(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Expanded to three days and five events to more greatly celebrate the cultural and artistic diversity of the City of New Brunswick, Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick 2017 will kick off on Friday, September 8 at 7:00pm, with a free New Brunswick Music Scene Archive Panel Discussion. The event will take place at Rutgers University Alexander Library, 169 College Ave. Panelists will include Dennis Diken, Sharief Hobley, Audrey Wicht, Andrew Spina, and Bob Makin.
Dennis Diken, drummer of Jersey legends The Smithereens, who got their start in New Brunswick in 1980 and put the local rock music scene on the national map with their 1986 major label debut, “Especially for You”
Sharief Hobley, who came to prominence within the local music scene in the mid-1980s with the funk-rock band Spy Godz and has had a successful career since with Amandla, John Legend, Alicia Keys and more
Audrey Wicht, poetess-rapper of the New Brunswick jazz-punk spoken-word outfit The Wichts and former programmer of a popular Hub City show house, The Blueberry Shire
Andrew Spina, owner of Hub City’s only record store, Spina Records, an Easton Avenue shop that focuses on vinyl and collector’s items
Bob Makin, an award-winning New Jersey music writer for nearly 40 years who has covered the New Brunswick music scene since 1989.
The expansion of the fourth annual Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick will include for the first time ever a DIY Market with 26 vendors and food trucks at the FREE main event on September 10 from noon to 6:00pm in Boyd Park on Memorial Parkway at Commercial Avenue. Vendors of music, clothing, jewelry, art, crafts, toys and more will include Spina Records, Stitch Witch Me, Batty Boutique, Quest Complete, The Paper Cicada, Traces of Wonder, Crafters Quest, Red Hot Gals Boutique, The Fairy Odd Mother, Rustica Jewelry, Etched in Ember, Great Bowls of Fire, Szugar Skulls Etc. and more found at Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick 2017’s event page.
Along with nine performers, including Hub City Stompers, The Anderson Council, Cook Thugless and Nalani & Sarina, the festival’s main event also will feature delicious dishes and popular treats of five food trucks and vendors. Patrons can enjoy the gourmet grilled cheese of CheezeN, Italian-American favorites of Poppy’s Kitchen, amazing Jamaican cuisine of Simply Jerk, refreshing shaved ice of Hawaiian Husky and ice cream of beloved Mr. Softee.
Other performers in Boyd Park will include Killer Shrimp, Vertical Fixation, DJ Don Dazzo of Whirling Dervishes and Everlounge, Silent Knight & The Band Called FUSE, and Sharief in Burgundy, featuring Sharief Hobley. The festival also will feature several buskers who will help raise money for the Elijah’s Promise food justice and empowerment program. Buskers will be announced soon at the Hub City Sounds: Rock New Brunswick 2017 event page.
Organized and curated by New Brunswick Cultural Center's Hub City Sounds, Smugbug Productions and the unprecedented 18 member outlets of the NJ Music Media Partnership in association with Volume IV, NJ Skateshop, Caroline Romanelli Presents and Scarlet Pub, Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick 2017 also will feature:
Alcohol-free all-ages ROCK New Brunswick Warmup Party with Mr. Payday, Spowder, Glazer and Schwervon! from Kansas, Saturday, September 9 from 7:00pm to midnight, Volume IV, 120 Jersey Ave. $5
Alcohol-free all-ages ROCK New Brunswick Warmup Party with Neighborhood Watch DJ collective, Saturday, September 9 from 8:00pm to 11:00pm, NJ Skateshop, 160 Easton Ave. (across the street from Scarlet Pub). FREE show
Free community workshops with Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership, LEGO Play, and Brodsky Center for Innovative Print of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts at the main event on Sunday, September 10 from noon to 6:00pm in Boyd Park
ROCK New Brunswick After Party with Speed Queen, Experiment 34 , The Turnbucklers, and The Clydes, Sunday, September 10 from 8:00pm to 11:00pm, Scarlet Pub. 21 and up. $5.
Hub City Sounds: ROCK New Brunswick 2017 mainly was curated and is co-promoted by 18 music media outlets working with each other as the NJ Music Media Partnership. They are Carousel Arts, CoolDad Music, Danny Coleman's Rock On Radio, Garden State Hip Hop, Jersey Beat, Jersey Indie, Jersey Rock, Live from the Dining Room, Makin Waves, My Central Jersey, MikeroMedia, New Brunswick Music Scene Archive, NJ Arts, New Jersey Stage, The Pop Break, Speak into My Good Eye, WRAT 95.9 the Rat, and WRSU 88.7 Rutgers Radio. Other sponsors are Hub City Sounds, New Brunswick Cultural Center, Smugbug Productions, Volume IV, NJ Skateshop, Caroline Romanelli Presents, and Scarlet Pub. For updates, visit www.facebook.com/events/862635813884607/.
Hub City Sounds is the FREE annual summer-long, multi-ethnic concert series of New Brunswick Cultural Center, mostly along the scenic New Brunswick waterfront of the Raritan River. Hub City Sounds 2017 will continue with (all locations in Boyd Park unless indicated):
2nd Annual Caribbean Festival, Saturday, August 26 from noon to 6:00pm
5th Annual Central Jersey Jazz Festival, Saturday, September 16 from 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Livingston Avenue at George Street
Raritan River Festival, September 24 from 11:00am to 5:30pm, featuring live music, vendors, new Brunswick Community Farmers market, children’s activities, cardboard canoe race, and the Beez Foundation’s annual Rubber Ducky Race with prizes for winners
3rd Annual Corazon Latino Festival, Sunday, October 8 from 11:00am to 4:00pm, Joyce Kilmer Park, 143 Joyce Kilmer Ave., part of New Brunswick Ciclovia.
Hub City Sounds is sponsored by City of New Brunswick, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick City Market and Magyar Bank. Grant funding has been provided by the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund.
All events feature free parking. Boyd Park events have free parking in the city’s Public Safety Building, 55 Commercial Ave., over the Commercial Avenue Bridge. Visit www.newbrunswickarts.org/2017-hub-city-sounds-festival/.
New Brunswick Cultural Center is a nonprofit umbrella organization working to support, promote and develop arts, art education and community arts engagement in the New Brunswick area in partnership with resident companies State Theatre of New Jersey, George Street Playhouse, Crossroads Theatre Co., American Repertory Ballet, Zimmerli Art Museum, and Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, as well as coLAB Arts, City of New Brunswick and more. Visit www.newbrunswickarts.org.
