Significant music festival grows in Dumbo and Red Hook – Red Hook Star Revue
If you hear twangs of mandolin or fiddle wafting across the East River, it’s not carrying up the coast from Nashville — it’s the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival, taking place on several stages in Dumbo. Critics Choice,
Folk music is alive and well in Brooklyn. A number of venues and musicians are committed to keeping traditional music—including folk, Americana, bluegrass, old time, and country music—on stage.
Brooklyns largest covered outdoor space – 7000 Square foot cobblestone plaza beneath the Manhattan Bridge. Free and for all ages.
Watch this space for Live at The Archway season announcement 2023!
Back in the year 2000 I was producing weekly live music events with pioneer establishment Superfine, when Joy Glidden Director of Dumbo Arts Center (DAC) asked me to curate a live music stage loading dock at the annual ‘art under the bridge festival.’ I had already founded a collective for Folk Alliance International Conferences called ‘Little Red Hen Music’, and kept the name for the festival stage.
Brooklyn Americana Music Festival was founded in the wake of what was known as the Dumbo Arts Festival (DAF). DAF comprised over 100 open studio’s. Art in Dumbo new champions this annual Open Studio Celebration every April.
At that time, twenty two years ago, Dumbo was home to around four hundred artists paying on average $1 – $10 / sq. foot for high ceiling lofts with sweeping views of the East River, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Brooklyn Bridge.
My live music stages were in old abandoned loading docks, the then roofless shell of the tobacco warehouse, industrial era warehouse lofts, water tower roof tops and down under the cotton wood tree near where Jane’s Carousel stands today.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams, then Brooklyn Borough President appealed to the community to save the annual event, and gave Brooklyn Americana Music the thumbs up to forge ahead with keeping the live music aspect music going.
Thanks to Brooklyn Arts Council we are supported by the Brooklyn Arts Fund, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs as well as New York State Council on the Arts.
The 7000′ square foot cobblestone Archway under the Manhattan Bridge is a main stage thanks to Dumbo BID, who administer discretionary funding from the Office of Councilman Lincoln Restler.
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy support our women led LGBTQ stages on Pier 6, in tandem with Pride NYC celebrations across the city.
Brooklyn Americana music partners with artist owned and operated festival venues year round. We curate live music at Superfine, 68 Jay St Bar, Sunny’s Red Hook and special events at Jalopy Theatre.
We acknowledge the unceded territory where we gather as the traditional land of the Lenape Peoples, The Nayack and The Canarsee with gratitude for the land itself, and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations
The 9th Annual Brooklyn Americana Music Festival is supported by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with the support of the NYC Council, and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. Administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. And by the Statewide Community Regrants Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.
10 Amazing Summer things to do in Dumbo and Brooklyn Bridge Park
