Field Day Festival to Rise Again!

It's just like your mother told you: If someone picks on you at school, it means they secretly like you. And when Pitchfork recently made a string of "cancelled festival" jokes at the expense of last year's disastrous Field Day Festival, it was only because Mom also told us that sarcasm's the best way to ease a broken heart.

Color us a-flutter, then, at the news that midstate New York town Red Hook has given promoter Andrew Dreskin permission to stage a Field Day festival on Greig Farm, under an hour from Albany. The first Field Day, you may recall, imploded at the last minute in June of 2003, downsizing from a two-day camp-out event into a single-day gig at Giants Stadium after Suffolk County police, sparrow fanciers, Riverhead town officials, and, oh yeah, that whole "not having a permit" thing conspired to turn what should have been 48 hours of moderately hip utopia into a depressing monster fuckup. Yeah, we're still not totally okay with that.

But wait: It's time to live in the now! Despite a vetting process strict enough to have already turned down a bid for a similar event in the same space by something called the World Unity Festival, The Red Hook town board has apparently taken pity on Dreskin, and green-lighted him for one more shot. A good omen? Well, we're not getting our hopes up, but the festival is presently being slated for a July weekend in 2005, and Dreskin's thinking big as ever: The promoter has told Billboard he's got his sights on Radiohead and The Beastie Boys, as well as Norah Jones. Local newspaper The Daily Freeman states that his proposal to the Red Hook town board also mentioned invitations being sent to R.E.M., Lou Reed, Coldplay, and Tom Waits.

We're confident that as plans proceed, the festival will expand to include the kind of other names that don't necessarily impress rural city councils; not to jinx anything, but here are some of the scheduled folks that didn't get to perform last time due to the unexpected change of plans: Interpol, Royksopp, Tortoise, Raveonettes, Sigur Ros, The Roots, The Streets, Blackalicious, Le Tigre, Peanut Butter Wolf, Luna, and The Polyphonic Spree. Andrew Dreskin, Red Hook Town Board, assembled members of the animal kingdom, we're begging you: Don't blow this.