WARWICK — Nine bands representing a “fine cross-section from the Pioneer Valley music scene, coupled with regional and national bands” will play at this year’s Old 78 Farm Fall Festival on Oct. 6, organizer Phil Simon said. Most of the lineup won’t be revealed until the festival is closer, but it will include, Simon said, rice — an American Band and Dave Keller, who performed with his band at the first festival and will be playing a solo set this year.
“We’ve got bands that sell out 500-person venues, or thousand-person venues, around the country, and here they are appearing at our little fall festival,” Simon said. “Over and over again people leave saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this is happening here.’ … Our aim is to have an entire day’s worth of music where any band would be worth the ticket price, but you get nine of them.”
The festival starts at 11 a.m. and music starts at noon and goes until 11 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 on the day of the festival, and kids 12 and under are free. People who volunteer for planning and setup will be able to attend the festival for free.
The festival is held at the 823 Orange Road farm, which Simon owns, and features barbecue, food from the farm and about a dozen craftspeople and businesses from Warwick, Orange, Athol and surrounding areas.
“Old 78 Farm Festival is a celebration of all that is good in New England for the fall,” Simon said. “Food, music, the beauty of our natural surroundings and locally created crafts and businesses.”
Old 78 Farm Fall Festival started in 2010 and has run every year since, growing from roughly 100 attendees the first year to about 500 last year.
One of the biggest improvements to the festival came last year, Simon said, when they upgraded their electrical supply from a system of multiple noisy generators to a single large one, which Simon said “was such a difference it was not even close.”
“Last year we brought in a single trailer. He pulled in, steadied it, turned the key, and it powered the entire concert field all day on like two gallons of fuel,” Simon said.