Beach Road Weekend “350” brings three nights of live music to Martha’s Vineyard July 23 - 25. The music festival launched in 2019, but had to be postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now the festival has been reimagined to celebrate the 350th Anniversary of the founding of the Town of Tisbury, with three live shows in July offering an extremely limited capacity, socially distanced box seating configuration. Members of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Tedeschi Trucks Band will perform Saturday, July 24, 2021 6:00 PM at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven. The special early show time will allow concertgoers to return to the mainland at the end of the concert. Additional shows are in the works for that weekend. Additional bands and ticketing information will be announced at a later date.
Beach Road Weekend “350” is produced by the Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series with support from Innovation Arts & Entertainment. All profits from the event will go towards supporting the Friends of the MV Concert Series, an island based non-profit organization set up to support and enhance the live music landscape on Martha’s Vineyard. Tickets for Tedeschi Trucks live at Beach Road Weekend will be available Friday, April 30 at beachroadweekend.com.
“The pandemic has presented the first existential threat of our lifetime for the live entertainment, hospitality and tourism industries. The Vineyard has been no stranger to the damage that has occurred,” said Adam Epstein, President and CEO of Innovations Arts and Entertainment. “These shows are a first step towards safely welcoming music lovers back to the Vineyard and building a model where live entertainment can thrive once again.”
Innovation Arts and Entertainment has spent the last 14 months leading the music industry’s efforts to create Covid-safe environments for live entertainment, and is committed to meeting the highest COVID safety and public health standards. “The experience we earned in 2020 by hosting over 40 concerts and 60,000 ticketbuyers at the Yarmouth Drive-In on Cape Cod provided a crash course in how to get fans and bands together in a safe way, while designing and employing best practices at building Covid safety compliant venues. We are extremely proud of the work we did last summer and continue to this day. We know what it takes to bring live music back safely to Martha’s Vineyard. We can’t wait to do it and help the Town of Tisbury celebrate its 350th Anniversary!”
Normally hosting over 9000 people per day, Beach Road Weekend 350 will limit the number of tickets available based on COVID guidelines set forth by the state and local health department. Capacity will be restricted to under 2000 people per show.
All tickets will be separated into socially distanced box seating, small sections roped off in groups of four or more and separated from other guests. Ticket buyers must purchase every seat in the box. Guests will be able to order food and drinks online, and pick up items through the contactless delivery system. All tickets and concession sales will be digital, and all sales will be cashless.
Embracing improvisation over convention, the collective is adept at exploring almost any musical territory, and paying homage to an extensive canon of influences. The genuine respect within its ranks is evident on stage. Trucks’ masterful guitar skills and Tedeschi’s soaring vocals and bluesy guitar shine but don’t overpower the breadth of talent, happily yielding the spotlight as needed in service of what the song deserves.
As circumstances currently prevent the 12-piece ensemble from touring safely, the group returns as Tedeschi Trucks as a nod to their band members back at home. With 4-8 band members slated to appear, these Fireside Live special shows were inspired by their very successful at-home online performance series from earlier this year. Anytime, anywhere this musical family gathers is an opportunity to witness something rare, deep and powerful.
Beach Road Weekend 350 will return Saturday, July 24, 2021 with Tedeschi Trucks live in concert at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven. Tickets will be available Friday, April 30 at beachroadweekend.com.
