Letter to the Editor: Celebrating Pete Seeger Was a Joy for Musicians and Festival-Goers
On Sunday, May 2, more than 200 people attended the fifth annual Pete Seeger Festival, a concert at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center in Putnam Valley to celebrate what would have been Pete Seeger’s 102nd birthday. The free, family-friendly event was held outdoors on the lawn, with COVID-19 guidelines in place.
Pete and his wife, Toshi, and their family lived in Beacon from 1952 until Toshi’s death in 2013 and Pete’s passing in 2014.
Most of the musicians who sang and played were Pete’s friends who performed with him and sailed with him on the sloops Clearwater and Woody Guthrie and worked with him at the Beacon Sloop Club. In addition to singing Pete’s songs and their own, they reminisced about the man who inspired so many people in the course of his 94 years.
After a year’s confinement and isolation, people were so thrilled to be able to get out and enjoy the music and each other’s company. And thanks to the generosity of the concert-goers, we are able to make sizable donations to Clearwater, the Beacon Sloop Club and River Pool at Beacon, the three organizations that Pete founded and nurtured.
We will be presenting many more outdoor events throughout the spring and summer and the listing can be found on our website, www.tompkinscorners.org. We look forward to welcoming our community back to celebrate and enjoy the visual and performing arts that are such an important and necessary part of our lives.
Judy Allen
Linda Thornton
Producers
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