74
Black Bear Americana Music Festival 2021 By Ali Kaufman
something for everyone, and they hope you will want to come see for yourself.
B
lack Bear Fest is coming back to the Goshen Fairgrounds October 8th through the 10th over the Columbus Day Weekend. This will be their third year in existence and promises to be the best yet! Not sure how this fantastic gathering of over 35 bands on 4 stages with 3 days of camping in the beautiful Litchfield Hills ever escaped my radar, but now that I’ve found them, I won’t be easy to shake! I spoke to the festival’s founder, Beth Murphy, to get the scoop, and what I got was way more than details. I am in awe of Beth’s enthusiasm and conviction for bringing not only music and a good time to her guests but a true sense of community involvement. This is a festival with
After many years of being asked by friends to join in and go with them to Grey Fox, the long running festival in Oak Hill New York, Beth decided to give it a try, and the rest, as they say, is history. Beth became a fan of festivals. “We should put a festival on here! Goshen Fairgrounds is a great location, it will be so much fun!” She shares with a laugh the simplistic view she had back then. Maybe it is just as well that she came to this armed with more dream than reality because the truth of pulling together any event, let alone one of this magnitude is a daunting task. Armed with a dream and a mega-ton of determination, Beth got to work investigating and gathering all the information she could get, filling a storage bin full of her re-
search over the next five years. While reaching out to companies and foundations for monetary support, Beth created a power-point presentation that she shared with trusted friends for their critique. Clearly, they thought it was terrific because those friends ended up being her first sponsors. Because of their belief in the project and in Beth, that first year 2018, the festival was held with no corporate support on a shoestring budget, but they jumped in up to their eyeballs and swam. In 2016 Beth reached out to Ian Campbell, a local musician with a great reputation for booking acts. He was intrigued and interested enough to get on board. Next came Evan Dobos, a genius at graphic design who was also interested in being a part of this event and is responsible for their terrific website, bear
