In its third location in three years, the Hoochenanny Festival is still finding its footing among the vast festival landscape. The third edition, held August 14 thru 16, saw it stake ground at Center Park West in Fairport, just outside of Rochester. A town park boasting a community center, naturally sloping amphitheater and playing fields, was transformed with a massive variety of tents and a built main stage.

A festival is like a taster’s menu of music. A bevy of artists served up in manageable easy-to-digest portions, one after the other, curated by the producers. A great way to sample a large variety of music in a short period of time.

Not only could you sample music from either of the two stages, but a unique feature of Hoochenanny is the massive World of Whiskey tent, which housed nearly 40 distilleries sampling well over 100 whiskeys and spirits. Additionally, Lager Land, a smaller tent in view of the main stage, hosted tastings from over a dozen regional breweries. And then of course there were food trucks and vendors selling a wide variety of foods.

A whiskey’s flavor depends on its blend of grains. A majority of corn, now you have bourbon, a majority of rye, makes it a rye. On the stages however, the blends shifted the flavors of rock.

The Fermenter Stage, held in the park’s permanent pavilion, hosted mostly regional talent playing short 30-minute palate cleansers in between the main-stage artists. The area’s vast wealth of diverse talent was on full display. Head to the Roots sprinkled dashes of reggae and roots music into their groovy rock. Veterans of the Fairport venues, they reminisced about shows at the nearby B-Side Lounge, Fairport Brewery and Iron Smoke Distillery while wowing fans new and old. Ocular Panther served up their rock with an injection of psychedelic experimentation, Colin Jones’ guitar slicing through hypnotic trances. Smilo and the Ghost, regulars on the scene, though based in Erie, PA, hit hard with a five-piece driving outlaw bluegrass sound. The Isotopes spun up their own rock n roll madness turning classic favorites from the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd, a-Ha and the Knight Rider theme into instrumental surf ditties, complete with go-go dancers. Public Water Supply showcased formidable songwriting on their Americana flavored rock, behind Iggy Marino’s solid lead.

The main, Highball Stage, beefed up the menu with perennial heavy hitters and up-and-comers hungry to impress.

Two young talents made especially big splashes, each blazing through early afternoon sets under sweltering sunshine. Just past her 20th birthday, guitarist Grace Bowers sizzled on her Gibson, cooking up reverb-soaked anthemic rock with her quartet. Borrowing generously from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, they had a throwback sound with invigorated youthful energy. New single, “Eat Shit and Live” closed out, synthesizing it all into a tight package, including a shredding guitar jarring with the bassist, and some classic rockstar showmanship, crouching down with her ax at the lip of the stage.

Bassist Karina Rykman bounded onto and across the stage, for a fun and funky set spreading her infectious energy. The band was testing out some unreleased material with her newly minted keyboard player, joining for just his second show. She flexed her jamband creds on new single “Easy Rider,” extending into a dance-ready jam with grooving bass and plinky guitar work. “City Kids” also got taken for a ride, dropping into a deep dub for a nice stretch.

The artists were keenly aware of their place at the festival, who was there with them and the importance of the continuity of it all. They weren’t just dropping in for a set of music and moving on, they were adding their ingredients to the greater whole. Throughout the festival artists would reference others on the lineup, paying their respects, sometimes even teasing their music.

Karina Rykman went as far as arriving a day early for the opportunity to join her friends My Morning Jacket for their headlining set Saturday night. My Morning Jacket’s drummer Patrick Hallahan likewise crossed lineup borders by joining Guster for a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” which sounded great despite them only having one rehearsal together. It certainly pays to book bands who are friendly with each other, it produces memorable fortuitous moments that spark joy both on the stage and in the audience.

Whatever was cooking backstage, whether it be comfortable digs, good catering, or tasty flowing whiskey, the artists all seemed genuinely excited to be there, bringing an energy that permeated joy, professionalism and devil-may-care anything goes attitude. They were having a damn fun time and it filtered out to the crowd, staff, anyone on site; all smiles, friendly, and carefree.

Guster personified that sentiment with a set that was equal parts great music and fun banter and hijinks. The band accordioned from four to seven members as they ran through a career-spanning set of their breezy folk rock. They took a moment to thank local radio station WBER for their long time support and gave them credit for finally pushing their song “Satellite” over the edge toward gold record status nine years after its release. Later, working through some vocal sound issues, the band started up a fully improvised and quite funny song about a psy-op campaign until the issue was resolved. Sure beat listening to someone say “check check” over and over. For “Doin’ It By Myself” singer Ryan Miller walked out into the crowd with an extensively long cord, weaving his way through to the massive double decker VIP tent. Once inside he got himself stuck and needed to climb out, providing a running commentary while still keeping up with singing the song. Appropriately fun to the very end, entire verses of “Amsterdam” were laughed through, as the band just couldn’t contain the good times.

Local heroes Joywave had their own spot of fun cooked up. They somehow managed to run a Google search prompt joke on the screen behind the stage for the entirety of their set. A mix of Joywave lore, Rochester history and inside jokes typed out in the search bar as the band continued along with their own blend of rock, splashing in heavy doses of electro-pop. Before “Its Coming Apart” they celebrated their super fan Robbie’s 100th show, who was enjoying it from the front row. He was presented with a statuette award and was even featured on the Google search bar. As they entered the self-proclaimed “hit section” of the show, “Tongues” was still emerged as catchy as ever, the crowd singing along perfectly as the band dropped out. As the set neared its close, Dan Armbuster announced the final song, “lucky for you it’s the greatest song ever written.” With one final flourish of the superb set-closing “Destruction,” Armbuster requested the band to try and rip the darkening clouds open. With deep guttural swirls of sound, the band seemingly played God, and it started pouring right on cue. Stick that in your Google search bar.

Modest Mouse was more businesslike with their time, pumping through a set of their hooky grungy rock. One of the few bands on the bill promoting a new album, An Eraser and a Maze was well represented, though they gave fans of any era a good taste. Like Guster, the band shifted in size from song to song, but sounded strongest as the smaller quartet. “Trucker’s Atlas,” an early career cut, exhibited raw power with angular guitar, feedback and a hard driving bass. “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” went large with a second bass, multiple guitars and keys, the crowd eating up the repetitive groove. “Float On” and “Ocean Breathes Salty” from their breakout Good News for People Who Love Bad News, brought the last portion of their show to a rousing satisfying finish.

Like the best whiskey in the tasting tent, My Morning Jacket delivered on all promises. Full-bodied and smooth, with a burn on the finish. The nose included satisfying slow builds “Phone Went West,” and “I Will Sing You Songs” among classic Jacket humalong singalongs air-guitar-alongs like “I’m Amazed” and “Lay Low.” But it was all a set up. “Everyday Magic” lit the fuse with a slinky breakdown before ramming into the firestorm that started with “Dancefloors.” Set closing energy was reached in this midset jam that featured a blazing two-guitar onslaught and a rolling piano-led romp. Deep cut “I Think I’m Going to Hell” drifted into “Victory Dance” with a strobe light head-banging rock out. Tom Blankenship’s bass was popping as Jim James and Carl Broemel zapped guitar beams across the stage during “Off the Record.” “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part 2” revved up the proceedings with it’s disco funk energy and toward the tail end Karina Rykman entered and it went full ape. The double bassist action remained the rest of the way, giving “Wordless Chorus” extra sauce by tacking on a powerfully soaring jam. Everything was brought to a head during the set-closing “Mahgeetah” like only My Morning Jacket can. Massive energetic controlled chaos, a pleasing back-of-the-throat burn on the finish.

Hoochenanny Festival 2026, went down smooth with a lasting bite. To quote Guster’s Ryan Miller, “I wasn’t sure what to expect … but yeah, 10 out of 10!”

Photos by Sean Milligan