Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Jazzing Up Binghamton

Got jazz?

Last Friday morning, I approached downtown Binghamton, New York, and, to my delight, found potted flowering plants lined up around a temporary stage.

It was time for July Fest - a street festival and downtown Binghamton's opportunity to shine.
(2012 sign created by July Fest participants courtesy of the Magic Paintbrush Project, which provides art opportunities for disabled children and adults )

Perry Building, 89 Court St., Binghamton, NY
 This year, I walked around with a relative who spends a lot of time in New York City.  She took pictures of several of the historic buildings of downtown Binghamton - for example, the Perry Building.
This time, Court Street was packed with booths, food vendors, and live entertainment.

Here, jazz singer Glenda Davenport performs in the Binghamton Music and Jazz Festival which brought July Fest back "from the brink" several years ago.  Now, it is an integral part of the festival.

This is a short video taken towards the end of her set.  Enjoy!

We are only at the beginning of various public performances of jazz and other music in Binghamton, and all of these are free: (I'm not even listing weekly performances in various parks throughout the area) - although I say "free" a lot of volunteer work goes into these, and some accept donations or have fundraisers.

Rec Park Music Fest
Chris Thater Music Festival (part of a fantastic bicycle racing event - a MUST VIEW)
Blues on the Bridge

Do you have a lot of music events where you live?

9 comments:

  1. Yes! As a matter of fact our little touristy area of Honesdale, PA hosts several music fairs...as well as craft, street, and art fairs. They are a lot of fun and bring great business to Main St.
    Binghamton, NY is just 90 minutes north of us :). We have been the the Children's Museum there. It was great.
    Looks like a great fair.

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  2. Binghamton looks like a cool little city. I've never been, maybe it'll go on the list for possible weekend getaways :) I'm about 3 1/2 hours from there.

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  3. I've never been to Binghamton and I really like the architecture from the photos you posted. Looks like a cool and quaint place to be :)
    Thanks for sharing your awesome awesome day.

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  4. Festivals are such fun. I hope the weather isn't too hot where you are. However, pelenty of people seemed to be walking about. I couldn't get your video to play. It went on loading for about a minute and I gave up. I'll bet the jaz music was wonderful.

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  5. How simply splendid - we love this kind of thing....

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  6. How simply splendid - we love this kind of thing....

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  7. Aha it looks like a cute little city. I love going to cities (as I live in the country) I'd absolutely love to go to a festival at some point!

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  8. Looks very festive. Architecture looks good too!

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