Looking back on some of the New York festivals this summer, it seems that using the location of a Woodstock event ensures the same inclement weather that battered the ’69 and ’94 gatherings. Take the patrons of Mysteryland USA, for instance: their journey to the iconic Bethel Woods, New York location of Woodstock ’69 led to two days of dancing ankle-deep in mud and camping in swamp-like conditions. Likewise, The Hudson Project, celebrating its inaugural year in Saugerties, New York at the home of Woodstock ’94, suffered from even worse weather at the tail-end of its three-day weekend.
While the rain is definitely at the focal point of discussions surrounding The Hudson Project at the moment, the festival itself did have significant potential going into its July 11th to 12th weekend. It boasted a strong yet extremely diverse line-up that ensured a little something for everyone. With powerhouse artists including Kendrick Lamar, Bassnectar, Big Gigantic, Modest Mouse, Rebelution, Moby, GRiZ, Keys N Krates, and STS9 to name only a few, the event brought together many genres that span electronic music and beyond.
Musically, the first two days of the Project had well structured line-ups that were, at the very least, just plain fun. The Circus Tent, which saw the festival’s harder and higher energy sets, witnessed some great performances on Friday. Audrey Napoleon absolutely rocked the tent with her self-dubbed underground pop style infused with her lyrics and high energy electro house. Robert Delong delivered a solid mix in the tent prior to Keys N Krates firing up the crowd with their three-piece live input set. Excision produced yet another show that left the viewer at a loss for words due to nearly complete sensory overload.
The Saturday line-up was full of memorable moments as well. Kastle created a cool, funky atmosphere in the Circus Tent, before Luminox took over with his heavy trap and bass. Rebelution brought the good reggae vibes to the Empire Stage at sunset with their amazingly talent-filled saxophone and trumpet solos. Bonobo’s relaxed set at the Explorer Stage was the perfect precursor to Big Gigantic’s potentially most memorable set ever. About twenty minutes into their show, the skies opened up with the weekend’s first torrential downpour. For the casual festival-goer, this might have spelled the end of their night. For those at The Hudson Project, however, the result was the exact opposite.
From the Empire Stage, it looked as if the entire festival had rushed out into the rain to experience one of the rarer moments in electronic music. It was a special experience; a communal and primal dance brought on by the perfect combination of Big G’s signature sound, fireworks, and lights amplified by the natural prism of relentless raindrops. A brief respite from the rain arrived later in the night in time for Kendrick Lamar’s great performance. GRiZ followed up in the Circus Tent generating an amazingly fun and groovy set endowed with oldies funk and glitch-hop jams. Moby closed out the night with a great high energy set even if it was awfully similar to his Electric Forest mix.
Despite some excellent musical talent present at the festival, The Hudson Project was obviously not without some noticeable problems. Apparent organization issues and weaknesses were exacerbated by the arrival of intense storms that led to the delay and ultimate cancellation of the third day’s concerts. By around 3:00 or 4:00pm, the festival staff was moving through the campsites announcing the cancellation of the remaining events, and explaining that all attendees should return to their cars. While not necessarily telling people to leave the festival grounds, the organizers did not give people much other choice since no food, water, or facilities were provided from that point on.
The parking lots deteriorated to the point where it was impossible for even all-wheel drive vehicles to get out of the mud. By 9:00pm, most of the campsites had been evacuated, but almost no one had been able to leave the car lots. It seemed as though the festival staff were all but gone by 12:00am as one could only see local farmers driving tractors around and pulling cars out of the mud. There was no order to this process, but as personal experience revealed, paying the locals some extra “tip” money seemed to expedite one’s car being pulled out.
Even though these people had paid for their tickets, camping passes, onsite car parking, they were virtually on their own once they got back to their cars. People were still stuck throughout the next day even at 12:00pm with seemingly no staff on site to help anyone. It’s certainly one thing to charge somewhat unreasonable prices for tickets and amenities as basic as showering, but to not have the appropriate support infrastructure in place for events of this magnitude is unacceptable. MCP Presents should have taken better measures in hiring local staff and providing an auxiliary plan for weather that they knew was approaching days in advance.
Event management issues aside, the festival was about a cultural experience whose main catalysts were the people themselves, not the security, organizers, vendors, or grounds. Even when the concerts were delayed on Sunday, that didn’t stop people from having one of the best times of their lives. Looking up at the sky, everyone seemed to share the same “fuck it” feeling. Instead of packing up and giving up, they gathered as many camping tarps as possible, threw them on the biggest hill in site, and made of the best group mudslides conceivable. It looked as though the entire camping population had converged on this one hill to literally play in the rain like a bunch of kids.
Furthermore, when the rain brought on a flash flood river that swept entire campsites away, everyone rushed to help and recover strangers’ belongings. No one knew each other, yet the site looked like a mass reunion of best friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. These moments are the reason people go to camping festivals. It sucked waiting hours to be hauled out of a parking lot and losing a day, but there was no better group of people to be there with until we were “evacuated.”
Music aside, that’s why a lot of people come out year after year despite the prices, overly aggressive security, poor planning, and bad weather. Hopefully, that is what will continue to drive these events while event companies strive to improve on their past mistakes. It is of no doubt that MCP Presents will learn from these problems and improve upon them with Camp Bisco and perhaps a second Hudson Project. It certainly has taken a step in the right direction by giving full refunds to patrons for the lost third day.
