Low ticket warning for summer festivals! Yes, already!

Hi Friends,

It was soooo lovely to see some of you at Wheels & Whiskey on Sunday! The weather was gorgeous and the company was even better. Among the guests were the co-producer of Speed Sisters, a documentary on Palestinian women racing cars when it was illegal for them to even drive, who came out in her ‘76 Porsche, as did a long-married couple seeking their place in car culture as gay men, and a woman I met through a mending circle a few weeks ago who brought her sculptor husband and pickle making friend. Plus there was a guy in “construction” who owned more custom cars than days in a week to drive them. He brought his dad. Very cute.

It achieved my goal for all events: Bringing a variety of people together around shared curiosity.

It was good to shake the dust off of my event producing skills and be reminded that yes, this is the right thing to be doing. Nothing beats being in person.

Over the next few months I’ll be working up to hosting a few events per month, each being a repeatable format: An intimate dinner, a dialog between experts, and a free-flowing cocktail party. The goal is to give us the time, space and consistency to figure out what works. That’s how all strong relationships are built, right?

Writing about rye and ice cider in spring? I know we’re all ready for Spritz Season and I promise I’ll be talking about lilac liqueur soon enough. But cider has been on my mind this week thanks to Boutique Wine, Spirits and Cider’s “Grand Tasting” on Saturday where the hot topic was last week’s overnight freeze. You may have seen photos of orchards ablaze with bonfires, being circled with helicopters to push the hot air back towards the trees. We won’t know for a few more weeks whether acres of apple blossoms froze their pistils off and won’t bear fruit this year.

Which is exactly why it felt right to highlight the risk and reward of agricultural businesses like apple orchards, and like whiskey making. It’s not uncommon to wait a year, or several, to find out if you have a sellable product.

Gennaro and Paige at Boutique Wines, Spirits & Ciders took that risk and won. They acquired an empty barrel from a Vermont cider producer, shiped it to a Brooklyn distillery, and waited two years to see if it worked.

The barrel in question had previously held Eden's Falstaff — a rare, single-barrel ice cider made from 15 heirloom apple varieties grown in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, cold-concentrated in the winter air, then aged seven years in French oak until it became something genuinely strange and wonderful. Oxidized, decadently sweet, bright with acidity. Fig, golden raisin, apricot, walnut. Sauternes meets tawny port meets a very good apple.

That dumped barrel went to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, home of one of the most serious NY-style ryes being made right now. Fort Hamilton's rye 90% rye and 10% malted barley, non-chill filtered, and built around the grain not the barrel — which made it exactly the right candidate for a cask finish this opinionated. The rye went in at four years old and came out just shy of six.

The rye stays the rye — pepper, cedar, that characteristic tingle. The Falstaff barrel adds dried fruit, a soft oxidative warmth, and an undercurrent of apple that adds a bit of mouthfeel and apple cider caramel finish that makes it an after dinner drink for all tastes.

This bottle isn’t available online. You know I don’t like being a gatekeeper but I do like encouraging you to talk to business owners. Ask for it at Boutique and tell ‘em Amy sent you.

YOU CAN JUST DO THINGS

The Catskills Book Trail continues through May 10. Get a passport at participating locations and collect stamps as you visit as many locations as you can.

Thursday

Queer Community Night at The Avalon Lounge in Catskill. Everyone can add to the playlist and no one turned away for lack of funds.

Friday

Rot and Fallow in Kingston hosts ‘Flowers. (for spring)’ Flower Market —celebrated with an immersive floral art soirée featuring an all–BIPOC roster of creatives and mixed-media flowers across homeware, paintings, accessories, and more. Cocktail attire, people!

Rent Party at Night Swim in Kingston. If you don’t know what a rent party is, go and learn. Give till it hurts.

Saturday

New Paltz Block Party is shutting down Church Street and filling it with 25+ vendors, plus live music and free drinks! Local businesses will represent. See if competing chocolate shops Krause’s and Lagusta’s rumble!

Pints, Paws, Derbys and Dogs is an all-day fundraiser for the Sullivan County SPCA at Catskill Brewing in Livingston Manor. Adopt don’t shop, people!

Agave Fest at Hudson Wine Merchants in Hudson will be staffed by the beautiful spirits nerds of Skurnik and PM Spirits.

Big Tent Designer and Decorator Sale is on at Ball and Claw in Port Ewen. Take home a pre-owned dog and a pre-owned couch in the same weekend!

Tacos & Taps = Los Hermosos and Rolling Cones are popping up at Kingston Standard for early Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Sunday

Red Owl Flea in Kingston reopens! Many new and exciting vendors, and they’re looking for more.

TWO IMPLAUSIBLY GOOD MUSIC FESTIVALS - LOW TICKET WARNING

I have decided to break the format this week because no one who reads this newsletter wants to hear me espousing the virtues of YHWH NAILGUN even though you should go see them open for Dry Cleaning this weekend.  Call me if you need a friend. (NB: But you have to find him first.)  Instead I'm using my column space to flag a few festivals coming up this summer.  Early tier tickets are starting to sell out, so don't say I didn't warn you. 

First is Follow the Arrow up at Griffin House in Palenville.   This is year 4 of the festival and year two of Marco Benevento catering perfectly to my tastes, thanks bro!  We've talked about Cochemea here before.  The Budos Band are relentless Horn Driven soul music [and one of my first acts under management when I worked at a talent agency back in the day.]  Tortoise are a post rock institution.  And there's no reason for Thee Marloes to come all the way from INDONESIA to play in the Catskills but listen I am not here to question it.  Back Home Farm sets up an on-site dispensary if you want to glue yourself to your blanket.  Just stay toward the back please. 

Woodsist dropped their lineup this week too.  I love the fact that they manage to blend a lineup of art pop, post punk, spiritual jazz, vibey world music and alt country every year.  I hate that everyone looks exactly like me at this thing.  Hoping beyond hope that Hayden Pedigo and Okonski are playing on the same day.

Cheers,
Amy