Lovers of cool music and a cool environment take note: The 2016 Rock On Fest is right around the corner, and it’s bound to be a truly rockin’ time.
The format and structure of the Rock On Fest is pretty simple: a bunch of people hang out at White Park and listen to a bunch of cool music all day, with some fun activities sprinkled in throughout.
“It’s a free-flowing festival,” said Concord native Luke Bonner, executive director of the Rock On Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that promotes wellness and creativity through the arts and athletics and puts on the festival. “It’s intended to be a community celebration.”
Oh yeah – and it’s 100 percent free, so it has that going for it.
The first Rock On Fest was held in 2007, but last year was the first time it came to Concord. Concord is a fitting and natural host city for this celebration, given that Bonner and his NBA-playing brother, Matt, hail from here and have helped put this place on the map.
(Side note: The Bonners may also be the tallest brother duo to ever come out of the Granite State, so seeing them both in the same place at the same time should be considered a special experience.)
Although Luke Bonner has lived all over the world by now – from the West Coast all the way to Europe – he still loves his home city, and that’s a big part of why he wanted to bring the Rock On Fest here.
“There’s something happening here – you can’t put your finger on it,” he said, searching for the right words to articulate what he meant by that “something.”
It’s okay, though – we knew what he meant. He was talking about that intangible something, something that’s started to really take over the city in the past few years. Between the new and improved Main Street and the ever-increasing popularity of the music scene, Concord is certainly scoring major brownie points all across New England these days, and this festival is now just one of the many reasons why.
“My brother and I have always been into music,” Luke said. “We felt like there was a need around here for something like this.”
Sure, Concord has tons of live music all the time – just pick up any of our past issues and see for yourself – but there really aren’t any true festivals here, now that the Granite State Music Festival’s future looks shaky at best. The Rock On Fest will be basically the only festival-type show in the area all summer – and again, it’s free.
Bonner has a lot on his plate with this project. He’s the lead guy behind the team running the whole show, and he also does a lot of the work on the ground. For instance, he is in charge of locking down all the musical acts – kind of a big job for this festival. He’s also involved in a lot of the setup work. But he doesn’t mind being right in the middle of everything.
“We’ve become kind of the defacto indie rock/basketball dudes, I guess,” Bonner said. “Rolling Stone wrote an article on my brother and referred to him literally as the NBA’s indie ambassador.”
That sounds pretty legit to us. Who knew that Spurs big man Matt Bonner was really into three-point shooting, awesome sandwiches and indie music?
On top of it all, both brothers emcee the entire event, so you’ll see them up on stage wearing capes and masks, playing with bags full of balloons and engaging in all-around tomfoolery. It will definitely be a rare sight that you really can’t afford to miss.
Despite the photo on the previous page, which shows Matt at a keyboard, neither Bonner is a trained musician.
“I don’t play, but I’m really good at listening to it,” Luke said. That’s not to say the guy doesn’t know anything about music – he used to volunteer at a radio station at UMass.
And although music is the main draw of the event, there’s plenty of other stuff, too.
The very first event associated with the Rock On Fest is the Rock On Eat & Greet Dinner, which will be Thursday evening at O Steaks & Seafood. This will be a night of world-class dining and beer pairings with Great North Aleworks, as well as just hanging out and having a good time. Unfortunately, it’s too late to get tickets for the dinner, but it’s not too late for anything else.
On Friday night, Rock On will partner with Red River Theatres for an outdoor movie night. At 8 p.m., there will be a screening of Down Down the Deep River, a production Bonner referred to as an extended music video. Spoiler alert: We looked up this movie and discovered one Luke Bonner in the acting credits. Not sure if it’s this Luke Bonner, but there’s probably a pretty good chance that it’s him.
After that, a slightly more well-known movie, Wayne’s World, will play, starting at 8:45. These showings will both be free to attend. When’s the last time you got to go to the movies for free? And were you even born when Wayne’s World was in the theaters? What an opportunity.
Saturday is when things really get cooking – that’s the day the actual music festival gets under way at White Park. The aforementioned events, though connected to the festival, are really complementary pieces to this main event.
Apart from all of the music (which you can read all about on the next page), there will be some cool activities mixed in throughout the day.
At noon, there will be a Lululemon Yoga Jam, in which anyone who wants to can get together for a big group yoga session. The first 120 attendees will walk out of there with a free yoga mat, so you’ll want to make sure you’re there nice and early.
The vendor village also opens at noon, at which point a feeding frenzy will surely begin. Since it will be a long day, local restaurants will be on hand to feed the masses. The food does cost money, but you should have plenty to spend since you get into the park for free.
At 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m., area high school basketball players will take the court for some hoops. This is a big chance to show off your skills in front of a big-time NBA star – so don’t blow it kids!
At 1, the Family Fun Zone opens up. This will be, well, a zone full of family fun. Bring the kids and enjoy some games and kids’ activities under the summer sun.
The festival will also feature some grant awards. Athletics grant winners will be announced at 4:45 and arts grant winners will be announced at 6.
The musical acts play pretty much everywhere in between all of these events, and the full music schedule is available on the next page.
Then, to cap off the night, there will be an Atlas fireworks show at 9:15. And you thought fireworks were over for the summer. . . .
All in all, it’s gearing up to be one of the more memorable events of the summer for the capital city.
And if you think this schedule sounds jam-packed, just wait. Bonner said he could see the festival potentially expanding to a whole weekend, meaning bands would play all day over multiple days. That’s still to be worked out, though.
In the meantime, they’ve got something pretty good as is, so it’s worth checking out if you’re around.
If you didn’t catch this part before, we’ll remind you again: Rock On Fest is free and open to everyone, so there’s no need to buy tickets or anything like that. Just show up at White Park on Friday night for the movies and Saturday for the music and have a rockin’ good time.
