Pleasantville Music Festival Makes Successful Return After Two-Year Hiatus

The Pleasantville Music Festival triumphantly returned on Saturday treating local music lovers to a full day of live music that had been sorely missed the past two years because of the pandemic.

Aided by nearly perfect summer weather and likely pent-up anticipation from not having held the festival since 2019, the crowd swelled at Parkway Field throughout the afternoon to several thousand fans. For more than nine hours, spectators took in the music, food, festivities and friendship.

The 16^th annual festival was headlined by X Ambassadors, who took the Main Stage as day turned to night, one of 18 bands to perform in a variety of genres on three separate stages.

During a rare brief break about midway through the event, Executive Director Bruce Figler took a couple of minutes to reflect on the intense planning needed for a small village to present what amounts to a major concert. More than 300 volunteers pitched in to help make it happen.

Figler said myriad details – making sure the on-stage equipment works, dealing with the bands’ tour managers and ensuring that the crowd has what everything it needs for an enjoyable day – made the cancellation of 10,000 Maniacs nine days before the festival and quickly getting Crash Test Dummies to fill in a comparatively easy task.

“Doing it is hard,” Figler said. “The after-effects are beautiful.”

Whatever sleepless nights the organizers may have had in the run-up to the festival, the sea of people who turned out on Saturday didn’t seem to notice. For Mary and Michael Dwyer of Pleasantville, who attended with their friend Mark Grunenwald, it was a day to relax, catch up with friends and enjoy a day outside with music thrown in.

“We get to hang out,” Mary Dwyer said. “We don’t get to see Mark often and we can hang out with friends and it’s a beautiful day outside. It’s very community oriented. We get to see people we know.”

Elaine Gardner of Ossining, who was attending her first Pleasantville Music Festival and enjoying a respite from the sun in the Shade Tent, said she didn’t realize how family-oriented the event was, with games and activities for children.

“I always kind of thought it was just the music,” Gardner said. “I would have come (sooner) had I known there was kids’ stuff. So I’m kind of impressed with that, a lot of varied things. It’s a nice family event.”

Jason Diaz and Kristen Pappas were disappointed that last year’s festival was canceled shortly after moving to the village. Despite not getting to see 10,000 Maniacs, they were looking forward to taking in Crash Test Dummies and Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears, the two Main Stage bands that preceded X Ambassadors.

But there was also great music on the two smaller stages, the Party Stage and the Chill Tent, with Grammy Award-winner Paula Cole headlining the latter.

Norwalk, Conn. singer-songwriter Riki Stevens received a standing ovation for her heartfelt acoustic guitar compositions during her set in the Chill Tent. She said she was grateful to have had the chance to perform at the festival.

“I did a couple of shows in Tarrytown and that led to this,” Stevens said. “The fact that (people are) talking and they want to support you that’s amazing. So that means the world to me. People care.”

Similarly on The Party Stage, The Narrowbacks wowed the large throng with their original Irish American rock music. Having played gigs at clubs from Rockland County to New York City along with Irish festivals, lead singer Seamus Keane said it was special to be part of their first rock festival.

“We’ve been trying to get into the festival for a couple of years,” Keane said after the band’s nearly hour-long set. “Bruce (Figler) reached out to us; he saw us play in the city. This was a blast. It’s great.”

Queens-based The Breaks Inc. pulled a day-night doubleheader, performing on the Party Stage with originals in the afternoon and doing covers of rock classics at the after-party at Lucy’s in Pleasantville. Lead singer Danny Marra said the band, which has cut its teeth in clubs in the city, loved the experience of their first large festival.

“To see a bunch of people in a big field and everyone is kind of dancing and singing along is kind of cool,” Marra said. “It’s exciting. I hope to play more festivals in the future.”

For volunteer and Pleasantville resident Jim Zimmerman, who founded the festival in 2005, said he could have never imagined its popularity and importance to the community when it was started.

“It’s unbelievable,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a wonderful feeling. I cannot believe that it continues and that it’s got such a following and a lot of people having been committed to working on it for years and years. It goes well beyond what I thought it could be.”