Ithaca Festival – May 29th – June 2nd, 2013

The beloved Ithaca Festival Parade moves to a new night. The night kicks off with the Ithaca Festival Mile, organized by the Ithaca Youth Bureau at 6pm. Over 90 participant groups then process down Cayuga Street through Fall Creek to Dewitt Park at 6:30pm. Food & drink concessions will be setup in Dewitt Park, alongside a merchandise booth with all the new goods for 2013. Highlights also include Cayuga Radio Group’s “Cans Along Cayuga” canned food drive, taking up the rear of the parade to collect non-perishable items donated by parade attendees to United Way of Tompkins County.

Thursday May 30th

The Inaugural Heart of the Finger Lakes: Tasting & Tapas Showcase celebrating our region’s world renowned wines, sustainable agriculture, & gourmet food culture. Local vintners, bakers, chocolatiers, cheese makers, brewers, restaurateurs, caterers, and chefs join together to present samples of their hand-crafted delectable goods that nourish our community. The event will take place on the 100 Block of State Street from 5-9:00pm with music from the Notorious String Busters & Home Remedy.

Toots & the Maytals, reggae legends close out the night with a concert presented in collaboration with Dan Small Presents at the State Theatre. Local favorites the Blind Spots, who recently sold out the Haunt in advance, will open. The concert brings together three of Ithaca’s most reliable sources for live entertainment, united to highlight the city’s most beautiful venue while bringing beloved artists to our community.  It has been 50 years since the Maytal’s debut album “Never Grow Old” was released. Since then, the group, lead by charismatic frontman Toots Hibbert, has produced countless hits including “Pressure Drop,” “Reggae Got Soul,” “Monkey Man,” & “54-46 was My Number.” Credited with singlehandedly naming an entire musical genre with 1968 hit “Do the Reggay”, Toots & the Maytals stands as one of Jamaica’s most influential groups. Their legendary ska & rocksteady style features soulful three-part harmonies, continuing to garner them fans across the globe.

Friday May 31st

The 36th annual Ithaca Festival gets underway with festivities Downtown from noon-9pm. Highlights include – 5 stages with back to back performances by a diverse group of area artists including local youth groups, dance troupes, & the new McNeil Music Ithaca Underground Stage hosting alternative, punk, & underground bands – Beer garden – a huge selection of handmade craft vendors – festival merchandise with this year’s artwork by Phoebe Aceto & Kaya Donaj-Keys & much much more!

IthacaTalks: From the Heart a new event, designed to showcase some of the remarkable people who live in Tompkins County. Local artists, community leaders, & experts in their fields will present 10-minute riveting talks about their life-changing experiences, perspectives on global citizenship, thoughts on our community, and more. Taking place at Lot 10 Bar & Lounge from 6-8PM the event is open to all.

3rd annual Sim Redmond Band at the Ithaca Farmers Market Pavilion! Taking place from 9PM-midnight at gorgeous Steamboat Landing on the shores of Cayuga Lake, the event will feature the beloved band, Beer & Wine Bars, a photo-booth, & more. More information on our website

DJ Cappel & Bolo Afterparty at Lot 10 It’s a two-story throwdown, featuring Ithaca’s hands down favorite DJ Cappel & all-star colab duo Bolo made up of Ayruveda’s Dan Halperin & Jimkata’s Packy Lunn in a DJ/Drumming smash hit. Costume dress-up theme & tasty fancy drink specials, with a portion of proceeds going to the Ithaca Festival.

Saturday June 1st

The 36th annual Ithaca Festival celebrations continue downtown with programming from noon-9pm. Dozens of food vendors with your favorite festival treats, even more activities in Dewitt Park for families & young ones, eclectic musical performances including great dance bands, and more!

Ithaca Cocktail Culture at Lot 10 Bar & Lounge, a panel discussion with some of the area’s finest bartenders, distillers and tastemakers, examining the growth of cocktail culture on both a national and local level. Topics to be covered include; spirits; their history and use, classic prohibition era cocktails, new era cocktails and the rise of cocktail culture from the clandestine speakeasies of major cities to the popular haunts of today’s Ithaca. The hour long discussion is free and open the public 21 and over. A Happy Hour cocktail tasting will follow featuring various drink specials covered during the panel discussion from 6-8:00PM.

Sunday June 2nd

We make a triumphant return to Stewart Park & spread out with even more activities for the whole family to enjoy, noon-9pm. Food & craft vendors, a Kids Area Stage hosting back to back programming for young ones all day long, plus the big Ball Park stage with the Mutron Warriors & the Gunpoets closing out the night. The festival also hosts the Healthy Hearts Area, highlighting our commitment to a vibrant community. The area will feature local clubs, organizations, and businesses that promote fitness, wellness, emotional health, and empowerment. Come participate in activities and learn more about these great groups.

For more information about event features, contact Programming Director, Emma Hewitt, emma@ithacafestival.org

2013 Official Festival Artist Bios

Phoebe Aceto & Kaya Donaj-Keys

We are delighted to announce the 2013 Official Ithaca Festival artists! Phoebe Aceto & Kaya Donaj-Keys are our first ever artistic collaborative duo to create the year’s artwork. Their artistic partnership is especially fitting as we celebrate the 2013 theme, Where The Heart Is.

Phoebe’s gorgeous designs will grace all commemorative festival merchandise & promotional materials. In addition to translating Phoebe’s hand-drawn designs into printable graphics, Kaya will be individually screen-printing this year’s extra special Art Piece Clothing Line. These T-Shirts, Hoodies, & more will be printed by hand using water based, non-toxic dyes onto sweatshop free, American made, deliciously soft American Apparel gear.

At Thrive flock printing services, we offer a range of the most popular fonts and designs requested by industries around the world. Obtain that iconic sportswear look with outlined numbers and team names, a longer flock for more of a “fuzzy” appearance, or even a distressed flock for a unique and modern style.

There are good local screen printers here if you have an apparel business and in need of fast, accurate, wholesale t shirts printing services to help you.

Phoebe Aceto has been making art all of her life. She says, its something that she’s always thinking about and just doing. Her first formal art training came when she became a tattoo apprentice to James Spiers 7 years ago. The opportunity to learn a craft that would continually test her and encourage her to constantly improve her skills drew her to the art form. Working with people to create individually specific artwork requires that she be well versed in a huge variety of artistic styles, and keeps her engaged in the discipline.

The daughter & sister of notable community members, Phoebe grew up in Trumansburg and has chosen to stay in the area. After many years as a barista at Gimme Coffee, she (and friend Jon Proton) opened The Shop in 2009, serving up perfectly crafted coffee drinks, housing Model Citizen Tattoo, and generally being a favorite hangout hub. Phoebe says of Ithaca, “You couldn’t ask for a better community, and it’s beautiful here.”

When first hearing the 2013 theme, Where the Heart Is, she immediately agreed with the phrase, surprised even that it hadn’t been a theme before, as it seemed to capture the spirit of Ithaca. The Ithaca Festival proposed an initial vision for the artwork and Phoebe ran with it brilliantly, including such details as Cayuga Lake, the nautical star, and motion of the design. She wanted to pay tribute to the lake, and drew inspiration from the thought of being out on a boat, wind whipping along, or catching the breeze coming off the waters while standing on the shore. Phoebe also encouraged us to bring Kaya in for the design work.

They have done many projects like this before, mainly T-shirt designs, as well as creating music album cover work and poster designs. Phoebe usually draws the line work and shades the image separately. Kaya then works photo-shop magic to translate the designs, especially aware of the final product vision, as the one who often prints the artwork.

Kaya Donaj-Keys is a silkscreen printing wizard. Since his early teenage years he’s been experimenting and honing his craft, beginning to work professional in the discipline about 5 years ago. An Alfred University Fine Arts graduate, he is drawn to silk screening because while it can be precise, it is a very organic process. He describes the advantages of the digital realm, producing amazing types of line detail for reduction, yet silk screening is done through handling the inks and drawing the screens, allowing for the nuances of human input. Kaya says of silk-screening, “The rad thing is that it’s a printing relic…a medium that’s lasted for thousands & thousands of years… despite modern advances is still based on traditional principles.”

After working for a local T-shirt company for years, Kaya joined the team at Comet Skateboards. He both designs artwork for some of the boards, and individually printing each board’s artwork onto its wooden body. Comet Skateboards appealed to Kaya because he found they had similar values, making it their bottom line to prioritize the environment and people over profits, it’s even written into their legally binding B Corporation charter. He found that working with environmentally benign materials to create completely compostable products could be paralleled in T-shirt silk-screening.

Kaya is dedicated to using water-based inks that require no toxic solvents or chemicals. All they need to dry is evaporation. Most others in the industry use oil-based (plastisol) inks which are essentially liquid plastic and require heating to be held at a set temperature in order for a chemical reaction required for curing. Kaya’s studio has simply, “Ink – screens – squeegees – water – paper negatives”

We were immediately drawn to the idea of an environmentally and human friendly printing option, and Kaya encouraged us to take this a step further. We’ve chosen to print the Art Piece Line on American Apparel shirts. Their manufacturing is sweatshop free, clothing sewn here in North America, with a strong commitment to sustainability. And their shirts, hoodies, & tanks are deliciously soft.

Prior to the Festival selections of this year’s merchandise line will be available at Wegmans. 2013 Commemorative Buttons (They’re your ticket to the Festival!) are for sale at a variety of local businesses. Merchandise locations are throughout the Festival footprint, with a wide range of styles & options while supplies last.

2013 Official Festival Button

Where the Heart Is
“It’s your ticket to the Festival”
This year in 2 sizes!
Regular 2.25 inch & Mini 1.5 inch
$5 each
Available prior to Festival at Wegmans & other local businesses,
Then at the Parade & Ithaca Festival Merchandise Booths