Bringing the Community Together to Help Sick and Injured Children
The Fairport Music and Food Festival, boils the Rochester summer down to its essentials: a beautiful venue, delicious food, excellent music and a good cause. The event will be held Saturday, Aug. 25, to benefit Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
“It’s basically a giant party with music and food, and the community comes out to celebrate the day,” said event co-director Andy McDermott. “We hit upon the idea of a musical festival as a unique way to benefit the hospital. We figured it’s a community event, and what’s more worthwhile in the community than the children’s hospital?”
Bands Carbon Leaf, The Campbell Brothers, Brass Taxi, Blue Sky, Wild Horses and many more will be playing continuously throughout the day from three band stages, flooding Lift Bridge Lane in the Village of Fairport with music from noon until 10 p.m. In addition to the music, there are children’s activities like arts and crafts, special games for smaller children, several ride attractions and a beer tent in each area for adults. Dozens of Fairport food vendors will set up stands to provide refreshments and sell samples of their dishes, and community organizations are invited to set up stands to advertise themselves to festival-goers.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Admission is free for children under 12. An additional $5 per person buys festival rides for the entire day.
All the proceeds from the event go directly to Golisano Children’s Hospital. Since it began in 2005, the festival has donated more than $412,000 in proceeds and it is currently financing two private patient rooms in the new children’s hospital being built on Crittenden Boulevard. In previous years, funds raised have helped purchase flatscreen television sets for in-patient rooms. These sets have enhanced the GetWellNetwork system, an “edutainment” system available to patients and families, making GetWell Town possible – the pediatric interface for the GetWellNetwork system, which went live this spring.
For additional information, please visit the http://www.fairportmusicfestival.com/ or “like” the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fairport-Music-and-Food-Festival/166765743371910.