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Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, or maybe King Crimson rising from Robert Fripp‘s mind, NEARFEST, the venerable progressive rock festival, will return in 2012 after cancelling the 2011 show due to poor ticket sales. With the original founders back at the helm, look for the festival to return to it’s mix of vintage prog acts and exciting, sometimes experimental new comers. If you need a little progressive rock fix, tune in to Echoes tonight where we’ll be playing Looooongg Tracks including progressive rock epics from Mike Oldfield, Tangerine Dream, David Bedford, Ash Ra Tempel, and Jade Warrior.
John Diliberto ((( echoes )))
Official NEARfest Press Release
October 12, 2011
NEARFEST TO RETURN IN 2012
We are very happy to announce that the North East Art Rock Festival will return in 2012. Over the last several months, we have thoroughly discussed what it would take for another edition of NEARfest to become a reality. This was new ground for us, so we took our time, had long, heart-felt conversations, and even put feelers out to bands we thought would make for a solid lineup – one worthy of NEARfest’s legacy and, more importantly, the expectations of the progressive rock community whom has been so unbelievable supportive over the years.
Scheduled for June 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2012, NEARfest will once again be staged in beautiful Baker Hall at Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem, PA. We are very happy to be able to continue wonderful relationships with both the concert venue and the host hotel, the Comfort Suites Bethlehem. We will also once again be join forces with the Bethlehem Brew Works to create a delicious one-off beer for NEARfest weekend.
So now the question is: “Who will be playing?!” Well, we can’t tell you quite yet, though we are working on finalizing the lineup as we speak. We are also working on some other cool ideas for the weekend’s festivities. Once we have o’s umlauted and eyes crossed, we will reveal the bands… and not before. So you still have time to debate who might be playing.
We are glad to be able to bring NEARfest back and we hope you will join us next June. As always, be sure to visit us online at www.nearfest.com for all the latest information and where you can join our Yahoo mailing list, mingle with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and participate in the discussion forum.
Stay tuned for further updates!
Very sincerely,
Chad Hutchinson
Rob LaDuca
Kevin Feeley
Can you get Tangerine Dream to the 2012 Nearfest? They are playing at this years Moogfest. Or maybe Steve Roach?
I’m not sure they could afford it. T. Dream is either playing a 2500 seat or 7500 seat venue in Asheville. Way beyond Zoellner’s 1000. But it’s a good idea worth pursuing.