NEXSW Tour 2023: Newington to New Paltz

Tour recap: June 11, 2023

On the docket for this Sunday was the "Edythe and Harry Mandell 2023 Summer Concert Series" presented by the parks department in Newington, CT. 

Newington is about an hour and a half from where we stayed the night in Fishkill, NY. Showtime was at noon, and we like to give ourselves and hour and a half to set up to be on the safe side, so we had to leave by 9 am. The venue was a little patch of green space, with a pavilion for bands, surrounded by a big parking lot. Here's what it looks like in Google Maps (I annotated the pavillion in purple):

Load-in was super easy here - yay! The pavilion provided critical shade on that sunny day, and was nice and spacious with plenty of room for us to spread out.

There were picnic tables around the perimeter of the green space for people to sit at while listening to music, but unfortunately, no shade for them! A few people came really early, like an hour before we started playing, so they could set up their own camp chairs in the tiny patches of shade provided by the few sapling trees. This was the view from stage before people arrived:

Our friends Kathy and Brad came to see us play, and captured this picture:

The crowd, although not large, was very receptive to our music, including originals. We sold several CDs that day, made good tips, and got lots of compliments. I do think a lot more people would have come and stayed if there had been umbrellas or something to provide shelter from the blazing sun.

After the concert, we went out for ice cream nearby to hang out with our friends. Kathy and I met a looong time ago in the alto section of the Camerata Chorale in Poughkeepsie, NY. We were the youngest singers by far, but now we laugh that we are about the same age as many of the other singers that we considered "old" at the time. 

In the early evening, we crossed back over the Hudson River on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, headed for New Paltz to have dinner and stay with Kim and Joe (John's sister and brother-in-law). 

*****

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