Musicians, Artists and More Take to (Main) Street Sunday

Inspired by a bi-annual festival in Hoboken, Sunday’s ninth annual Fort Lee Arts and Music Festival promises to be bigger and better than ever, complete with two stages of free entertainment, free bounce rides and face painting for the kids, a Harley Davidson motorcycle show, a juried art show put on by the Fort Lee Artist Guild, vendors, crafters and a food court in the post office parking lot. The festival will also feature a performance by a group of traditional Korean folk musicians and dancers, and for the first time ever, a “green fair,” sponsored by the borough’s newly formed Environmental and Beautification Committee.

The festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Main St. between Lemoine Ave. and Center Ave. and spilling into the municipal parking lot off Center Ave., where the borough is providing free parking.

Festival organizer Tom Meyers of the Fort Lee Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs said the “rain or shine” event is fully booked with vendors, and that he expects participation from some of the local businesses and restaurants along Main St. as well.

“We probably have the highest number of vendors we’ve ever had,” Meyers said. “I think we have in excess of 130 at this point. We have a waiting list of vendors in case anybody drops out. So we should have a full amount of vendors on Main St. and into the municipal lot.”

Other highlights of the event, according to Meyers, include the following:

• Two Stages of Music

The Party Dolls will be the headlining act at Stage 1 at the corner of Main st. and Lemoine Ave. The group is scheduled to perform at 4 p.m.

“This year we’re bringing in the Party Dolls for the first time as our main group on Stage 1,” Meyers said. “We’ve used them in the past as part of our ‘Music Under the Stars’—always to great success. In recent years, we used Kenny Vance and the Planet Tones, and they were great, but we wanted to do something a little different this year.”

Prior to the Party Dolls’ performance, local bands will grace Stage 1, including previous Fort Lee Battle of the High School Bands winners, the Pedal Pushers.

“They stayed together as a band in college, and they’re going to appear professionally for us this time,” Meyers said.

Sammy Gnasso of In Napoli’s band, Double Tap, will be performing on the same stage, as will local jazz band Slyblue Jazz, playing Dixieland and New Orleans-style music.

At stage 2 at Main St. and Center Ave., a troop of traditional Korean folk musicians will open the show thanks to the Korean American Association of Fort Lee.

“They’re going to do a little performance on stage and then a performance up Main St. to kick off the festival,” Meyers said.

According to the Korean American Association, Poongmul, which is often classified as farmers' music or “Nongak,” reflects the history of its people in work, life, labor, military culture and Buddhist and shamanist beliefs. The art form, in which every performer is both a dancer and a musician and which is dominated by percussion instruments, such as drums and gongs, dates back to 297 A.D.

“In the old days, the music and dance of Poongmul were performed for days and nights to repel evil spirits, to celebrate the planting of crops and harvest, providing spiritual uplifting and revitalizing fatigued souls,” according to the Korean American Association. “During big festivals … everyone in the village joined in the celebration, playing the drums and dancing to its rhythms to express communal solidarity.”

For the rest of the day, stage 2 will be the go-to place for jazz music, because, Meyers said, “That’s where the juried art show will be.”

• The juried art show

“We have about 30 artists—not all from the Fort Lee Artist Guild,” Meyers said. “Some artists are from festivals like the Hoboken arts and music fest, and we have some people coming in from Asbury Park.”

• A Bergen County Harley Davidson motorcycle show

“That’s always a big hit,” Meyers said. “When we give the awards out with the help of our police department, they run their motorcycles [from the municipal parking lot] down Main St. to the stage at Lemoine and Main, and it’s vey fun for all the people attending.”

• A “Fort Lee Go Green” area

This year, for the first time in festival history, a section of Main St.—in front of the post office—will be devoted to what Fort Lee Councilwoman and Environmental and Beautification Committee Chair Ila Kasofsky is calling her “Green Fair.” Meyers worked with Kasofsky to bring “environmentally friendly companies and organizations” to Fort Lee for the festival, including American Recycling Tech, Clean Plates, New York Waterway Ferry, Nuvo Green, United Water and Palisades Interstate Park/Fort Lee Historic Park among others, to meet the public and distribute items to help residents “go green.”

“[The committee] was established this year, so we tried to build some sense of green vendors and organizations and businesses in the area to play off our environmental committee,” Meyers said. “Obviously [New York Waterway’s] connection to the green environment is to get more cars off the bridges and tunnels and get people to use the ferry. We have the Bergen County Utilities Authority, we have United Water and a number of other businesses—solar panel businesses, environmental cleaning products—that’s an element we haven’t had before.”

Kasofsky said she and her committee have been planning the “green fair” since December, highlighting a recycling demonstration and “interactive learning equipment” that will be on hand Sunday.

“I’m so excited,” Kasofsky said. “I’ve been busy all week gathering give aways. Even the health department donated a lot of stuff. I’ve got green tablecloths, and Nina Levinson donated plant clippings—like spider plants—that are supposed to cleanse the air. We’ve had really good community participation. We’re going to have a lot of posters and [things to give away] teaching how everyone can recycle and conserve, and why it’s so important.”

She also said that putting the green fair part of the festival together for the first time has been a learning experience in and of itself, and that she’s expecting even more participation next year in what she hopes to make it an annual event.

“This is my very first one, and each one’s a learning experience,” Kasofsky said. “I’m learning for next year.”

• Food

In the post office parking lot, “we’re going to be trying to create a real sense of a food court where people can get all types of different food,” Meyers said. “It’s kind of a U-shaped food court, and we’ll have a tent set up in the municipal lot near the motorcycle show, where people can sit down under the tent if it gets hot and enjoy some of the food.”

• Other events in the municipal parking lot

The Fort Lee Fire Department of Fort Lee will be doing demonstrations on how they fight fires, there will be free face painting for kids, bounce rides, a rock climbing wall and an overflow area for vendors.

“If we have late-comers, if I can accommodate them and they have an interesting thing, I’ll get them in the municipal lot and tell them to come earlier next year,” Meyers said.

The ninth annual Fort Lee Arts and Music Festival formally starts at 11 a.m. Sunday, but Meyers said the music starts at noon. After that, there will be something going on for just about everyone until 6 p.m., when the festival comes to a close.

“Our goal all along was to try and emulate what we thought was the ‘Big Kahuna’ of arts and music festivals in the state of New Jersey, and that’s the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival, which they do twice a year, and it’s phenomenal,” Meyers said. “I mean, we’re not Hoboken. We don’t have that much space. But I think in our own way, we’re doing something exciting in Fort Lee. I’m very happy with what we’ve been able to put together this year. I think we have a good mix of crafters on Main St., vendors of all types and I think it’s going to be the best festival ever.”