South Jersey Music Festival, Beardfest, Reschedules for 2021
By Lauren Silvestri
COVID-19 has affected every facet of the music industry, from venues to recording to music festivals. It seemed inevitable that the large national festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo would not happen in 2020, but many fans of regional music festival Beardfest hoped that their rescheduled date in August (originally set for their usual weekend in June) could happen. Unfortunately the organizers of Beardfest recently announced that the festival officially is cancelled for this year, adding to the list of casualties 2020 has left in its wake. However, in their cancellation announcement they confirmed the date for Beardfest 2021 and the lineup, giving us all something to look forward to next year.
For those not familiar with the festival, Beardfest is not a gathering for bearded people, but rather an intimate music and arts festival that is curated by the Out of the Beardspace band members. It is located on the Paradise Lake Campground in Hammonton, NJ with an impressive cast of local and regional music acts, live art exhibits, community workshops, vendors, and much more.
The Philadelphia Globe spoke with Sam Gutman, keyboardist and vocalist for Out of the Beardspace and one of the organizers of Beardfest, about the decision to reschedule for 2021 and what fans can expect.
Philadelphia Globe: How did you guys come to the conclusion that Beardfest could definitely not happen this year?
Sam Gutman: When Covid-19 first hit it took a while for us to pull the trigger on the initial rescheduling. To buy some time to read the situation, we pushed our lineup announcement back a week. When it became clear that this was a serious pandemic that wasn’t simply going away, we put off the lineup release indefinitely and stopped all promotion.
During that time we tried to balance all the unknowns. What were the chances of Covid-19 still existing come June? Was it too risky to have the festival because everyone was scared to go out? Was it a great idea to have the festival because everyone was all cooped up and itching to go out? Did other festivals cancelling mean we should cancel too? Did other festivals cancelling mean we should try to stick it out and be the only one? Is it even ethical to host a mass gathering right now?
When a month passed and we were still in lockdown, we made the call to attempt to postpone until late summer. We were beginning to be unsure of whether it would make sense to go through with it at all, but having no 2020 event seemed unthinkable. Beardfest has been a staple of our and so many peoples’ summer for almost ten years. However, in the end the decision to postpone all the way to next year has been made for us. As of right now (a month or so away from the rescheduled August date), outdoor mass gatherings in New Jersey are restricted to 500 people. Beardfest last year was a gathering of almost 2000, and we of course would hope to grow from last year to this year. If the current restrictions remain, Beardfest at its current scale could not legally take place, and to restructure things to be within the 500 person limit would have meant a ground-up rethinking of the entire operation. Aside from that, even if it were legal to go forward with Beardfest we felt that it would be irresponsible. Orchestrating a mass gathering would have been the exact opposite of doing our part to flatten the curve.
How difficult/easy was it to confirm the same lineup for next year?
SG: Building a lineup from the ground up requires months of brainstorming and reaching out to bands and booking agencies. All of the communications between Beardfest and artists/agents is done by our Talent Buyer, Justin Berger.
In one sense the state of the music industry made it uniquely easy to get everyone to switch to the 2021 date. Everybody has an open calendar right now and musicians are itching to perform. However, booking a lineup, rescheduling it, and then rescheduling it again is a LOT harder than just booking it once. Right when Covid-19 hit our lineup had JUST fallen into place. Every band that had just been confirmed had to be communicated with again to lock in the August date, which some bands weren’t available for. So then there was a phase of pursuing replacements for a few of the bands. Then when we postponed again everyone had to be reached out to AGAIN to confirm the 2021 date. That is a LOT of email threads, calls, and spreadsheets to keep on top of, and we are very grateful to Justin.
What are some of the goals you have for Beardfest 2021?
SG: Our goal is for Beardfest to maintain and expand upon the uniquely beautiful energy that makes it so special. Every year people tell us that Beardfest was a life-changing experience for them. Every year we hear about friendships, relationships, and marriages that began with Beardfest. The team that puts Beardfest together is like a family, and we hope that the caring community vibe that exists within our team continues to spread to everyone in attendance.
Anything new for 2021 that fans can anticipate?
SG: Besides the fact that the 2021 lineup is the most exciting we’ve ever had (featuring Chon, Papadosio, Break Science, and many more!), we are working on new ways to encourage our community’s creativity. 2021 will be our 10 year anniversary, and to celebrate that, we will be offering some new activities that give the community even more of a chance to get involved.
On top of our usual workshops, we are working on putting together a “community grants” program. Through this program we will be putting up applications to the public where they can propose ideas they have for interactive art installations, interactive theme camps that are open to the public, and whatever other crazy ideas people can dream up. We have teamed up with our good friend Bexx Rosenbloom to run this program. Bexx has many years of experience organizing these types of programs within the burner community, and will draw from that experience to help us create something special for Beardfest. More details to come about this when we roll it out to the public!
And as always, there are even more ideas being thrown around and brainstormed, but time will tell which of those come to fruition. For now, we are excited to share this new community grants program, and so excited to get the Beardfest family back together once it is finally safe to do so!
Stay tuned for updates about Beardfest 2021 by visiting their website.
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Lauren Silvestri is a music journalist with a huge passion for rock n' roll, the Philly music scene and independent music venues. Twitter / Email
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