Green music festival set for July 18

Revelers at last year's Mystic River Music Festival for Green Awareness.

By Travis Andersen
Town Correspondent

Get your green on, Medford.

The second annual Mystic River Music Festival for Green Awareness is scheduled for Saturday, July 18 at the Condon Shell on Route 16, featuring eco-friendly businesses, green activists, and a lineup of local musicians.

"The whole thing is just a fun community event," said Brian Lamb, founder and organizer of the festival.

Lamb wanted to launch a festival on the site about four years ago, but he had trouble securing permits from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. Things changed last year, when the city took possession of the area.

"Mayor [Michael] McGlynn has been just extremely open to anything we wanted to do," said Lamb. "He's been super to us."

About 600 area residents attended last year's festival, and Lamb expects even more this year. Several green vendors will set up booths, and official sponsor Whole Foods will go the extra mile with an organic grilling station.

One of the meanest, greenest chains in the supermarket industry, Whole Foods is sponsoring the festival for the second consecutive year with 92.9 WBOS, a rock radio station.

"We just pitched them the event, and it made perfect sense to both of their business models," Lamb said. "Both have a green element to their businesses but also like the music and arts element, too."

In addition, the Peak Organic Brewing Company will have the hops in the festival's organic beer and wine garden. Peak founder Jon Cadoux gave Lamb and his team plaudits in a recent interview.

"They've done a phenomenal job of raising awareness of great local options for food and drink," said Cadoux. "That's kind of what we're all about."

In between draughts and jams, festival goers will hear presentations from three environmental groups - the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, Mystic River Watershed Association, and Ocean River Institute.

The seven live acts are fixtures on the Medford music scene, which Lamb knows quite well. He plays in a local outfit, and bandmates Gus Serino and Mike Reardon helped him launch the festival.

"We've seen the music community make a move from Cambridge and Somerville out here to Medford," said Lamb, who moved to the city from Malden seven years ago. He noted that every band on the bill has at least one or two Medford residents.

The scheduled acts are Adrian Emberley; Creepy Jones; Go Dog Go; Guillermo Ortiz; Jenny Dee and the Delinquents; The Sea Monsters; and The Well.

"Last year went superbly," Lamb said. "And this year will be even better."

The Mystic River Music Festival For Green Awareness is scheduled for Saturday, July 18 from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Guillermo Ortiz's performance had this family up and dancing at last year's festival.