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Common Folk Arts & Music Festival Takes Place Saturday
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
02:07AM / Friday, August 12, 2016
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Common Folk's music festival has been moved from Heritage State Park to the Elks Lodge.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The first Common Folk Arts & Music Festival will take place this Saturday to benefit the new Roots Teen Center.
 
Common Folk, the North Adams-based artist collective, has rapidly gained momentum during its short existence, hosting galleries and concert events with local talent. Co-founder and creative director Jessica Sweeney said the group has built up a solid roster of bands and artists and thought the next logical step was to organize a full-on music festival.  
 
"I think that we have always really enjoyed doing these larger projects, and … we really wanted to start something annually so that we could share our artists and musicians. kind of like a showcase," Sweeney said. "We all love festivals, and we are all very interested in fine tuning our skills in terms of festival planning."
 
The festival will run from 2 to 10. It was originally planned as an outdoors concert in the plaza at Western Gateway Heritage State Park but the prospect of inclement weather — thunderstorms are forecast for the weekend — has move it inside. The new venue is the Elks Lodge on Eagle Street.
 
Local artists will taking the stage. Sweeney said this was a main focus of the festival.
 
"Almost everyone is very North Adams-based or Western Mass-based. That was a focus to keep it really local," she said. "We wanted to support local artists and musicians who are making a name for themselves throughout the county and we wanted to strengthen that."
 
The lineup consists of Tim Martin, Dylan Girouard, The Tobin Brothers, Sophie Lane, Francesca Shanks, Izzy Heltai and Secret Creature, Anonymous Animal, The Jays and the le duo.
 
There will be smaller acts and full bands.
 
Featured local artists will be Nate Massari and Misa Chappell.
 
The concert will benefit the emerging Roots Teen Center set to open in October on Eagle Street. And that's where some cross connection comes in.
 
Sweeney is also the executive director of the teen center, which she said will celebrate the voices of young people in the community.
 
And Common Folk is organizing some of the youth programming so it was a natural fit to send all proceeds of the festival towards the center.
 
Sweeney said a festival allows Common Folk to not just ask for donations.
 
"I think there is a lot of donor fatigue and people tired of being asked for money," she said. "So this way you can pay for concert tickets but also support the community." 
 
Sweeney said she hopes that Common Folk can hold the event annually.
 
Korean Garden, Freight Yard Pub and Bright Ideas Brewing were set to vend at the outdoors festival.
 
Freight Yard Pub will still donate 20 percent of al of the day's food sales to the teen center.
 
Sweeney added that many of the bands also agreed to volunteer their time or donate part of their pay.
 
Tickets for the concert are $15 in advance and $25 at the door. Children 12 and younger can attend for free. Tickets can be purchased here. Organizers are encouraging buying tickets ahead because capacity is being reduced because of the change in venue.

Anyone who rides a bike will get $5 off their ticket price along with a gift from Mass in Motion.

 

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