Music festivals are a staple of summertime entertainment across America. One of those festivals nearby, not far from Winchester, is the All Good Festival, happening this weekend. WMRA's Amy Loeffler reports on what sets it apart from other music festivals.
As music festivals go, the All Good Festival taking place this weekend in Summit, West Virginia at Berry Hill Farm is known for its chill vibe. The lineup showcases musical genres that run the gamut from blue grass to afrobeat to electronica and come from as close as Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, and as far away as Australia. One of the bands in the lineup is Antibalas, a Brooklyn-based band formed in 1998 that is known for its afrobeat rhythms and popularizing the trance-inducing musical stylings of Nigerian political activist and king of Afrobeart, Fela Kuti.
MARTIN PERNA: Definitely for us and a lot of people it’s off the beaten track; somewhere really beautiful and an underappreciated corner of the United States.
That’s Martin Perna, the founder of the band.
PERNA: It’s really nice to be making music in the summer away from the sort of concrete jungle. It’s given me a real appreciation for this region and seeing there’s this whole other part of America that kind of stretches from southern New York to Georgia.
And this weekend that whole other part of America will be dancing to musical traditions that include fiddles and banjos from Appalachia right along side horn sections inspired by political activism across the ocean.