Official NEARfest Press Release
October 17, 2011

NEARFEST APOCALYPSE TO BE FINAL EDITION OF FESTIVAL

In 1999, the North East Art Rock Festival was started as an effort to return progressive rock music to the area where it thrived back in its heyday. In the 1970s, the Philadelphia area was a well-known hotbed of fandom for the brand of rock music featuring exemplary virtuosity. With the re-emergence of progressive music worldwide in the early '90s, festivals became a novel way to feature both new bands and re-invigorate some from the past. A few festivals had come before, namely ProgFest (CA), the ever-present ProgDay (NC), BajaProg (Mexico), and the short-lived ProgScape (MD), plus several after, but none have taken on the notoriety NEARfest had achieved. In just a few short years, NEARfest became the "most prestigious progressive rock festival in the world" and has remained so for over 12 years.

From its inception, NEARfest has strived to merge extraordinary bands from the global Prog Rock underground and the devoted community of eclectic music fans on this side of the pond. It was felt that otherwise, never would the two meet, especially en masse. This emotional combination of musical dedication has produced many a weekend of musical bliss. Ask any former attendee of the festival and you will get a different list of highlights from years past, which is validation in itself of NEARfest's dedication to a diverse lineup of Prog Rock subgenres. Favorites will range from Camel and Keith Emerson to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Miriodor; from Steve Hackett and Banco to Echolyn and Hidria Spacefolk; from Magma and Univers Zero to Kenso and Kraan; from Eddie Jobson and Three Friends to Cabezas de Cera and Beardfish; from Porcupine Tree and PFM to Anekdoten and Änglagård. And that's only a fraction of the over 120 bands that have performed at NEARfest to date.

And now, the time has come to complete the cycle.

2012 will mark the final edition of the North East Art Rock Festival. NEARfest has always employed a model, for right or wrong, where lineups were typically anchored by legends of the greater genre and featured a plethora of world-class bands spanning the broad range of subgenres. Part of the success of NEARfest and its rapid sellouts was its ability to attract legendary progressive bands that had played only infrequently, if ever, on the East Coast of the United States. As time has marched inexorably, it started to become clear that this headliner-centric model would not be sustainable indefinitely. Too much of a change in the model and those dedicated to attending and supporting the festival may feel that it is no longer in the spirit of NEARfest itself. Therefore, we have decided to retain the marriage of our successful model to our NEARfest brand name.

After the unfortunate events leading to the cancellation of NEARfest 2011, we could not allow the legacy of NEARfest to end with a dark and empty stage. The festival has meant too much to too many, including us, to just disappear without at least making an attempt at a joyous swan song. Therefore, since the spring of 2011, the three of us have been conspiring to put together a final NEARfest, one true to its roots and special to its faithful. We are happy to say that this will indeed happen.

NEARfest Apocalypse will be held over the weekend of June 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2012 at its rightful home, the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University in beautiful Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This will be a true celebration of progressive rock music as well as a "raising of the glass" to everyone who has made NEARfest so special to so many of us over the last 13 years, including our outstanding crew and production team, the wonderful staff at Zoellner, and everyone who has ever bought a ticket to NEARfest. There are plans for activities beyond the norm for the weekend, which will be detailed as the festival draws closer. For now though, we can tell you that both Roger Dean and Mark Wilkinson will be involved in the artwork for this final special event. We will also do our best to make sure that both of these fine gentlemen are in attendance.

In the coming weeks, we will announce the entire NEARfest Apocalypse lineup live on the air on the Gagliarchives radio program. The exact air date will be determined shortly and announced online NEARfest.com, our Yahoo mailing list, Facebook, Twitter, and Progressive Ears. Stay tuned!

We sincerely hope that you will join us for the final chapter of NEARfest. After all, the world ends in December 2012 anyway, right?

Most humbly,
Chad Hutchinson
Rob LaDuca
Kevin Feeley

Links:
NEARfest Website, http://www.nearfest.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.nearfest.com
Yahoo Mailing List, http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/NEARfestNews/" rel="nofollow - http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/NEARfestNews/
Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/page/NEARFEST" rel="nofollow - http://www.facebook.com/page/NEARFEST
Twitter, https://www.twitter.com/#nfapocalypse" rel="nofollow - https://www.twitter.com/#nfapocalypse

 

And Iagree RICO...friday is my favorite day.

Mike  Keneally  played guitar with Frank Zappa and also worked with Kevin Gilbert. He is a monster guitar player.  Check out an album called Beer for Dolphins. 

Tony I disagree.  This lineup means that there is no outlet for new bands or bands that skirt the genre to play live.  It means the death of live prog music in the USA outside of local metropolitan areas.    You must realize Bajaprog and Calprog have suspended their festivals 3RP was a one and done even after reuniting Spock's Beard and Transatlantic (minus Pete).  A new festival Ohioprog could not even get off the ground. Farfest is a one and done. So all that leaves is Rosfest and Progday though the  latter of which does not  play on the same field as the others.    

Actually "bakin @ the potato," the live thing I put out last year would be more representative of what will be happening onstage - we won't be focusing on Scambot stuff, it'll be a wide range of material from a bunch of albums, but "bakin'" would give an indication of the sound of the current band (I'll have a different drummer at NF though, 'cause Joe Travers has ZPZ obligations). 

NEARFEST PRESS RELEASE 
May 29, 2012 

UK to headline sold-out NEARfest Apocalypse 

We are delighted to announce that the legendary progressive rock supergroup UK will be joining the NEARfest Apocalypse lineup as the Sunday night festival headliner with a four-piece lineup. By some streak of amazing fortune, the members of UK had simultaneous availability in their busy schedules, and were able to assume the mantle of festival headliner with less than a month to spare before the event. 

Revolving around two iconic musicians, keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson and bassist/vocalist John Wetton, UK was the last of the 1970s progressive rock supergroups. UK seamlessly melded dazzling instrumental virtuosity, incredible compositional prowess, classical and jazz influences, and memorable song-craft into two classic studio albums that have endured the test of time and earned the band legions of fans. In the second decade of the new millennium these two luminaries have once again joined forces to bring UK's timeless music back to the stage, thrilling audiences around the world at sold-out concerts. With an expanded four-piece lineup including celebrated rock/fusion drummer Gary Husband and noted fusion guitarist Alex Machacek, UK will feature music from both of its albums and classic-era King Crimson songs not able to be performed with the 3-piece lineup that recently toured the USA. 

NEARfest Apocalypse will occur June 22-24, 2012 at Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. Co-headlining with UK are Van der Graaf Generator (Friday night June 22) and Renaissance (Saturday night June 23). Although the festival has been sold out for some time, UK fans seeking to attend may look for second-hand tickets at the NEARfest website discussion forum Ticket Board (http://www.nearfest.com/forum/index.php) or the Progressive Ears discussion board (http://www.progressiveears.com). 


------------- 
Chad Hutchinson 
NEARfest 
Co-Founder, Director of Operations 
http://www.nearfest.com/" rel="nofollow - http://www.nearfest.com