To most people Labor Day weekend signals that the summer is over, but to quite a few people in New England, it means that it’s time for an annual Mardi Gras style celebration, where thousands of people from all over the United States gather in Rhode Island every year to listen to a wide spectrum of roots music, dance to a variety of rhythms, and savor gourmet food and drink in a truly festive setting with four stages of music.
The Mohegan Sun Main Stage features a wide variety of musical styles such as Zydeco, Cajun, blues, New Orleans R&B, swing, Americana, folk and roots music. See our website for performance schedules.
A 4,000 square foot dance floor adjacent to the Mohegan Sun Main Stage and a second dance floor located in the Red Hook Dance Pavilion—featuring daytime lessons in the basics of jitterbugs, two-steps, and waltzes as well as zydeco dance styles—are popular attractions at Rhythm & Roots. The late night “fais do do” dances held at the Dance Pavilion area always filled to overflowing and pumping ‘til the last note of the night.
For a more intimate and relaxed atmosphere, there’s the Rounder Workshop Tent, where traditional boundaries between the performer and the audience disappear as cultural educational pursuits step to the forefront. Offering a rare opportunity, unusual combinations of artists take questions, demonstrate their talents, and interact with each other and festival patrons.
Children and their parents gather at the Family Stage to be entertained by musicians and storytellers, to participate in creative workshops, and to take part in a Mardi Gras style parade each day through the Main Stage crowd, led by the Hot Tamale Brass Band. Each evening family movies are shown in the tent to help the little ones settle in for the night and to keep the teenagers entertained. There’s also a family dance workshop for future Cajun and Zydeco enthusiasts.
With its successful debut last year, the Cajun Fiddle Academy is back for kids between 8 and 17 — led by Magnolia's Michelle Kaminsky on Saturday and Sunday. The focus is on traditional Cajun style fiddle, guitar and accordion. Students will perform at the festival on Sunday with their teachers. Advance registration is required and can be done on the website (www.rhythmandroots.com).
Held each year at beautiful Ninigret Park in the oceanside community of Charlestown, RI, the Rhythm & Roots Festival draws approximately 10,000 people over the course of the weekend with the largest percentage of attendees coming from New England and the east coast corridor between Boston and New York, and about one third of the festival attendees from other parts of the country. An attraction for the whole family, the festival also has a state of the art playground, swimming pond and four stages which offer plenty to do for everyone.
In addition to all the great entertainment, Rhythm & Roots is renowned for bringing in some of the best food vendors to be found at any festival in the country. Vendors offer a variety of delicacies ranging from Cajun & Creole cuisine to southern style barbecue, Greek, and Middle Eastern foods, vegetarian, dishes and fresh native seafood along with beer, wine, and an assortment of other beverages plus an array of New Orleans style pastries, desserts, and fresh ground coffees including espresso and cappuccino. The merchant area offers top quality vendors specializing in hard to find CDs and recordings, authentic handcrafted musical instruments, fine custom jewelry, clothing and other festive items.
Critics have been quoted as saying that, “Rhythm & Roots is an incredible experience, a perfectly organized, flawlessly run major destination event that music fans from all over the country will be drawn to...” So, if you’re looking to “let the good times roll,” the Rhythm & Roots Festival in Charlestown, RI is the place on Labor Day weekend. See you there!
Official Website: http://www.rhythmandroots.com