Blues to Green Executive Director Kristen Neville (middle) joined “So That Reminds Me” hosts Lauren LeBel (left) and Dennis Hackett (right) on the latest episode.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet
On the latest episode of “So That Reminds Me” Kristen Neville, Blues to Green executive director, sat down with hosts Dennis Hackett and Lauren LeBel to talk all about the upcoming Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival that takes place on July 11 and 12.
This year marks the 12th annual Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival, which Neville described as an event that “draws people from diverse cultural and socioeconomic background together for performances of jazz, blues, Afro-Caribbean, funk and global roots artists.”
Some of this year’s headliners include Endea Owens and the Cookout, El Laberinto del Coco and Merging Roots.
There is a recommended ticket donation for the indoor performances. The proceeds help support the festival and organization.
“We try to have this be as accessible as possible so people of all walks of life can attend and have access to incredible music and arts experiences, so those who have the means to make a donation helps just keep it accessible and keep it going and enable us to do it year after year,” Neville stated.
There will also be local performers, arts vendors, local food vendors and family art activities in downtown Springfield centered around Stearns Square.
The festival will also feature an indoor venue with programming at the new Hope Center for the Arts, formerly CityStage, at 150 Bridge St.
“So, we’ll have programming indoors at that center throughout the day so people can move throughout the area from Stearns Square through Tower Square Park and over to the Hope Arts Center,” Neville said.
Neville explained that the creation of this event was due to being married into a musical family from New Orleans who toured around the country and the world for many years. Neville is the wife of the late Charles Neville, who performed with his siblings as the famed R&B group, the Neville Brothers.
After returning to her native Western Massachusetts, Neville said she wanted to start an organization that uses music and the arts to bring people together and help promote positive environmental and social change.
She connected with other people in the Springfield area already working in the arts who were interested in bringing a festival back to the downtown area.
The nonprofit Blues to Green was created and was inspired by the life and music of Charles Neville.
The first Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival was hosted in 2014 and Neville said it has been going “strong” ever since.
She also talked about how the festival has grown and said the festival was hosted at Court Square through 2019 and was virtual in 2020.
When the festival took place again in-person, it was relocated to the Stearns Square area.
Over the years, the festival has evolved from one stage to two stages and now has an indoor venue as well for programming and nighttime performances.
Neville said The Hope Center for the Arts will provide different opportunities and called it a “state-of-the-art facility.”
The center installed a new sound system, a large screen behind the stage and various studio spaces for arts and video production.
“We’re trying to spotlight what that center has to offer so we have an immersive, art, tech, experience with this band coming from New Orleans so that should be pretty cool with the music and visuals and some other things that we have brewing for that space.”
Neville also talked about how the new location benefits not only her organization but also the city. She said, “We were able to integrate the festival more with the surrounding businesses and support them by drawing visitors right to their front door.”
Blues to Green also recently started a new program called the Legacy Education Project which was inspired by Charles Neville, who died in 2018.
“The idea for this program was to bring various artists whom have performed at the festival into the public schools for residencies — which are usually three days — and they’re artists of African and Caribbean descent who shared their life stories and lived experiences and their cultures and music and they’re sort of role models for these young people whose own families and communities reflect these artists or vice versa and be able to see themselves reflected in these artists that they can do this,” Neville explained.
For more information about the upcoming festival or about the organization, readers can visit bluestogreen.org.
To hear the full conversation, head to thereminder.com/our-podcast or search for “So That Reminds Me” on your favorite podcasting platform.
