HARWICH —
A rarely used and little-known wooded hollow just steps away from the heart of Brooks Park will soon be filled for two days with folk music as part of the Harwich
Cranberry Festival.
The music will feature up to 20 performers, including the locally popular Parkington Sisters, the Ticks, Randy and the Oak Trees, Squidda, the Flakes, Katie Flynn, and Cape Cod bluesman George Grizbach.
The first day of music, on Saturday, Sept. 18, is called Cranberry Jam.
Sponsored by radio station WOMR (Outer Most Radio, 92.1 FM), the event celebrates the construction of its new radio repeater antenna in Brewster, which will be known as WFMR (Further Most Radio, 91.3 FM).
On Sunday, Sept. 19, a second day of performances, organized by Cranberry festival staff, will feature established as well as up and coming local performers. (The music events are just one piece of the Harwich Cranberry Festival. Turn to Page 2 for details.)
The hollow, a dried ancient lakebed, is part of Brooks Park.
While it is town owned, it has been used very little for recent public events and is mostly filled with mature trees. A public works cleanup of the overgrown brush in the heart of the basin was performed to open up a performing space, roughly 175 yards long by 75 yards wide.
This natural amphitheater is considered an excellent space for a musical event because of the way sound is cradled by the sloping basin. “When I first went down, I thought this was really excellent place to have an event,” said John Nelson, station manager at WOMR, which organizes similar events across the Outer Cape, including one called Boogie By the Bay in Wellfleet. “Acoustically, it will be quite unique.”
Nelson said the Cranberry Jam on Saturday includes six performers, spanning from noon to about 8:30 p.m. “We’ll be adding about 80,000 possible listeners (with the new repeater) to our (radio) programming and this is very exciting,” he said, explaining that the repeater cost almost $100,000 to install. “It has been about 10 years since the project began.”
Cranberry Festival organizers Ed McManus and John Bangert noted that the creation of the folk festival signals a shift in emphasis to highlight musical abilities in the community and move away from the traditional emphasis on a fall carnival, which for years had been held each September at the high school fairgrounds.
McManus explained that his vision for the new folk concert is “to give a new start to the Cranberry Festival for the community, something that can be built on in the future and done in a way that involves Harwich and Cape Cod rather than importing people from around the country.”
Bangert added, “Carnivals can be held anywhere, and given the traveling nature of the business, they are held everywhere,” he said. “The cultural backdrop to the Cranberry Festival is a celebration of the completion of another summer by the community and as such should reflect community things. Some of these things are our artistry, craftsmanship, and musicality.”
McManus said he’s optimistic that the folk festival is a solid fit with the cranberry festival and looking ahead, noted that the hollow could be an excellent site for other future events.
“It can easily function as a performance space for others, (such as) the Harwich Junior Theatre or the Cape Cod Symphony, to suggest a few,” he said.
Bangert noted that local musicians really need a place to perform to help develop their careers and this festival is an ideal vehicle.
“(It) is not about just one gig,” he said. “It's about reaching deeply into our community to find young folks who need to have community helpers, to help and assist them to develop their craft, and have a sense of accomplishment and expression.”
“We now have a forum,” said Bangert of the folk festival. “And now a new radio station (WFMR) to get the word out. We’ve never had this in Harwich. This has become a win-win for (the) community and community radio.”
Free music events this weekend
Saturday
What: Cranberry Jam
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: WOMR and Harwich Cranberry Festival
Sunday
What: Harwich Music Festival
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: Harwich Cranberry Festival
Cranberry Festival.
The music will feature up to 20 performers, including the locally popular Parkington Sisters, the Ticks, Randy and the Oak Trees, Squidda, the Flakes, Katie Flynn, and Cape Cod bluesman George Grizbach.
Sponsored by radio station WOMR (Outer Most Radio, 92.1 FM), the event celebrates the construction of its new radio repeater antenna in Brewster, which will be known as WFMR (Further Most Radio, 91.3 FM).
The hollow, a dried ancient lakebed, is part of Brooks Park.
While it is town owned, it has been used very little for recent public events and is mostly filled with mature trees. A public works cleanup of the overgrown brush in the heart of the basin was performed to open up a performing space, roughly 175 yards long by 75 yards wide.
This natural amphitheater is considered an excellent space for a musical event because of the way sound is cradled by the sloping basin. “When I first went down, I thought this was really excellent place to have an event,” said John Nelson, station manager at WOMR, which organizes similar events across the Outer Cape, including one called Boogie By the Bay in Wellfleet. “Acoustically, it will be quite unique.”
Nelson said the Cranberry Jam on Saturday includes six performers, spanning from noon to about 8:30 p.m. “We’ll be adding about 80,000 possible listeners (with the new repeater) to our (radio) programming and this is very exciting,” he said, explaining that the repeater cost almost $100,000 to install. “It has been about 10 years since the project began.”
Cranberry Festival organizers Ed McManus and John Bangert noted that the creation of the folk festival signals a shift in emphasis to highlight musical abilities in the community and move away from the traditional emphasis on a fall carnival, which for years had been held each September at the high school fairgrounds.
McManus explained that his vision for the new folk concert is “to give a new start to the Cranberry Festival for the community, something that can be built on in the future and done in a way that involves Harwich and Cape Cod rather than importing people from around the country.”
Bangert added, “Carnivals can be held anywhere, and given the traveling nature of the business, they are held everywhere,” he said. “The cultural backdrop to the Cranberry Festival is a celebration of the completion of another summer by the community and as such should reflect community things. Some of these things are our artistry, craftsmanship, and musicality.”
McManus said he’s optimistic that the folk festival is a solid fit with the cranberry festival and looking ahead, noted that the hollow could be an excellent site for other future events.
“It can easily function as a performance space for others, (such as) the Harwich Junior Theatre or the Cape Cod Symphony, to suggest a few,” he said.
Bangert noted that local musicians really need a place to perform to help develop their careers and this festival is an ideal vehicle.
“(It) is not about just one gig,” he said. “It's about reaching deeply into our community to find young folks who need to have community helpers, to help and assist them to develop their craft, and have a sense of accomplishment and expression.”
“We now have a forum,” said Bangert of the folk festival. “And now a new radio station (WFMR) to get the word out. We’ve never had this in Harwich. This has become a win-win for (the) community and community radio.”
Free music events this weekend
Saturday
What: Cranberry Jam
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: WOMR and Harwich Cranberry Festival
Sunday
What: Harwich Music Festival
When: Noon to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Hollow behind Brooks Park
Organizer: Harwich Cranberry Festival
