GREENFIELD — The Green River Festival returned to the Franklin County Fairgrounds for the 39th year, kicking off the summer and showcasing improvements from last year by emphasizing all the Pioneer Valley has to offer in talent — and beer.

This year’s three-day festival highlighted the local talent of western Massachusetts, with 40 performers gracing the four stages across the weekend.

Local artists like The Gaslight Tinkers, Winterpills, Kimaya Diggs, Silvie’s Okay and others had the chance to perform this the weekend with internationally known names, including Mt. Joy, Courtney Barnett, Kevin Morby, Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman & The Wind.

For the returning and new Green River Festival attendees, a weekend without rain was a welcome change. With high heat in the forecast, people were encouraged to stay hydrated and keep cool. Water spigots for refilling water bottles, and cooling stations were popular destinations, along with The Art Garden set-up inside the Baby Barnyard, and under a large tent for shade.

The other popular location were the cold drink tents across the fairgrounds for local beer and wine selections, an addition the western Massachusetts and New York concert promoter DSP Shows made sure to emphasize this year.

DSP Sounds took over operation of event from Signature Sounds Presents of Northampton, which had been running the Green River Festival since 2013. Prior to that, the festival, which started out as a one-day event in 1986 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of radio station WRSI, was run by the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce.

This year, every beer served was brewed within 40 miles of the festival, with selections from The Brewery at Four Star Farms, Bright Ideas Brewing, Two Weeks Notice Brewing Co., Leadfoot Brewing, Berkshire Brewing Co., and Amherst Brewing Co.

John Sanders, festival director and co-partner at DSP Shows, praised the work of Amherst Brewing Co. Brand Manager Jason Hunter in working with the festival to get local beer back to the festival, pointing out how all the beer was brewed within 40 miles of the fairgrounds.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

Sportsman’s Corner: A student’s Alaska observations

Battery energy storage facility proposed for Erving’s Poplar Mountain

‘Sweetest kid’ remembered: Community grieves for 17-year-old Orange resident killed in NH; juvenile charged in case

Petersham to hold Fourth of July parade Friday

Mass Audubon loses record $25M grant, vows to push on with its conservation efforts along Conn. River

PHOTO: Trio of trees

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

“So we heard that [feedback], and we found merit in it, and we said, ‘OK, we’ll bring that local beer,’” he said Saturday. “So we did, and it seems that everyone is very pleased.”

Liz Jensen, whose been serving beer at the Green River Festival since 2013, said between Friday and Saturday, those complaints she heard last year about the lack of local beer were nowhere to be found. From her perspective, she feels the change gives people visiting from outside the region a chance to try a local brew that they wouldn’t find elsewhere.

“From my perspective,” Jensen said, “Local representation is super important, because you can get a Voodoo Ranger anywhere, but you can’t get a [Amherst Brewing Co.] ‘JESS’.”

On top of the beverage selection being localized this year, other changes Sanders said had been well received was access to shade in the large tents for guests to get out of the heat, and the rearrangement of the Makers Market into the stalls between the Dean’s Beans Stage, and the Back Porch Stage.

Moving the market, Sanders said, was a safety improvement for vendors so they are in a sturdier location that wind gusts don’t impact as heavily, and it centralizes the marketplace. Moreover, this change creates a better flow for attendees between different areas of the fairgrounds.

The change in vendor set-up was welcomed by Analise Austin, jewelry designer with Minds Eye Collective of Somerville, who said the vendor set-up felt more structured this year and gave her an opportunity to connect with other vendors along the stretch.

“I think it was fun being around the main stage, but this feels more structurally sound and like we’re all together, which is nice,” Austin said.

While the premise of keeping family-friendly crafting activities open for festivalgoers over the last 10 years hasn’t changed, The Art Garden’s Jane Wegscheider and Laura Iverson noticed this year how the festival set-up allowed for a better flow of guests, and with the heat this year, the large tent and set-up inside the Baby Barnyard helped people cool off and take a break during the day.

“They definitely tweaked things and moved some things around so it flows better, and I think they’ve done a really good job with that,” Iverson said, later adding “Even when things aren’t working out so well, everyone is really very professional ... and it’s really been a delight to work with them.”

Given the local ties to the festival going back to the 1980s, Memorial Hall Museum Curator Ray Radigan said that outside the better weather, the local emphasis is the biggest change they are hearing from people who stop in to their Green River Fest History Exhibit.

“Here we see that the food and the beer, that’s bringing back the local, and it’s exciting for us,” Radigan said. He noted how this year, their installation has more pop-up artists that drives traffic, and people are reminded of their shared memories of the festival as local residents and other visitors to the festival.

“This has significance beyond just the physical infrastructure that they put in, and beyond the economic impacts to the local area,” he said. “People come to the festival because it’s fun, and they develop memories that last a lifetime.”

This aim for connection is something the performers at the festival addressed. New York City’s Dogpark, who were one of the first bands to play on the Dean’s Beans Stage, said with this being their first time playing in western Massachusetts, they aimed to keep up the energy and leave a mark with both fans, and new listeners alike.

“I think it’s just a matter of engaging with the audience regardless,” guitarist Billy Apostolu said of their performance. “It’s kind of just keeping the energy up … and try and get the people that don’t know us to have as much of a good time people that do.”

Green River Fest alums Winterpills played Saturday night to a crowd inside the Round House Stage where local acts performed throughout the weekend. In reflecting on the value of the festival to Pioneer Valley musicians, Winterpills guitarist and vocalist Philip Price says it’s a chance for artists to get on the map regionally, and that DSP Shows is still looking to honor former festival director Jim Olsen in his aim of booking local artists.

From his perspective, Price said the way artists market themselves and build a career through local festivals has changed, but this festival is still a fun opportunity to play in front of loved ones, and gain the festival experience.

“It’s a great experience. People that love you will come to the festival. We’ll be playing in front of fans and people who don’t know you at the same time, and you get to go to the festival and be treated well,” Price said. “It’s not normal for a lot of smaller bands to be treated so well.”

On Sunday, festivalgoers got in their last few shows from some of the weekend’s most anticipated acts, despite temperatures in the 90s.

In the afternoon, MJ Lenderman took the Main Stage, and performed with Katie Crutchfield, know by her stage name Waxahatchee, giving audiences a precursor to what would come.

Before Waxahatchee, Sanders, alongside his family, came out to offer thanks to those who help keep the festival going, and to the diverse families present, saying how a celebration of differences, and lifting each other up is “an act of resistance against authoritarianism.”

Waxahatchee and her band closed out the festival to a crowd of several hundred people.

With this being the second year DSP Shows is at the helm of the festival, Sanders said the aim is to continue to improve the festival and take feedback from audiences. Additionally, he sees the long-term goal of this festival as an economic driver to Greenfield, and a reflection of the “cultural melting pot” of music and programming in the valley.

“My vision of the Green River festival is to be a reflection of our community, and to put people on stage who are from this community, I think, is really important,” he said, “But I also think it’s important to bring folks from around the world who have different life experiences and different cultures and share that.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.