It takes more than music to make a festival. Take the legendary Woodstock, there where 45 years later the three days of peace and music are known just as much for the culture surrounding the 400,000 festivalgoers, filled with hippies and art, as the musicians entertaining them. Like Woodstock, the Hudson Project was held on a farm in Upstate New York. In fact, the festival marked the reopening of Winston Farm, which was last active 20 years ago as the site of Woodstock ’94.
Also like Woodstock, the Hudson Project boasted a lineup with dozens of artists- more than 85 across 5 stages- creating an interesting mix of analog artists, electronic hotshots and some intrepid up-and-comers who split the difference. However, good music on it’s own does not a festival make. Through arguably disreputable organization, questionable security and a failure to provide for both the safety and the comfort of their patrons during a weather catastrophe on the third day, the Hudson Project was proof that festival production is an art, and one not easily mastered. Here’s our report card for the festival:
Toni’s Overall Grade: B+
George’s Overall Grade: C-
The Music: A
MCP Presents, the same production company that previously held Camp Bisco annually, put on Hudson Project. MCP productions had the bold goal with Hudson to bridge the gap between more traditional festival indie music and EDM, something its predecessor Camp Bisco never quite managed to accomplish in previous years. It was easy to see much of the same DNA here. Bisco mainstay Bassnectar was wisely booked for Sunday, while other previous participants including Big Gigantic, Emancipator, Four Tet and STS9 were also booked. However, the promoters went out of their way to make sure this wouldn’t just be a retread of familiar ground. A focus on indie groups like Modest Mouse and hip-hop acts like Kendrick Lamar gave the whole thing a fresh feel.
There was also a progressive bent in many of the bookings. Electronic fusion bands like Bonobo, The Floozies and Griz showed festival goers a more intelligent side of the genre, while acts like Moon Hooch, a three-piece from New York made up of two saxophones and a drummer, blended the structure of dance music with more traditional instruments. For EDM fans tired of the same old big room house, the lineup was a homerun.
Hudson Project started Friday off with a set from Lettuce, the Boston-made funk legends. They played a high energy set filled with impressive trumpet and guitar solos. Even though the group was missing a bass player for the first half of the set, the upbeat funk kept everyone on their feet.
Modest Mouse was another highlight from Friday night, playing a set with only one distinguishable original member of the band, lead singer Isaac Brock. Even so, the group killed it weaving through intense songs like “Satin in a Coffin” and “Dramamine.” Late in the set Brock told the crowd to “look behind you,” to which everyone found a full moon at sunset.
The Flaming Lips headlined Friday night. I’m still processing what I saw here, but imagine a man in a silver shag overcoat with dancing giant mushrooms dancing on top of the crowd inside a clear plastic ball. That about sums it up. Unfortunately, the Lips had to end their set early due to a medical emergency in the crowd, an event that Coyne apologized for.
Flying Lotus finished the day off in top form. The legendary producer started slow with some experimental sounds before exploding into a series of wild hip-hop tracks. He played curiously little of his own material, instead choosing to play with others’ tracks – everything from Mike Will Made It to Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse.” However, as the sonic genius that he is, FlyLo managed to tweak and twist each track to get the exact audience reaction he wanted. It was drop after powerful drop and the crowd ate it up.
Day 2 was damn near perfect. ZZ Ward started things off with some spectacular throwback blues. The much buzzed about singer strutted about the stage like she owned it, belting out amazing tunes and fostering lots of interaction from a crowd that for the most part didn’t seem familiar with her. The biggest testament of the magnetism of the set was that the crowd nearly doubled throughout it’s hour length – passers by just couldn’t resist the quality. Ward’s enthralling presence and quality tunes marked her as one of the day’s surprise highlights and a true act to watch for.
Following this, !!! threw down a danceable, high-energy set while future funk group Exmag brought the sexy in a big way. Flatbush Zombies then played an aggressive but impressive midday set – easily one of the hip-hop highlights of the festival. Near sundown, UK trip-hop legend Bonobo put on a joyous set, laying down spiritual tunes with a full band and singer.
For many, Big Gigantic’s show was their favorite of the weekend. The sax-centric duo threw down an unrelenting set, peaking about halfway through when the heavens opened up. The heavy rain made the set a true experience – a soaked celebration with easily the biggest crowd of the weekend, all tied together with a fireworks display. Though many people would go back to camp to find their stuff soaked, I think all would agree, it was worth it for that set.
After this Jon Hopkins played an entrancing electronica set, while Kendrick Lamar took the mainstage for a surprisingly sparsely populated set. He went through the paces with tracks off of Good Kid M.A.A.D. City and a few of his features such as “Fuckin Problems.” He sounded good, though it was disappointing he didn’t bring his full live band.
The morning of Day 3 was filled with one thing and one thing only: funk. Boston-based Bad Rabbits kicked off the day with their soulful, energy-packed funk rock. The group declared, “the objective in life is to dance,” and by golly it would be hard to deny them that. Funktapuss was next on the bill and kept things funky with powerful vocals and guitar solos. Keeping the theme going, The Soul Rebels played later in the day, a New Orleans brass band that played cover songs. The set included covers of “I Can’t Go For That,” “Hard Knock Life,” and salacious trombone solos that made for an exciting way to end the day pre-evacuation (but more on that later).
Hudson Project, if nothing else, proved the relevance and flair of the saxophone. Big Gigantic, Griz, Moon Hooch, Funktapuss, the list goes on and on. Keep it saxy, New York.
In summation: With a broad spectrum of music represented, Hudson Project gave festival goers exactly what they wanted. Nearly every artist brought their A-game and every fan could feel it.
The Food: A-
Burritos, burritos everywhere! The festival did a great job supplying reasonably priced, varied food options. The menus ranged wildly from BBQ to donuts to Thai to farm fresh produce. Food was, by festival standards, fairly priced, and vendors were for the most part friendly. Despite one particularly strange experience I witnessed where the woman selling a wrap refused to actually wrap the damn thing up, eating was an effortless and enjoyable part of the fest.
Activities and Amenities: B
There were tons of fun events at the festival besides music. Each morning there were great offerings, including Kung Fu, Tai Chi and lots and lots of yoga. On Sunday, MCP also made the wide decision to screen the World Cup final in one of their smaller tents. Yeah, there were plenty of snide remarks amounting to “why even bother coming to a festival if you’re just going to watch a game?” but the people who attended loved it.
There was only one teensie problem with all of this. There was little to no promotion surrounding these great sidebar events. No one really understood what the giant white tent in the middle of the festival grounds was for. The only way anyone would know about these activities is if they drunkenly stumbled there by accident.
Hudson also offered guest access to showers, cell phone charging stations and lockers. One problem – they were all ridiculously expensive. Showers cost $6 a wash, and access to spigots in campsites was monitored to limit the ways you could clean yourself. A charging pass was $25 for the weekend while a small locker would set you back a whopping $60. I get it – there’s limited availability for these things, but it really did just feel like blatant nickel-and-diming.
That said, the festival offered two great things for free – filtered water and iced coffee. Keurig’s promotion gave any guest willing to wait unlimited access to caffeinated goodness – a real lifesaver. The water was incredibly admirable. Illness (and death) at festivals is nearly always due to dehydration, so placing these great filling stations throughout the venue felt like the fest’s true progressive step.
Site Coordination/Staff and Security:
George’s Grade: D
While the safety of patrons is unquestionably the most important concern for a festival, an overzealous or wrongly concerned security team can destroy a mood and even put patrons at risk. Hudson’s force fell into the latter category.
On Thursday night, security bag checks at the South Gate had only four checkers open, two of which closed down at one point. This resulted in a five hour wait for guests to get into the campground and get some sleep (it was sunrise by the time we set up). That meant five hours in a crowded field without access to water or bathrooms while carrying tents, coolers, and whatever else people planned to bring in. Beyond poor logistical foreplanning, this bordered on mistreatment of patrons.
Security on the inside was inconsistent and generally sirly. Depending on when you entered the venue area, you could get a five second glance or a few minute exploration of every one of your bag’s nooks and crannies. While there was a small security presence inside the actual venue (which notably allowed a couple of fights to break out), teams seemed more interested in patrolling campsites and trying to make any possible bust. Intimidation was the name of the game, with security and cops coming through on ATVs and horses. While dealers should absolutely be kept out of these events, arrest listings for the weekend show that almost all of them were for either marijuana or personal amounts of other substance. Small scale busts seemed like an overall poor use of resources and an unreasonable reason to treat guests- especially those of us with nothing to hide- as guilty until proven innocent.
A lazy and thoughtless attitude could be seen through the festival’s staff, too. While quite a few staff members were upbeat and genuinely helpful, many others didn’t seem remotely concerned or informed. During some confusion on Sunday over a lineup change, I talked to five different informational staff members before I someone had any idea what was going on.
Then Sunday happened. As many will have heard, dangerous thunderstorms caused most of the music on Day 3 to be cancelled. We can’t blame MCP for this, but we can certainly blame them for the sloppy handling. After evacuating the venue area, staff waited until after the rain had started to tell people to go to their vehicles. Over the next couple of hours, their social media sites remained adamant that acts would continue and that we all still had a great day ahead.
They continued this upbeat nonsense until literally 15 minutes before they cancelled everything, and then promptly sent staff to tell those at campsites, in slightly kinder words but about the same tone, “get the fuck off the property.” Sending 20,000 people who had been drinking (among other vices) to cars, what could possibly go wrong with that plan? While an hour later they sent out a message ever-so-kindly allowing people to stay and sober up, the implication was clear – they were no longer there to take care of you.
We thankfully got out early, but those who waited received some serious mistreatment. Water access was cut off to campsites, and while MCP told everyone they would deliver food and drink, it reportedly took until morning for them to bring some expired juice bottles.
Those trying to get their cars out of the mud were at the mercy of the onsite tow company who would only give you a hand for a bribe. MCP actively blocked both AAA and locals who wanted to help from entering the campsite. By late Monday there were still thousands of cars and even more downtrodden campers on the premises, just waiting for someone to give them a hand.
Toni’s Grade: C+
Security can make or break a festival. Everyone is trying to sneak something in, even if it’s just food, and the festival is battling that to keep things safe. The security at Hudson was, uh, inconsistent.
At times security would let me waltz right in without a care in the world. Other times, security would take every little dollar and coin out of my wallet and scour my belongings for minutes on end. I’m all for keeping people safe, really, but the inconsistencies caused occasional unnecessary lines to get in.
There was police presence on the grounds, which is standard at music festivals. I felt it was pleasant and effective that police forces were generally confined to the campgrounds and entrances, where the most drugs could be confiscated. There were dozens of arrests made at the festival based on drug-related charges, including 6 felonies. Inside the festival grounds, security and police were kept to a minimum, meaning festivalgoers could relax and enjoy what they came for: the music.
Frankly,site coordination this was a joke on Thursday night. It took some people over five hours of standing in a crowded line holding tents, coolers, bags, and whatever else it takes to live for three days at a festival. There were about four people working to check in the thousands of campers that arrived. It was haphazard and unorganized; though to Hudson’s credit the situation was resolved by Friday morning. It also could have been worse. Last year at both Firefly and Camp Bisco, among other festivals, there was upwards of 9 hours of traffic leading into the sites’ parking. At Hudson, there were no reported traffic issues getting to the lots.
Leaving after the rain on Sunday night and Monday morning was another story. George summed this mess of a situation up nicely. This situation is really the reason behind the low grade – putting patrons of the festival in danger to, well, try to avoid putting the patrons in danger. This was unacceptable and an event that MCP should have been well-prepared for in advance. Rain is always a threat. Take Governor’s Ball 2013, where heavy wind and rain caused the first day of the festival to end early. Cars were stuck in the mud and acts were forced to be canceled, but the festival employees remained helpful and patient with its patrons through the madness. With all that said, MCP is offering a discount for one day of the festivities that attendees can access here.
Conclusion
There was a lot to love at the Hudson Project. Musically, it was one of the most genre-bending and edifying experiences of the last year, and it offered a lot to set itself apart from similar Northeast festivals. However, MCP’s questionable handling of the fledgling fest throws into question whether it will (or in George’s opinion arguably should) have a second year. There were the seeds of something truly great at Hudson, and it would be great to see it live up to its potential in the coming years. This will, however, take a significant change in attitude from its producers. With better planning and a careful consideration of this year’s mistakes, Hudson may eventually become not just a worthy successor to Camp Bisco but an important part of the East Coast festival circuit.