Feature Stories

Erie?s no stranger to art festivals. Heck, the dust from Erie?s notorious Chalk Walk is still faintly visible on State Street, and strains of the Erie Art Museum?s Blues and Jazz Festival can still faintly be heard blowing through the wind. But the upcoming Pennsylvania Governor?s Awards for the Arts ? with a week of county-wide celebrations slated to begin on Sept. 16 ? is in a league all its own.

You could call it folk rock, but if CSN is wine, Falling Hollywood is whiskey. You could call it pop punk, but if Green Day is menthol, Falling Hollywood is reds. You could call it cow punk, but if Jason and the Scorchers is bathtub gin, Falling Hollywood is PBR. You could call it rogue folk, but if the Pogues are a Guinness, Falling Hollywood is, well, still a PBR.

Although Erie apparently loves Kansas, and the Buckinghams, and Vanilla Ice, Erie knows music, and Erie?s got soul, which is why she loves Blues and Jazz. She loves being outside, on the grass, listening to these distinctly American art forms at the summer?s best fest ? so you know she?ll be at the 20th Annual Erie Art Museum Blues and Jazz Festival in Frontier Park August 4 and 5.

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?When seated, a concertgoer may expect to take in the 80-foot-wide by 40-foot-high stage set on the beach, with the lake just to their right as the sun goes down at about thirty degrees to their left. I think the juxtaposition of the grandeur of the stage placed in this wonderful natural setting near sundown will be quite magical ? certainly a once in a lifetime experience for most.?

Music festivals are the musical Mecca for concertgoers. People travel far and wide to attend any of the hundreds of music festivals in the world for a chance to see a collection of bands play in a single locale. From Glastonbury, which draws 175,000 people a day, to Water Hill, where anyone can play on a nearby porch, music festivals are as diverse as they are abundant.

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