The second annual Hope Rocks Festival, which seeks to bring attention to the issues of addiction, depression and suicide, will take place Saturday, Aug. 18, from noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday, Aug, 19, from noon to 5 p.m. at the Cantine Veterans Memorial Complex, Washington Avenue, Saugerties.
The festival will feature on-site counseling, speakers presenting their personal addiction experiences and a variety of activities. The activities will include:
* Approximately 40 live musical performances across multiple stages and wide spectrum of musical genres, including Grammy Award winner Mike Farris on Saturday and Wild Adriatric on Sunday.
* A motorcycle “rumble.”
* Softball, volleyball, basketball, tennis, pickleball and human foosball.
* An art exhibition and crafters.
Among the news events at this year’s festival is a Hope Walk walk-athon. There will also be a 20-mile and a five-mile Tour de Hope bike-a-thon, which will open the festival. In addtion, thee will be a children’s area with a petting zoo and other attractions, as well as a T-shirt design contest.
Hope Rocks began last year after founder Joe Defino, a lifelong Saugerties resident and an elementary school teacher, saw, in less than four years, 11 of his former students dying from suicide due to addiction and despair. That number has grown to 13 former students in 2018.
With festival sponsors, including the Sawyer Automotive Foundation, Sunshine Orthodontics, Ulster Savings Bank and Raising Your Awareness about Narcotics, among others, Defino and some 70 volunteers – each of whom has experienced a loved one suffering with addiction and despair and some who have lost a loved one to suicide – offer an environment of acceptance and community at the festival.
“All who come through the festival gates this weekend are part of something special and are connected with each other,” Defino said in a press release. “Hope Rocks and all who participant positively battle this epidemic of death and despair. The problem of addiction and suicide continues to grow – and so does the need for Hope Rocks. Those suffering need to see that there is hope.”
Along with Farris and Wild Adriatic, the musical lineup will include Songs of Solomon, Jules Taylor, Babe Patrol, Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Fiction, Rob Canillo, James Mongan/Star Children, I Got A Rock, Talia Denis, the David Kolker Band, Hudson’s Crew, Julia Green, the Midnight Revival Band, Logan Callahan and the Paul Luke Band.
Joining them will be Big Sister, Julie & The Cruise Directors, Porcelain Helmet, Frank Palangi, Sydney Worthley, Warren Sieme, Brielle Lauren, David Ghostlaw, Element 13, Marin & Co., Sledge Wolf, The Pedestrians, Bendt, For No One, Ian Flanigan and Les Bicyclettes Blanches. Other performers include Becky and Becky, Fisher and Kean, the Jesus Maldonado Group, Jumbo Bungalow, Lost Aesthetic, Nasim Siddeeg, New Life Church Choir, Phoebe Defino, The Ronson Brothers and Todd Padrazik.
Admission is free. For more information, go to hoperocksny.com or email rocksmorse@gmail.com.
