Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Open Road Music & Arts Festival Recap



This past Saturday was the Open Road Music & Arts festival up in Worcester, Massachusetts. I heard about this festival from Lori of Cavata Clothing and thought it would be a great opportunity to get some up close and personal exposure in part of the New England area. Tiff and I drove up the night before, so the following day it was easier to find the location for this event. 
First, throughout the week I was nervous as I'm sure the people at Open Road, because of reports of Hurricane Earl. Luckily that day it was beautiful weather. We arrived, started to set up, and was excited to see how the day would turn out. The event was fenced, so anyone who wanted to enjoy the festivities had to pay to get in. A lot of the other vendors there were "Go-Green" awareness and promoting "Go-Green" options, which was cool, but it sort of felt out of place for a music & arts festival. They had two food vendors, which I hope next year they had more and they seemed to have only vegan food. I will say that the Vegan Thai food was delicious. What I thought was funny was that there was a hot food truck that parked right outside the fence and wasn't a food vendor for Open Road.
The day was slow and my main fear, before the Hurrican Earl ruining the event one, was that it wouldn't have been promoted right and not the turn out would be low. The vibe was great, but I felt there needed to be a lot more people to fully make this event really good.
One of my highlights was playing with the glider, which you see Tiff playing in the video. Those brought me back to my childhood days and they will be given as a freebie to those who order any Red Baron t-shirts. 

The other vendors were cool and I definitely chat it up with Peter and Lori of Cavata, who brought a nice size crew along and Peter even copped a Red Baron tee. They're definitely cool people. Jeff of Elen's Candles was good guy who gave Tiff a free moisturizer. I used it and it's nice, girls it smells pretty. 

The music ranged from jazz to folk music to rock 'n roll, which definitely made the day go by fast. There were some good bands that I'd like to see again if the Open Road festival happens again. Some notables were The Black Raspberries, The Roadkill Orchestra(whose pianist goes by Dr. Gonzo and reminded me of a professional wrestler when he spoke) Love In Stockholm, Goosepimp Orchestra, and Sam Kininger Band. Some band members from all the bands seemed to like what was for sale and some purchased a shirt or two. I personally think the jazz bands killed it. It does not matter what kind of music that you like, their sets were on point.

Overall, Tiff and I had a good time which is important when selling at events, besides the most important part which is the selling. If Open Road has the event again, I could see myself bringing Branded Baron back and hopefully they make a couple improvements as well. Now a piece of Massachusetts knows about Branded Baron and I know the people that bought shirts are happy.

Here are some pictures from the event.
Little sculptures on display

Tiff helping with the set up as I snap a picture
 A glimpse of the Cavata Clothing tent.
 Lori, Tiff, Myself, and Paul posing
 Upclose and personal of the glider. Tiff and I were playing with them, because they were fun.
 Some people that there watching and enjoying the music.



Here are 3 pictures of those who are now Branded Baron:

 We have exclusive shirts, so if you know where Branded Baron will be sold come out, because you'll never know what goodies we'll have.



The painter had some good stuff, especially water color compositions. He had a technique which I thought was smart and think would work best the next time I pick up the brush.


Hoola Hoop



Love In Stockholm

She plays with fire


Enjoying the music by Goosepimp Orchestra. One of their band members is rocking the Astrohop t-shirt.










Tired and driving back to the hotel.

Stay No Less Than Stunningly Fresh,
     Joe

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