UPDATED 2015/06/05
East End promoter’s announced today that this months upcoming East End fest will be the last one for Rochester ending a 25 year run. It will be replaced by a smaller, free ‘City Celebration’ festival that will premier Aug. 14. Check out the full announcement below and the articles original content.
As you may have heard, this Friday June 12th will be the last East End Festival as you know it. As the neighborhood has grown and evolved, we have spoken at extent with the City and all of the businesses in the neighborhood, and decided to end the traditional festival. We are replacing it with the ‘City Celebration’, a model that is smaller, free, open to the public, and promotes the local neighborhood throughout the summer. You can check out a trial run of the ‘City Celebration’ on August 14th; we hope that events like this can happen many times a year and continue to draw people into our beautiful downtown neighborhood.
ORIGINAL CONTENT
For many years Rochester’s East End Festival would take over the streets of down town Rochester in the East End District multiple times a summer for a night of music, food, and general good ‘ol beer fueled debauchery. While the multiple appearances have chilled and the original organizers and promoters have left – the festival continues as an annual event and will celebrate it’s 25th appearance June 12 3-11PM.
The event will have several of the areas food trucks and beverages from principal sponsor North American Breweries – who will have a special beer garden with several of the small batch selections previously only available at the Genesee Brew Pub. There will be four stages featuring twelve different bands playing music from 5-11PM including a special 25th anniversary stage in front of Channel 10 that will showcase two bands that played the original fest – Into the Now and The Skycoasters.
Other headliners include Syracuses’s Sophistafunk, the folk rock of The Barry Brothers, and Rochester’s own 50/50. Festival promoter Mike O’Leary offered a statement on the festivals history:
“It may seem odd to many, but coming to downtown or the East End for a festival was not always a given. In the late 80’s to the early 90’s this area now known as the East End had hit rock bottom. The Eastman School of Music was ready to move. The once featured restaurants of downtown such as Eddie’s Chop House, Raffles and the Manhattan had all closed their doors. If not for some hard work and money from both the city and the county, the footprint of Rochester Night life would be very different. The gutsy people who risked it all to open in this area could never have envisioned how the neighborhood would evolve. This group soon realized that the best hope of surviving was to work together to promote the area. Out of their hard work and unprecedented spirit of cooperation, the festivals were born. This idea of working together with your competitors to build something was unheard of in Rochester and still is unique in its foresight. The festival has had its share of detractors over the years, but we always seem to be able to put our differences aside and produce an event that will bring 15,000 people downtown for a night of music, food and yes perhaps an adult beverage.”
While the outdoor festival will shut down at 11PM, folks looking for a late night experience can easily sneak into any of the fantastic bars in the area and party it up til 2AM. Keep an eye out as there are sure to be after shows for those looking for more tunes.
Parking Lot Stage:
6:00 – 7:15 – Neil Van Dorn Band
7:30 – 8:45 – Divided By Zero
9:00 – 11:00 – ZBTB – The Zac Brown Tribute Band
Channel 10 “25th Anniversary” Stage:
6:30 – 8 – Into the Now
8:30 – 11 – Skycoasters
Broadway St Stage:
6:15 – 7:30 – Haewa
7:45 – 9:00 – Noble Vibes
9:15 – 11:00 – Sophistafunk
Gibbs St Stage:
6:15 – 7:30 – Barry Brothers
7:45 – 9:00 – Drama Queen (Reunion!)
9:15 – 11:00 – 50/50
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