MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewoodstock 2019 lived up to the hype July 13 and 14, drawing thousands of people to Memorial Park in Maplewood for the free two-day music festival.
People came from near and far to rock out to headliners Antibalas, Turkuaz, and Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, but found new favorite bands in Switch Mob, Auguste & Alden, Counterfeiters, Joe Taino, Thursday’s Habit, Control the Sound, Tall Pines, Bryan Hansen, Zach Matari, Emily Cavanagh, Autumn Jones, ScreenAge, Ohemaah, Simple Man, Third Gear, Stuff Bros, Owls And Lions, Dubistry and Luca Max.
On the second day, the audience especially went wild for Dubistry and Luca Max, whose lead singers are Columbia High School graduates. Dubistry’s Dunia Best Sinnreich, who was joined onstage by her husband and mother, told the crowd how excited she was to be performing in Maplewood, having grown up in South Orange and attended at CHS just a few blocks away. And Max even brought up a former classmate to rap with him on stage, eliciting huge cheers from the festival-goers.
In addition to the music, there were activities for children, such as face painting, “fairy hair” and bouncy houses; food and drink for sale, including a beer garden from the SOMA Brewing Co. and the huge cups of lemonade that make an appearance each year at Maplewoodstock; and vendors selling jewelry and hip clothing, not to mention the Maplewoodstock 2019 merch, which really flew off the picnic table after the fire-sale was announced.
Photos by Yael Katzwer
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