https://wwwfacebook.com/americanaregion/
Views: Thus far the festival’s combined video feature views have exceeded 300,000 and still counting!
Creativity: Thus far the five new original songs were written for various writing challenges in the festival and a new original oil painting with egg tempura paint was unveiled for the festival during a recent livestream session. An original fusion dance of Hispanic, Celtic and Pennsylvania Dutch roots is being created for yet another additional work of music called “The Hawk Mountain Hoedown”.
Learning: To date the festival has presented 1 woodwind lesson and 10 guitar lessons in various styles including Rhumba, Flamenco, Classical, Jazz, Folk and Pop with an emphasis on original songwriting.
Topics & Diversity: Thus far topics have been broad-ranging and all-inclusive, thus following the fest’s guiding principals in which we feel that people are most often favorably united through the types of cultural sameness that celebrate family, creativity, music, food, beverages, art, dance, traditions, education, how-to instructions and a connection with the outdoors.
Draw: Thus far the fest has drawn followers from around the region, Europe, Canada and other places in the world.
Help: Thus far the fest has helped the following organizations keep their brand in the public eye during the COVID 19 quarantine crisis: The Reading Musical Foundation, WCR Center for the Arts, Pennsylvania’s Americana Region Reading & Berks County Visitors Bureau, The Yocum Institute for the Arts, Berks Arts Council and Berks Jazz Fest, Berks History Center, BCTV, Hawk Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, Kutztown Folk Festival, Pennsylvania German Cultural & Heritage Center of Kutztown, Bario Allegria, Berks Poets, Meadowood Music, Berks Nature, Polish-American Board of Education and History Center, The Pagoda Foundation, Lyons Fiddle Festival, Berks County Parks & Recreation historic sites and Red Bridge Fiddle Festival, Reading Recreation Commission, St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Christ Church Episcopal Church of Reading, Bell Buckle Tennessee Junction, The New York Guitar Academy, The Reading Liederkranz and GTV Edelweiss Folk Dance Group, The Temple Greenhouse Victory Garden, Clay on Main, The United Way of Berks County, Ozark Mountain Arts Council, Berks Quarantine Open Mic Group, Reading Railroad Historic Society, Ardounie Dairy Farm, Crystal Cave, Dixon’s Muzzleloading Shop, Jon Bond Art Studio, Dietrich’s Meats & Country Store, Dundore & Heister Meats & Foods, Chubby Pickle Farm, and The Salt Lounge, with many more participants yet to come. We’re working on new content and participants daily.
Of Note: Of special interest, Pennsylvania’s Americana Region Festival has just established a working and collaborative relationship with Scotland’s oldest castle, Castle Roy, in the Scottish Highlands. The purpose of this relationship is to begin to and then continue to share the culture of music, food, history and more back and forth between the festival and the castle’s stewards led by Laird Richard Ecceles. A video tour of the castle is being filmed for the festival and discussions are occurring as to how we can share musicians back and forth between regions as we provide performing opportunities and more.
Fundraising: Although this is a very difficult moment in history to do fund raising, to date the festival and related video concerts have raised more than $2,500 for the United Way of Berks County, via a Lars Potteiger livestream concert, and more than $1,200 in general funds which will be distributed equally to recipient organizations as listed on the fest’s facebook page immediately after the fest ends on June 30, 2020.
Upcoming Events:
June 20 – Saturday
5 to 6pm: The Quarantine Quartet will perform another livestream concert from their home in Brooklyn, New York. They’ve been playing live concerts for more than 90 days in a row as a family! The group is a family of four, including the mother, father and two young sons. You’ll be entertained and impressed as you watch and you’ll want to hit those “like” and “love” buttons lots while they’re on. This session is brought to you by The Reading Musical Foundation, Meadowood Music, Virgil Kahl of Spring Ridge Financial, LLC, Berks County Commissioner Chairman Christian Leinbach and Berks County Parks & Recreation.
6:30 to 7:30pm: Author and note speaker Patrick Donmoyer, executive director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural and History Center, Kutztown, PA, is going to share an hour of the practices, mysteries and history of folkloric POWWOWING from legend and lore. The session will be livestreamed so that you can interact, act questions and participate.
7:30 to 9:30pm: Cliff Cole, Norm Williams, and Rob Yoder (The Dulcimer Boys – https://dulcimerboys.com/) will be presenting 90 minutes of music related to the Mountain and Hammered Dulcimers and the music they make. They’ll explore the history and influence of the instruments, demonstrate how they are played, and share several traditional and original tunes and songs on the instruments. An educational and entertaining time will be had by all. This will be a livestream program so you can interact and have fun. This session is brought to you by The Reading Musical Foundation, Meadowood Music, Virgil Kahl of Spring Ridge Financial, LLC, Berks County Commissioner Chairman Christian Leinbach and Berks County Parks & Recreation.
9pm: Boyertown’s Rachel Yoder offers an interesting how-to create folk art like giant hex signs and such. You’ll love learning with Rachel.
9:30pm: Meet Berks County Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dave Geddio during the “In Tune” video series created by Berks County History Center’s Alexis Campbell and musician/videographer Bob Yost.
June 21 – Sunday
10am: The team at Berks Nature will present a program called “Exploring the Nature Place and a Magnified Look at What Lives in Pond Water”.
6pm: Berks History Center presents “Go Behind the Scenes at the Berks History Center”.
7 to 8pm: Father and son, Josh & Si Taylor, perform an exclusive concert filmed live for Pennsylvania’s Americana Region Festival at The WCR Center for the Arts, North 5th Street, Reading. You’ll be entertained and amazed at their dexterity and playing skill as they play through styles that include Django Gypsy Jazz and more. Josh is the lead teacher of the “Guitars After School” program for Olivets kids in the Reading School District, sponsored by the Reading Musical Foundation. This session is brought to you by The Reading Musical Foundation, Meadowood Music, Virgil Kahl of Spring Ridge Financial, LLC, Berks County Commissioner Chairman Christian Leinbach and Berks County Parks & Recreation.
8pm: Pastor Jim Farnsworth and friends from St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Birdsboro, offers us a how-to create demonstration on making a delicious pig roast for a Father’s Day and for any other day too.
8:30pm: Berks County teacher Damien Drago presents a fascinating program of original songs that share history. Damien’s method of teaching through music has lasting retention power with his students. This session is brought to you by The Reading Musical Foundation, Meadowood Music, Virgil Kahl of Spring Ridge Financial, LLC, Berks County Commissioner Chairman Christian Leinbach and Berks County Parks & Recreation.
June 21 – Monday
10am: Zack DeSantis, founder of the highly-popular Berks County Quarantine Open Mic group and during this session he’ll layer musical parts and instruments together to create a completed work of music before finishing.
7pm: Meet Berks County Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jack Keller during the “In Tune” video series created by Berks County History Center’s Alexis Campbell and musician/videographer Bob Yost.
7:30pm: Take a tour of Wyomissing’s Salt Lounge with owner/operator Rachel Eskin. Rachel chats about the facility and the amazing healing, preventative and relaxing powers of salt therapy.
8pm: De Gaarde. (The Garden) Go out into the garden with Boyertown’s Rachel Yoder. In this video session we’ll see how Rachel utilizes artwork she taught us how to create in an earlier video during the festival to bring her garden to life.
June 23 – Tuesday
5:30pm: Meet Berks County Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dave Mattes during the “In Tune” video series created by Berks County History Center’s Alexis Campbell and musician/videographer Bob Yost.
6 to 8pm: We’re devoting this evening to livestream broadcasting from the weekly bluegrass music jam session at Meadowood Music, Route 222, Blandon, PA.
8:30pm: Meet Berks County Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee The Pride & Joys during the “In Tune” video series created by Berks County History Center’s Alexis Campbell and musician/videographer Bob Yost.
Sponsors include The Reading Musical Foundation, Berks County Commissioner Chairman Christian Leinbach, Berks County Parks & Recreation, Meadowood Music and Virgil Kahl of Spring Ridge Financial, LLC.
