GENEVA — A new concert series with roots in Geneva and plans to extend to destinations abroad launches this weekend.
The first performance in the series being called Ponte Gatherings will be held Sunday at 4 p.m. at The North Farm off Route 14 on the northwest side of Seneca Lake.
Ponte Gatherings said it is offering “a curated music and arts gathering … designed to feel intimate, welcoming, and artistically intentional.” It invites people to “experience, stay, and connect.”
“The North Farm is a beautiful property stewarded by Sophie Paillard-Elkin and her family for decades,” said John Manion, an organizer of the event series and part of the Ponte Collective. “Matt Elkin (DJ Haggard) is a vinyl DJ and very in tune with the music scene. He’s a big part of the Grassroots Festival.”
The North Farm venue is intimate, with just 250 seats available. Tickets can be pre-purchased or bought at the door the day of the event.
The Oven by Club 86 will be serving food for the concert series, a limited bar will be available at the venue, and Sprinkle Starship Ice Cream Truck will provide the sweets.
Kids are admitted for free and can participate in on-site creative workshops or enjoy the performances.
Sunday’s launch will feature performances by Kajuneji and Wovenhome. Organizers expect the event to last until 8 p.m. The North Farm’s DJ Haggard will be spinning vinyl in between the live music.
Kajuneji and Wovenhome are genre-blending masters. Kajuneji brings a playful mix of jazz infused soul, funk, rock and world music stylings, whereas Wovenhome leans toward a blend of Afro Latin, American folk, and hip-hop styles. The band incorporates an eclectic mix of western folk and rock instruments plus self-made folk instruments.
The second Ponte Gatherings concert on Sept. 19 features Sugar Bomb, a trio from Asheville, S.C., and Colors Do Som with DJ Haggard.
On Oct. 17, the Ric Robertson Trio and Calya & The Coy Dogs take the stage.
The event series is organized by the Ponte Collective, a group of musicians, artists, organizers, and collaborators who first began working together to build Geneva’s music scene for artists and patrons alike. It has grown to include musical groups and musicians from other states, as well as from Brazil.
Manion said the collective is actively bringing bands from other states and countries to Geneva, with the idea being to create a bridge so that Geneva-area bands and artists in the collective can coordinate performances in other states and abroad. The word Ponte means bridge in Portuguese.
“My long-term goal is to create events here in Geneva area and hopefully eventually bring some Brazilian, Latin American bands up here and vice versa, send them down to Brazil to do events down there,” Manion said.