Garcia's music taste was eclectic, and every year Hays seeks to honor that taste by assembling a diverse lineup of talent.

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New to the festival is Blues Traveler, a band Hays says he's super excited to catch.

"They've been doing it for many, many years," he says."I saw them at the Greenwich Town Party we helped produce back in May. They put on a fantastic show. I'm thrilled to have them at Vibes on the main stage for the first time."

Returning to the festival for the first time in 10 years is Gov't Mule, a band led by guitarist and vocalist Warren Haynes, who has a penchant for collaborating with all sorts of musicians, including surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Haynes was recently asked whether he'd be continuing his tradition of sitting in with other musicians, perhaps including Phil Lesh, with whom he's played a lot.

"Well history shows that the odds are pretty good," Haynes explains. "I've been lucky to have been in a position to have played with those guys a lot through the years -- it's a cool learning process and inspiring."

The festival has had multi-year contracts with the city of Bridgeport in the past, but is currently taking things on a year-by-year basis. Hays says he loves hosting the festival in Seaside Park, as concertgoers enjoy it and the local economy benefits as well.

"The amount of money Gathering of the Vibes itself spends in Bridgeport and Fairfield County is right around $2 million," Hays says. "What attendees spend on hotels, restaurants, filling up their gas tanks & buying groceries could easily generate a couple million dollars in sales tax revenue."

For the third straight year, the festival held a Road to the Vibes contest, where fans could vote on the last band to perform there. This year, however, the top two bands were separated by one or two votes, Hays says, so both Consider the Source and Cosmal were added to the lineup.

For more information on the festival, click here. To see the full lineup of artists, click here


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