All Love All The Time: New Minglewood Keeps the Magic Alive at Catskill Chill 2016
Many members of the ChillFam were wary about whether Catskill Chill‘s new location would be able to compare to what can only be called the ideal festival location of Camp Minglewood, not knowing whether or not the years of magic they created would carry over. Well, as soon as I stepped foot on New Minglewood I knew the organizers somehow took all the love, magic and laughter from Camp Minglewood and sprinkled it all over the new location. It is amazing: a sprawling summer camp that keeps the ‘adult sleep-away camp’ vibe alive complete with cabins, recreation halls turned into stages, basketball courts open for playing, and even a pool & hot tub for those who sprang for the stacked VIP package.
In addition to the new location, Catskill Chill added a highly anticipated Thursday pre-party to let campers settle in, explore the grounds and dance to the tunes of Aqueous, Jimkata and Twiddle, followed by a late-night session from Trakstar, which is Todd Stoops’ new DJ project. The night was the perfect start to the festival. Twiddle played an amazing two sets that featured fan favorites such as “Gatsby the Great,” “Frankenfoote” and “Cabbage Face.” Late-night Trakstar christened Club Chill with not only a killer DJ set but what would be the first of many sit-ins from Hayley Jane of Hayley Jane and the Primates.
Friday brought beautiful blue sky and perfect weather; all the campers were up early making breakfast and making plans for the day. I stopped by the 12 pm yoga class being run down near the lake by Emily DeSana, a perfect start to my day and weekend. The new location for the yoga classes far surpasses the tennis court at Camp Minglewood; set right on the shore of the lake in the sunshine, it really allows you to fully immerse yourself in the class. Emily, like all the yoga teachers at Chill, was great; she lead the class so that all of us felt we could keep up while still being challenged.
The schedule on Friday was jam-packed with amazing artists; the day started out mellow with Zach Deputy, who wowed the audience with his ability to create the sound of an entire band on his own. Hayley Jane and the Primates followed, putting on an amazingly theatrical performance complete with a tribe of incredibly talented dancers. Once the evening set in, there was no chance of giving your feet a break from dancing; Kung Fu, Reed Mathis’ Electric Beethoven, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and Pink Talking Fish kept the Chillfam running between stages. By the time Mike Gordon was about to start, the whole festival was gathered at the main stage, and you could see that the festival had definitely filled up from earlier in the day. Gordon was amazing, playing his originals and some Phish favorites that threw the crowd into frenzy. Mike Gordon’s set could only be topped by Pink Talking Fu (a collaboration of Pink Talking Fish & Kung Fu), who played through a number of Prince and Bowie hits including “Fame” and “Under Pressure” with a sit-in from Hayley Jane and “Let’s Dance” and “Purple Rain” with a sit-in from the amazing Shira Elias of Turkuaz.
Saturday greeted us with a cool morning, perfect for sleeping off the night before or lounging in the sun eating some breakfast from one of the many amazing vendors, which was definitely necessary seeing as the day was packed from 12 PM to 4 AM with non-stop need-to-see sets. The afternoon started out with the incredibly talented and clever Ryan Montbleau, who playfully told the crowd to live their best life this weekend and do whatever their heart desired this weekend, adding, “If you want to end up face down in a ditch, do just that, but do it carefully!” The remainder of the afternoon was full with a few difficult choices: Cabinet, FiKus and Relative Souls all hit the stage at 2. While I wanted to be at all the stages at once, I chose Cabinet’s main-stage set because I just can’t resist getting high on that Pennsylvania bluegrass. Another tough decision was between TAUK and Shwikus (ShwizZ & FiKus) Plays the Beatles, but seeing as this was the year of power collaboration/cover sets I had to go with Shwikus. They didn’t disappoint; they played a plethora of favorites such as “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “All You Need is Love” and unexpected personal favorite “Glass Onion.” Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass was the perfect sunset-set, with Pappy & JP Biondio (Cabinet) sitting in; they played through a plethora of Grateful Dead songs that had everyone singing along.
Once the sun went down on New Minglewood, the funk came out, back-to-back sets from Turkuaz and Lettuce had people dancing all throughout camp and straight into the highly anticipated Dopakuaz (Dopapod & Turkuaz) set. Last year Dopakuaz did Studio 54; this year they took it in a different direction and announced they’d be doing yacht-rock. The crowd went crazy as they heard nostalgic hits like “Life in the Fast Lane,” “You Make My Dreams Come True,” “Rich Girl,” “Reelin'” and so many more. The night ended with the ChillFam Allstars Play Michael Jackson; the LateNight Hall was filled to capacity almost immediately with a line forming outside and the Fire Marshall counting heads that came out in order to let more people in. On stage we got to see members of Pink Talking Fish, Kung Fu, Eric Krasno Band, Particle, Turkuaz and Deep Banana Blackout come together for a full two-hour powerhouse set full of MJ’s greatest hits. It was the perfect ending to the night and truly embodied what Catskill Chill is all about: coming together and creating something beautiful for everyone to enjoy.
They say ‘Never miss a Sunday show,’ and that saying definitely rang true when it came to the Sunday lineup. Roosevelt Collier’s NY Get Down started the day off on the main stage, followed by a daytime rage by Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. In between Pigeons and Dopapod, I got the chance to catch up-and-coming Breakneck Boys play some super soulful bluegrass tunes on the DC stage. If you haven’t gotten a chance to catch them live yet, I would highly suggest it, as they’re definitely going to be climbing up festival lineups in the coming years. Greensky Bluegrass took the sunset time slot. Right off the bat they opened with a 15-min Prince cover of “When Doves Cry.” They continued playing through new songs off the new album Shouted, Written Down & Quoted. Mandolinist Paul Hoffmann went on to tell the crowd that they wanted to see how they liked the new material, and I think it’s safe to say they got an overwhelmingly positive response. Roosevelt Collier sat in with them on the last two songs, coming out on lap steel which made for an epic “Aint No Bread in the Breadbox.” The dancing went long into the night with sets from Perpetual Groove, Electron, Break Science Live Band, The Werks, a second set from Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Partiwerks (Particle and The Werks) and finally G-Nome Project closing the weekend out.
Throughout the entire weekend, I couldn’t help but constantly look around and just smile the biggest smile. Catskill Chill is the type of festival that changes your perspective of the scene; it gives you hope that small festivals don’t always need to become mega-corporate messes that spit out generic lineups year after year and can remain homegrown while still improving over the years. The team that puts on this festival truly takes the mantra of All Love All The Time to heart and puts it into every single aspect of their work, and the outcome is something you need to see — and hear — to believe. New Minglewood was a smashing success, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for our new home.