The 12th Anniversary in Hammonton, NJ 6/13-6/16 at Paradise Lakes Campground
Beardfest went down this past weekend back at Paradise Lakes Campground, an uplifting weekend in Hammonton, NJ for the 2024 event with 30 great acts of music, workshops, food, family and friends on the beautiful beachfront of Paradise Lakes Campground in Wharton State Park. We had the chance to spend the weekend on site taking it all in through the lens, catching the colors, smiles, and the music.
Thursday kicked off the fest with Kara Koser and her band Koser on the Forest stage followed by Velvet Rouge back on the Beach Stage, who have a highly anticipated self-titled EP coming up July 26th. With just 2 stages at Beardfest, there is never overlapping music so there is always time to make the 5minute walk through the forest canopy. With daylight dwindling, Fat Mezz took the Forest Stage bringing us into the night with delightful jams, followed by a hard-hitting brass set from Ocean Avenue Stompers on the Beach Stage at 9pm. Then, Philly bassist Kyle Rowe brought his project, Space Race, to the Forest Stage for an experimental jazz session joined by Zach LoPresti on guitar. Next, back on the Beach stage, more hard-hitting brass from Beardfest vets, Moon Hooch, with 5AM trio grooving the late-night 1am set to close out day 1 on the Forest Stage with electronic production coupled with live instruments.
Thursday kicked off the fest with Kara Koser and her band Koser on the Forest stage followed by Velvet Rouge back on the Beach Stage, who have a highly anticipated self-titled EP coming up July 26th. With just 2 stages at Beardfest, there is never overlapping music so there is always time to make the 5minute walk through the forest canopy. With daylight dwindling, Fat Mezz took the Forest Stage bringing us into the night with delightful jams, followed by a hard-hitting brass set from Ocean Avenue Stompers on the Beach Stage at 9pm. Then, Philly bassist Kyle Rowe brought his project, Space Race, to the Forest Stage for an experimental jazz session joined by Zach LoPresti on guitar. Next, back on the Beach stage, more hard-hitting brass from Beardfest vets, Moon Hooch, with 5AM trio grooving the late-night 1am set to close out day 1 on the Forest Stage with electronic production coupled with live instruments.
After some campground coffee, sausage & eggs, the music continued on Friday morning on the Forest Stage for an Open Mic session, with over a dozen signing up for 4-6 minute slots, giving Beardfesters homegrown tunes and some fun covers. Back at the Beach Stage, we saw a calming hand-pan/instrumental set from Miss Cantaloupe drummer Sean Youngman, followed by some good ole' pickin' on the Forest stage from the Sean Daniels & The Law Abiding Citizens, joined by Beardspace's bass-man Matt O'Neil on standup bass. Next up at the Beach Stage we took in a set from the Senegalese Youba Cissokho, who is quite adept at playing the kora and gave a delightful performance. Atlanta's Improvement Movement took the Beach Stage at 4pm, playing tunes off their recently released album 'Slump' and were joined for a tune by Muscle Tough's Jonathan Colman. Last of the afternoon, we caught up with the new genre-bending Philly quartet, Star Destroyers, on the Forest Stage.
Nik Greeley & The Operators were next up on the Beach stage, driving the night into high gear with a full horn section and Greeley treating Beardfesters to some funkiness that only he can. Friday night headliners, Octave Cat, took the Forest stage as the light dimmed, delivering dance tunes and grooves, joined for a tune by 5AM's Aaron Harel aka Zone Drums and also for their song 'Talk to Me' by Matt Salazar and Ian Gray on horns. Our hosts, Beardspace, were joined by and for the first time, conducted by Nik Greeley on the Beach stage, where we saw the band joined for a bit by Youba Cissokho on the Kora, Koser's Kara Koser, Edenspore's Robyn Mello, and by the Ocean Avenue Stompers horn section for a fully improvised set of music at Greeley's cues. Next up was the return of Muscle Tough to Beardfest, back on the Forest stage, delivering some deep jams to the crowd on their new tunes with a couple fun covers, joined by Nik Greeley on vocals for the Black Sabbath tune, Electric Funeral. The Philly trio looks to release some new music coming up very soon and is celebrating 10 years as the Philly band we know and love, click here for their full set audio from Beardfest.
Nik Greeley & The Operators were next up on the Beach stage, driving the night into high gear with a full horn section and Greeley treating Beardfesters to some funkiness that only he can. Friday night headliners, Octave Cat, took the Forest stage as the light dimmed, delivering dance tunes and grooves, joined for a tune by 5AM's Aaron Harel aka Zone Drums and also for their song 'Talk to Me' by Matt Salazar and Ian Gray on horns. Our hosts, Beardspace, were joined by and for the first time, conducted by Nik Greeley on the Beach stage, where we saw the band joined for a bit by Youba Cissokho on the Kora, Koser's Kara Koser, Edenspore's Robyn Mello, and by the Ocean Avenue Stompers horn section for a fully improvised set of music at Greeley's cues. Next up was the return of Muscle Tough to Beardfest, back on the Forest stage, delivering some deep jams to the crowd on their new tunes with a couple fun covers, joined by Nik Greeley on vocals for the Black Sabbath tune, Electric Funeral. The Philly trio looks to release some new music coming up very soon and is celebrating 10 years as the Philly band we know and love, click here for their full set audio from Beardfest.
The final day of Beardfest saw another session of Open Mic for Beardfesters who signed up to sing/play to start the day, followed by a calming and inspirational performance from Robyn Mello's project, Edenspore, on the Beach Stage to start the day, where she was joined by Out of the Beardspace's (and husband) Zach LoPresti, Ethan Feinstein and by Muscle Tough,'s Jonathan Colman on the bass, where at times got into some very intricate improvisational sections with the band just moving together as an organism. We then saw live producer/harp duo Kuf Knotz & Christine Elise performing on the Forest stage before we headed back to the Beach to check out the Grateful Dead set from Crickets & Cicadas, which turned out to be a 4-song set. Next, Philly jam lords, Blendmode, performed on the Forest Stage delivering tasty jams to the afternoon crowd, click here for their full set audio. Returning to the Beach Stage we found Senegalese master percussionist, vocalist, and composer, Aba Diop and his trio, joined by their friend Youba Cissokho returning to the stage again on the kora, followed by Denver's electric swingers, Banshee Tree, on the Forest Stage. Philly drummer-led soul/funk troupe, TreWay & The Now Generation took the Beach Stage next, and joined Beardfest this year to perform at their first ever festival.
Next, we caught a fun set from Philly's fem pop-fusion band, Gloss, performing on the Forest stage. Saturday night headliners, Star Kitchen appeared on the Beach Stage at 8pm joined on guitar for the set by Jeremy Schon of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong with Kara Koser on vocals for a tune, dishing out a funky set on the beach for us. Beardspace returned to the stage to follow for a highly anticipated performance of original tunes, this time on the Forest Stage. The band performed a new one written by guitarist Zach LoPresti names after his son Onyx, called Onyx's Thing...check out the video in the link. Late Saturday night at Beardfest saw the return of bass extraordinaire MonoNeon, performing with a trio and singing on vocals, giving us some funky stuff on the Beach Stage. Ben Arsenal and Friends, made his first appearance on the decks at Beardfest on the Forest Stage at 1am to close the festival out...we can't say for sure what time this set ended, but it was late!
Throughout the weekend you could find various workshops in the campground, like Juggling Workshops, Community Choir, Breathwork & Intentional Cold Exposure, Conscious Comedy, Disc Golf: Form and Basics, Exploring our Senses with Nature, Hands on Henna, Igniting Creativity Through Live Looping, Making Herbal Medicines, Sound Vibration Healing & Tantra Yoga, Primal Scream and many more. There's something for everyone at Beardfest, and while the festival is mainly centered around fantastic music, the theme of Beardfest is community, togetherness, friendship, family, giving back, and protecting this spinning ball we live on to the best of our abilities.
Next, we caught a fun set from Philly's fem pop-fusion band, Gloss, performing on the Forest stage. Saturday night headliners, Star Kitchen appeared on the Beach Stage at 8pm joined on guitar for the set by Jeremy Schon of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong with Kara Koser on vocals for a tune, dishing out a funky set on the beach for us. Beardspace returned to the stage to follow for a highly anticipated performance of original tunes, this time on the Forest Stage. The band performed a new one written by guitarist Zach LoPresti names after his son Onyx, called Onyx's Thing...check out the video in the link. Late Saturday night at Beardfest saw the return of bass extraordinaire MonoNeon, performing with a trio and singing on vocals, giving us some funky stuff on the Beach Stage. Ben Arsenal and Friends, made his first appearance on the decks at Beardfest on the Forest Stage at 1am to close the festival out...we can't say for sure what time this set ended, but it was late!
Throughout the weekend you could find various workshops in the campground, like Juggling Workshops, Community Choir, Breathwork & Intentional Cold Exposure, Conscious Comedy, Disc Golf: Form and Basics, Exploring our Senses with Nature, Hands on Henna, Igniting Creativity Through Live Looping, Making Herbal Medicines, Sound Vibration Healing & Tantra Yoga, Primal Scream and many more. There's something for everyone at Beardfest, and while the festival is mainly centered around fantastic music, the theme of Beardfest is community, togetherness, friendship, family, giving back, and protecting this spinning ball we live on to the best of our abilities.
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