Ian Hunter Rounds Out Beautiful Day at Pleasantville Music Festival

It didn’t matter whether the crowds came for the music, the sunshine, the food or to be with friends and neighbors, the Pleasantville Music Festival had something for everybody on Saturday.

“I come every year,” said Mount Pleasant resident Ilana Marcus while enjoying the comfortably warm temperatures in mid afternoon. “I love local music and it’s a great community event. It’s just a fun, nice place.”

While spectators certainly did their share of sunbathing, eating, drinking and schmoozing, many were there for, of course, the music.

From the time that Cold Stone Fox stepped out onto the Village Stage in the early afternoon until Ian Hunter and the Rant Band closed the show before an adoring crowd with an encore on the Main Stage that included Hunter’s 1972 breakthrough hit “All the Young Dudes” and an abbreviated version of “Goodnight Irene,” the festival featured 13 bands generating eight-and-a-half hours of nearly continuous music on two stages.

A small army of about 125 volunteers once again helped make the village-run event possible. It also didn’t hurt that for the 10th consecutive year the weather cooperated.

With temperatures in the low 80s, the festival’s executive director, Sol Skolnick, said there couldn’t have been better conditions or a better planning effort to transform Parkway Field into a concert venue.

“We just got a lot of positive energy because we made this about the 10th anniversary, it’s a volunteer-driven event with good support from local businesses and everybody else,” Skolnick said. “We think of this as a little miracle, quite frankly. Once a year we turn this into a wonderful field of music and then it returns to being Pleasantville.”

The performers were just as appreciative of the spectators’ enthusiasm as the crowd was of the musicians.

“This is a great little festival,” said Bradley Wegner, the bassist for the first Main Stage band Leroy Justice, who stayed to take in the remainder of the program. “It’s a good time, you know. I’ve got friends here with family coming out and all that. A little rock ‘n’ roll and country and folk and bouncy castles. It’s a good time.”

Amy Driver, lead singer for the British band Scars on 45, which made its second Pleasantville Music Festival appearance, said the group loves touring America because they’re made to feel welcome. Pleasantville is at the top of their favorite list of venues.

“The whole event, the food, the people, the music, the bands, the radio station, it’s very close to our heart,” Driver said. “So if any time they want us back, we’ll come back with open arms.”

Mike Masters and Diana Jones of Katonah, who attended their seventh consecutive festival, said they were looking forward to seeing Augustana and Scars on 45 perform. They were also intrigued by Amy Helm, the daughter of the late famed rock drummer Levon Helm. Those three acts appeared consecutively on the Main Stage before Hunter.

Meanwhile, they brought the 25th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit to play between performances.

“I like to keep my brain active,” Jones said. “I don’t want to be completely idle.”

Tarrytown resident Russell Geary, who came to his fourth straight festival, said he wasn’t familiar with any of the bands but that didn’t stop him from attending, especially when you had a beautiful summer afternoon to sit outdoors.

“It’s a great day out,” he said. “They run it really well. It’s peaceful, it’s very Westchestery and I just love it.”

The only drawback for Geary was that it appeared that there weren’t as many people who attended compared to previous years. He said that he was certain that price was an issue, with the ticket going up to $50 this year.

Pleasantville Mayor Peter Scherer said while he believes the cost represents good value he understands why some people might be hesitant to splurge. But booking a full day of quality bands is expensive and is “a hurly, burly business that changes every 10 minutes.”

“The $50 ticket price is a pretty good value for 13 bands for somebody who wants to come and see 13 bands,” Scherer said.”But there’s also some pushback from people who think, ‘Gosh, that’s a lot of money,’ especially if you only want to come for part of the day. We’re trying to make it as affordable as we can, have a nice day, a nice vibe for the village.”

Still, the growing reach and good publicity the festival generates for the village is definitely a plus, he said.

“I take pride in the fact that this village of 7,000 people takes on some ambitious things,” Scherer said. “This is one of them.”