Sunday: BayFest 2011 (We’ve Got The Program Guide!)
BayFest 2011 is just around the corner, and with the Seaside Concert Series potentially cancelled, and the Siren Fest moving to Jerk-hattan, BayFest could be poised to be the premiere music festival in Southern Brooklyn this year!
Organizers have followed through with their plans to kick it up a notch, featuring 24 performers spread out along Emmons Avenue from Ocean Avenue to East 27th Street. They’re packing on some premo performances on a main stage, and a roster of largely local bands along all 10 piers.
BayFest 2011 kicks off along Emmons Avenue at noon and lasts until 6:00 p.m. It is a rain-or-shine event. Also, Sheepshead Bites will have a table there, so stop by!
Three Sheepshead Bay-area performers that answered our call in April made the cut: Coney Island rock troupe Neptune Jam, Sons of Jove from Manhattan Beach, and Anniko Vitolo, producer of the Streets of Brooklyn music video.
And as we previously announced, Sheepshead Bay-native Robert Santa will be one of the headlining acts on the main stage. The Robert Santa Band played for several years with American Idol star Pia Toscano. He’s also shared the stage with Roy Orbison, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter from Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers, Steve Stevens, writer and guitarist for Billy Idol, Slash and Duff Mckagen from Guns & Roses.
Santa will share the main stage – at East 27th Street – with Stout, Beatles’ tribute band Ticket2Ride, and The Shots (with special guest Richie Ramone of The Ramones) and The Bergen County Firefighters Pipe Band, an energetic group of rocked out bagpipers. Yeah, you read me. Kilts and all.
Some other really cool surprises this year? Pier 5 will be dominated by Art Start, an awesome volunteer arts organization for kids from families in crisis, be it kids in shelters, on the streets or involved in court cases. The group is bringing some of its most talented to perform spoken word, rap, hip-hop, folk rock, pop rock, electronica… well, if you can name it, they’ll likely have someone doing it!
What else? Dude! Cosplay maids doing Japanese pop! BayFest organizers plucked Reni Mimuri from the comic book and anime convention circuit to do their synchronized Japanese maid routine on Pier 3. The best part? They clean up afterwards.
There will also be a Peruvian pan-flute band to keep away giant guinea pigs; 32 costumed dancers from Brighton Ballet; and, well, why don’t I just show you the program guide?
Correction: The below flier has Kristin Errett on Pier 9. The schedule has since changed and Errett is replaced by Rudy Crichlow.
