MAPLEWOOD, NJ — After a year’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Maplewoodstock Music and Arts Festival is back and will be held on Saturday, Oct. 2, and Sunday, Oct. 3, from noon until 9 p.m. each day. This free, two-day, live music and arts event will be held at Memorial Park, 160 Dunnell Road in Maplewood, across from the train station.
Saturday’s headliner is New Orleans funk rock-n-pop act Galactic. Sunday’s headliner is Friends of the Brothers, paying tribute to the music of the Allman Brothers Band. Sunday’s featured act is Funk Yeah! — featuring professional talent from Maplewood, South Orange and New York City.
“We are so pleased to be able to present the best possible free music and arts festival that we can,” Maplewoodstock Chairperson Tom Kerns said. “We are looking forward to bringing the community back together after a year or more of social distancing. We may adjust some aspects of the festival to account for COVID and public health guidelines. Any adjustments will be communicated on our maplewoodstock.com website, facebook.com/maplewoodstock page, and our other Twitter and Instagram accounts.”
During the two days, the festival will host 20 bands who represent a stylistically wide variety of rock, pop, soul, R&B, funk, folk, reggae and world beat. Seven of these bands are from Maplewood and South Orange; the other 13 bands hail from nearby communities, such as West Orange, Bloomfield, Montclair, Jersey City and Brooklyn.
As in the past several years, Maplewoodstock will offer a food court with a cornucopia of options from burgers to tacos, from lobster rolls to pad thai, from fresh squeezed lemonade to jerk chicken; a beer garden with Jersey brew for kid-dodging parents; and a KidZone with games, crafts and more for the festival’s youngest attendees and their minders.
The town of Maplewood will also offer a senior-friendly tent for those longtime citizens who want to come out, enjoy the energy, sit in the shade, and enjoy a meal from the food vendors that can be delivered from volunteers run by the Age Friendly Committee for Maplewood and South Orange. For more information, see www.somatwotownsforallages.org.
For those who are hearing impaired, Maplewoodstock offers volunteer-organized sign language interpretation for most hours each day. If you are seeking sign language interpretation, you should aim to situate yourself at “house right” — about 20 feet from the right-front corner of the stage. Festival organizers will mark the area.
“The Maplewood Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control recommend that all unvaccinated individuals of all ages wear a mask at crowded outdoor events,” Kerns said. “And, please keep watching our website for updates.”
A full line-up of band bios, festival schedule, directions and real-time updates can be found at www.maplewoodstock.com and Maplewoodstock social media accounts.
Photos Courtesy of Maplewoodstock
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