Rocktoberfest 2018: Drink beer, eat brats — help kids
— Photo from Facebook
Brian Kaplan, who teaches music at Voorheesville’s middle school and concert band at its high school, will perform his own music, with his own band, on Saturday, Oct. 20.
VOORHEESVILLE — Five bands from the Capital Region — two of which are from Voorheesville — will be rocking for a good cause at the Voorheesville Rod and Gun Club on Saturday, Oct. 20, from 5 to 9 p.m.
Some of the ticket proceeds from Rocktoberfest 2018 will benefit local music programs.
Andrew Gabriel, of the Ambassador Music Group, said that he was inspired by a fundraiser, Pigs and Pints for the Playground, put on last year by the Friends of the Voorheesville Playground to raise money for a new playground at the elementary school. The group eventually raised well over $200,000.
“One of our artists, Sydney Worthley, performed at that event; it’s really inspired me to do something like it,” Gabriel said. “I loved the concept of a fall music festival, where there’s food, beer, and lawn games.”
The idea, Gabriel said, is to get more kids exposed to music, to offer opportunities to become engaged. “So we partnered up with Voorheesville Friends of Music this year so that the event can help raise funds for them to specifically provide summer enrichment programs for kids,” he said.
“We’re expecting a couple hundred,” Gabriel said of the event’s attendance At Pigs and Pints for the Playground last year, he said, “There was over 100 and we’re doing a much wider promotion; it’s a much bigger production. We’re going to have a full-on stage, with lighting and sound.”
The event will feature two stages: one for acoustic music, the other for rock.
Sydney Worthley, a junior at Voorheesville’s high school, will play on the rock stage.“She’s kind of alt-rock pop,” Gabriel said.
Brian Kaplan, a music teacher at Voorheesville Middle School, and his band will be playing on the acoustic stage, Gabriel said.
CK & The Rising Tide, an Albany-based, alt country/folk rock band, which just released its first album, “American Romance,” will be playing. “Sort of like a Johnny Cash meets Lumineers vibe,” Gabriel said of the band’s sound.
Bendt, a “straight-up rock” band, Gabriel said, won the 2017 Schenectady County Battle of the Bands, and has played a number of shows in the area.
Zan & The Winter Folk, which plays folk rock, will be on the acoustic stage, he said.
“We’re going to have food, beer; we’re going to have a whiskey- and bourbon-tasting, and that’s included in the ticket,” Gabriel said; there will also be an ice cream truck on site.
