Frederick Gazette
by Tripp Laino
Volunteer’s efforts made event possible; organizers hope to make it annual.
Brunswick’s Music Fest played host to about 400 people last weekend, bringing in music lovers from both Frederick County and states as far as North Carolina, according to Patrick Kay, executive director of Brunswick’s Main Street Association.
And though getting from the planning stage to the playing stage required the efforts of many people, the idea might have never moved forward had it not been for the efforts of Hanna Politis, co-owner of Beans in the Belfry and the music director for the coffee shop.
Brunswick had played host for the Frederick Blues Festival in 2008, and Kay said people in the city were clamoring for a repeat of the event last year, even though it never happened.
“When I first got here in 2009 during the summer season, I got several phone calls from people saying ‘When’s the blues fest? We had a great time at the last blues fest, when’s the next one?’” Kay said.
Kay said Politis applied for a grant from the Tourism Reinvestment in Promotion and Product Program, a fund generated by hotel tax revenues in Frederick County to spur tourism. The program provided $7,000 for the festival, but it wouldn’t have happened without Politis’ application.
“We were looking for a person who would spearhead it and I was excited about it, and I thought I could do it,” Politis said. “I’ve booked the events at Beans. … Over the five years at Beans, I had become confident of what I can do.”
Her years of booking music for the coffee shop also provided her with some beneficial contacts in putting together the concert. Carl Disque, who had performed at the café, founded the Western Maryland Bluesfest, and helped her write the grant application.
She also knew Cheryl Mansley, the director of RiverHouse Music, a series of concerts in Shepherdstown, W.Va., who was hired to book the bands for Music Fest from performances in the coffee shop.
Mansley also provided input to the festival’s organizers on various aspects of the event, as she has experience in these types of events. Politis said the scale of the event presented a different set of challenges than other music bookings she’d been involved with.
“It’s quite a difference to do a big event versus a venue where you come to have a meal and listen to the music,” she said. “It’s hugely different for promotion and distribution. Because it was the first time, to convey the vision, to get people excited [was tough].”
As for the future of the music festival, now that the first year is done, the town is in a better position to hold the event in the future, if the Main Street Association opts to hold the festival again.
“We’ve covered all of the expenses with sponsorships and the grant,” Politis said. “The ticket sales money will be invested in next year’s music, and I know we will get more sponsors. We can show a track record, we have had one [event]. It’s easier for companies to invest. They can see if you have it done once, they have more confidence in you.”
And though the driving force bringing people out was to hear music, organizers hoped that people might spend some time at the shops and restaurants in Brunswick as well, a goal Politis said was achieved.
“I saw plenty of people go into town,” Politis said. “That’s what we wanted to achieve as well, that they’d go into town and up and down and see the historic downtown and do a little shopping. I saw people go into the local restaurants as well.”
E-mail Tripp Laino at tlaino@gazette.net.