About
The Hudson Music Festival is New York State’s largest free three-day music festival.
The City of Hudson is located in Columbia County, New York with a population of about 6,700 people, and situated on the east bank of the Hudson River. It is conveniently located about 110 miles north of New York City, 160 miles west of Boston, and about 40 miles south of Albany.
Hudson has the highest self-employment rate in New York state .
Hudson is “Upstate’s Downtown” with over 25 art galleries, over 45 antique stores, over 50 restaurants and bars, and hundreds of unique places to shop.
The City of Hudson, lively and friendly, day and night. Twenty-eight art galleries, vibrant music and performance venues, gourmet and casual restaurants, forty-six antique stores, and more, make “upstate’s downtown” the perfect destination. A delight to explore, Hudson’s business district, Warren Street, is nine walkable blocks of preserved Federalist to Victorian architecture, much of it in the National Register of Historic Places. Henry Hudson Riverfront Park and Promenade Hill sits along the Hudson River and both within walking distance from Warren Street, offer incredible views of the Catskills, and the beautiful rural vistas of Columbia County are only minutes away. Between the Berkshires and the Catskills in beautiful Columbia County, two hours north of New York City, three hours from Boston, and easily accessible by car or train, you’ll want to return again and again.
For more information
Hudson www.cityofhudson.org www.hudsonfirst.com.
Columbia County www.columbiacountytourism.org www.columbiachamber-ny.com
Hudson Restaurant listings http://hudsonfirst.com/2013site/food-in-hudson/
Area Lodging www.stayinhudson.net www.hudsonarealodging.com www.columbiacountylodging.com
More about Hudson’s Art scene www.artinhudson.org
Map & Directions
2013 Hudson Music Festival Highlights:
Helsinki Band Camp (ongoing) – The Helsinki Band Camp is a five-week summer program directed by school music teacher Scott Vorwald for local middle school music students. The host of the camp is Helsinki Hudson, a Hudson music venue and restaurant, they provide free space and meals for the three weekly practice sessions. At the end of “camp” the students perform on the stage at Helsinki during the Hudson Music Festival, and march in the Hudson Black Arts & Cultural Festival parade.
Musician Mentor Program (ongoing) – We ask all musicians who sign-up if they would like to be available as mentors to local Hudson Valley music students.
The Press House (2013) – The Press House www.thepresshouse.com is a NYC based publicity and media company. They provided talent that we showcased at our Seventh Street Park tented stage.
The Hudson Music Festival of Quebec, Canada (ongoing) – 2013 was a first year collaboration with the Hudson Music Festival in Hudson, Quebec http://hudsonmusicfestival.ca/. This year will be their eighth annual festival that traditionally takes place at the beginning of August. For this first collaboration we traded acts to perform at each others’ festival. We will be doing this again in 2014 and hope to enlarge with more participating acts. American act Chris & Lolly http://chrisandlolly.com/ on their Canadian performance “We were offered the opportunity to represent the Hudson Music Festival/New York at the Hudson Music Festival/Quebec this past year. We were so honored to be the first music act to take part in an artist swap between the two “Hudson” cities and our experience was nothing short of extraordinary. The local music scene in Quebec was alive and vibrant with all sorts of eclectic musicians and singers of all ages. After touring across the USA for the first half of 2013, we certainly sold more CD’s in two shows in that year combined! The beauty of Canada as well as the warm hospitality and delightful French Canadian cuisine was sure something we won’t soon forget. We look forward to reuniting with the new friends we made and of course retuning to see our old friends back in Hudson, NY”.
Mobile App for Smart Phones (ongoing) – In 2013 we created our first mobile app with CrowdTorch www.crowdtorch.com, a leader in the festival mobile app business. This is, to this best of our knowledge, the first and currently only mobile app locally that profiles businesses, organizations and governments of both City of Hudson and Columbia County. For a festival of our size, a mobile app is an important tool to help the festival goer identify acts they would like to see and hear, when and where. For the musical act, it is an asset that they can use to promote themselves. For many businesses this may be their first opportunity to expand into the mobile app marketplace. As a public service, we list all of Hudson’s food and beverage businesses. Also, research shows that users of the app are more likely to honor the services of sponsors.
Dreamland Studios – Is a Woodstock based recording studio www.dreamlandrecording.com that provided a vastly reduced one-day recording session to one festival participating act. We awarded this session in lottery form to acts that had applied for this award. This was a new collaboration that we look forward to bringing back in 2014.
O+ Festival (ongoing) – This is a three-day, community-run celebration of music, arts and wellness. O+ participating artists exchange their contributions for health and wellness services from art-loving doctors, dentists, and other medical providers at the O+ Pop-up Clinic during the festival. www.opositivefestival.org 2013 was our first collaboration. They set-up an Info tent and had scheduled free “Gong Baths” at the Parc Park across from the Opera House. We look forward to working together again in 2014.
Hudson Black Arts & Cultural Festival – is our primary collaborating organization. We promote their festival events on our website and mobile app. www.operationuniteny.com
Club Helsinki gives us a full evening access to their indoor stage and provides an additional stage that is placed in their courtyard during the weekend. www.helsinkihudson.com
