10,000 Maniacs Tapped To Headline Toonerville Festival This Year

PELHAM, NY — Toonerville is bringing 10,000 Maniacs to town, along with a whole lot of fans.

On Monday, the Toonerville Music Festival announced the headliners for the September event. The line-up features a mix of global, national, regional and local acts for audiences of all ages.

Headlining this year's festival mainstage will be 10,000 Maniacs. The internationally famous rock band from Jamestown, NY will boost the energy to a frenzy with hits spanning their 40-year career, including "What's the Matter Here?" "Trouble Me," "These Are The Days," "Candy Everybody Wants" and "Because The Night."

The festival has gained notoriety each year since its inception, not only for curating an eclectic mix of the best acts in the region and headliners with a worldwide following, but also for creating a festival environment in which a quintessential Main Street U.S.A is the venue.

In fact, the "Toonerville" festival is named after the famous "Toonerville Folks" comic strip which Fontaine Fox created after visiting Pelham and seeing the local Pelham Trolley and its colorful trolley master. The comic strip ran in hundreds of papers from 1908 to 1955. The trolley, which ran from Pelham Manor through downtown Pelham, made its final run on July 31, 1937 but has been revived one day each year for the Toonerville Music Festival to run a continuous circuit around Pelham to ferry festivalgoers to and from the festival entrance.

"We created Toonerville to bring the community together, but also to put Pelham on the map musically," Pelham Civic Association’s Jason Jeffries, head of the festival organizing committee, explained. "The degree to which the town has rallied around this event — all while raising funds to support our neighbors in need — is truly inspiring."

Jeffries said Toonerville also seeks to serve as a platform for discovery with its Young Artists Spotlight, shining a light on rising young stars within the community.

Hosted on the municipal lot behind Rockwell’s American Restaurant from noon - 10 p.m., the one-of-a-kind experience will feature two stages, pop-up food featuring the best of the Hudson Valley's culinary legacy, and family-friendly activities. In just three years, the event has cemented Pelham as a destination for music lovers.

Also on the mainstage will be up-and-comers Wells Ferrari and headlining the Artist's Stage will be international recording artist Jeffrey Gaines, whose cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" went to number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

The festival is produced by The Pelham Civic Association, a local not-for-profit with a stated mission of serving the needs of the community.

Find out more information and order tickets here.