The Beach Road Weekend Music Festival is finally here, with each day of tunes constituting an all-out bash of big-name performers, notable up-and-coming artists, and more.
Workers have been busy turning Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven into a major music venue. The dual stages — the Black Dog Stage and the Lighthouse Stage — are wired up and ready for action. Concession stands are built, local vendors are preparing their wares, and every excited festival lover who got their hands on a ticket anticipates walking through those entrance gates.
This year, the festival partnered with the Black Dog and brought some legends onto the lineup, with the likes of Beck, Wilco, the Avett Brothers, Billy Strings, Lord Huron, and many other exciting acts taking the stage. BRW returns to the Island with the same goal it’s maintained since its inception — attract diverse musical talent to Martha’s Vineyard, and establish it as a place where visitors and locals alike want to witness great performances.
In order to create the most accessible experience for Islanders, BRW has made a limited number of one-day passes available for purchase in-person inside the old Educomp building — a new development this year. The festival office is open Monday through Friday, from 10 am to 12 pm, and 1 to 3 pm.
Another addition to this year’s BRW offerings is a luxury sky deck that includes some heavy-duty amenities, like private restrooms, a private bar, complementary local bites and refreshments, and enhanced seating. There will be one sky deck directly in the center of the venue, and another situated next to the VIP area and the concessions.
Don’t have a ride to and from the festival? No problem — BRW is offering shuttles all day long, starting at 9 am. Get a shuttle pass in order to ride the shuttle as many times as you want during the three-day event. Each shuttle will be color-coded: light blue for Edgartown, green for West Tisbury and Chilmark, and orange for Oak Bluffs.
There will also be a water taxi that guarantees passage to Falmouth each night. This allows festival guests who are staying on the mainland a way off the Vineyard following each BRW performance. With each day of the festival ending at 8 pm, festivalgoers will be able to head right to the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority terminal, with the first water taxi departing at 8:30 pm. The water taxi service runs through 1 am, for anyone looking to extend their night on the Vineyard a bit later. Shuttle buses in Falmouth will take guests to various nearby lodging areas.
The Beach Road Weekend water taxi is designed to alleviate any potential overflow on any single SSA vessel by significantly increasing the capacity for passengers to return to the mainland post-festival each evening, and alleviating the possibility of passengers being left behind on the Island who reserved accommodations in the Falmouth area.
The Avett Brothers headline Friday night with Khruangbin, Lord Huron, Mount Joy, and more. Beck will take the stage Saturday night along with Billy Strings, Guster, Dawes, and a full day of bands performing on two stages. The Sunday night finale will be led by Wilco, with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Caamp, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and more.
There will also be a number of local acts performing on the smaller MV Stage, set back from the two main stages. The Dukes of Circuit Ave. play from 5 to 5:45 pm on Thursday, August 25, then Darby and the Jelly Roll Horns take the stage immediately after and play until 6:45 pm. On Friday, August 26, Prune will play from 8 to 8:45 pm, followed by Workman Song until 9:15 pm. Rose Guerin will play from 8 to 8:35 pm on Saturday, August 27, then Dukes County Love Affair takes over from 8:45 to 9:15 pm. On the final day of the festival, Sunday, August 28, Mike Benjamin will perform from 8 to 8:35 pm, then the Dock Dance Band finishes off the festivities from 8:45 pm to 9:15 pm.
Head to beachroadweekend.com to get tickets, view the full artist lineup and itinerary, buy merchandise, and find more information about the festival.
