ABOUT BELLA TERRA FESTIVAL

Bella Terra Festival is an outdoor music and arts festival that occurs over multiple days and nights and features several stages of performances, artists and other programming. Gardner's Farm in Stephentown, New York will be home to the third annual Bella Terra Festival, located between Albany, New York and The Berkshires in western Massachusetts.

Bella Terra celebrates a positive and progressive outlook and lifestyle, grassroots organization and activism, consciousness and creativity, self expression through artistic mediums, and the pursuit of a holistic existence that balances body, mind & spirit. Music and art can be a great platform to promote awareness, consciousness and sustainability and unite a people to affect societal progress. Bella Terra Festival uses this platform to call attention to the need to reestablish a spiritual connection between mankind and the Earth and perpetuate an ideology of global unification.

Bella Terra Festival recognizes that changing one's own life for the better goes hand in hand with improving the world around us. This is why Bella Terra advocates that each person pursue his or her own dreams, open their minds and realize their maximum potential. To help meet these ends at Bella Terra Festival, many classes, workshops, and lectures in music, art, nature, politics and beyond are offered, in addition to a host of other programs and entertainment to help deliver our message.

ORIGIN

Bella Terra: Arts, Music & Culture Festival originated in 2009 as a benefit event to raise funds for Berkshire Arts Scholarships (BARTS), a scholarship program administered by the Railroad Street Youth Project, a 501c3 non-profit organization, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. BARTS awards scholarships to disadvantaged western Massachusetts youths who are between the ages of 16 to 25, and pursuing an education or career in the arts. The original goal of this event was to raise enough funds to continue awarding potential BARTS candidates annually and award scholarships to a greater number of youths each year. Bella Terra aims to provide a multidisciplinary atmosphere for local and national artists to showcase their work while integrating past and future BARTS recipients (and other aspiring artists) into the greater arts community.

COMMUNITY

Bella Terra Festival strives to find ways to help contribute to the improvement of the community. One of the ways we do this is by integrating non-profit and activist groups into our event, with informational tables/booths, workshops & seminars, lectures about relevant social, political and environmental issues. We aim to offer progressive programming that inspires our patrons to 'think globally and act locally.' In previous years, we've had programming from organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Strangers Helping Strangers, Western Mass Labor Action, West Side Farming Project, and other entities.

BELLA TERRA FESTIVAL 2011

We are excited to announce the 3rd annual Bella Terra Festival, occurring over 3 days and nights from Thursday, August 18 to Sunday, August 21, 2011, and returning to last year's home at Gardner's in Stephentown, New York (approximately 25 miles east of Albany and 10 miles west of The Berkshire in Massachusetts). Bella Terra Festival 2011's musical acts will be headlined by an act who is quite possibly the most infamous, innovative and talented guitarist ever to shred on guitar - Buckethead. He has somehow managed to remain anonymous over the several decades that span his career, wearing a mask and KFC bucket on his head at each performance. Perhaps he is best known for his period affiliated with Guns N' Roses in the 90's, but Buckethead has collaborated with many other musical powerhouses, including the band Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains with Les Claypool (of Primus, Les Claypool's Frog Brigade, and others) and a fellow Bella Terra 2011 performer Bernie Worrell (of the Talking Heads, Parliament Funkadelic and Headtronics). Equally impressive is the way he uses unusual objects he uses to play his instrument so well that it would seem as though it was intended that way. Onlookers may have the joy of witnessing this black belt martial artist (yes, really) play guitar with a pair of nun-chucks, a butcher knife, or any number of things. Other notable acts include Rubblebucket, Wes N Worrell (featuring Bernie Worrell), BoomBox, Papadosio, The Bridge, Roots of Creation, Jeff Bujak, Adam Ezra Group, Goosepimp Orchestra, Psylab, Heyoka, and more. Our complete lineup will feature music varying greatly in style and genre, ranging from progressive rock/jamtronica to bluegrass, from ten piece funk bands to singer-songwriter/indie rock, and from hip hop and reggae to dub step and house. The common thread that unifies our lineup of musical acts and artists is they're separating themselves from the rest of the pack in some way, they're offering a unique music experience and they're providing their fans with something not to be forgotten. At Bella Terra Festi, we hopale you'll get a taste of that unforgettable musical and artistic goodness that landed them on the BTF stage.

Bella Terra seeks to offer an unparalleled experience to the fans of the live music scene and greater arts community by showcasing uniquely integrated and multidisciplinary programming - a combination of diverse artistic styles and a blend of traditionally unrelated disciplines into one smooth flowing and cohesive arrangement of performances and exhibits. Featuring musicians and artists from many different genres and backgrounds (ranging from legends who are on top of the scene to the most promising up-and-comers), Bella Terra Festival provides a balance of programming that entices music/art enthusiasts and casual fans alike. In all, more than 50 musical acts and 30+ artists of assorted disciplines will be appearing on 3 stages and at other locations throughout the festival, often in a loosely synchronized assimilation.

Bella Terra is not strictly music and art, however. We also feature a wealth of 'edu-tainment' themed programming including workshops and speaker/discussions that focus on relevant social, political and environmental issues. Recognizing that changing one's own life for the better goes hand in hand with improving the world around us, Bella Terra advocates that each person pursue his or her own dreams, open their minds and realize their maximum potential while living in harmony with the universe. Bella Terra celebrates a balanced existence, positive outlook, progressive lifestyle, grassroots organization, activism, open mindedness, global unification, creativity and self expression through artistic mediums, Music and art can be a great platform to promote awareness and sustainability, and Bella Terra Festival uses music and art to help spread this messages. We've worked with nonprofit and activist organizations including Strangers Helping Strangers (non-perishable goods drive), The Nature Conservancy (showing a film about non-native invasive species, the Asian Longhorned Beetle, followed by Q & A), Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, and others. We are committed to helping organizations like these grow and getting concert goers to get involved.

Assorted craft, food/beverage and vendors of other merchandise offer patrons with unique souvenir or gift opportunities will have for sale handmade jewelry, musical instruments, paintings, your favorite bands clothes or accessories, Bella Terra gear, and a whole lot more. Bella Terra Festival also is home to a 'wellness village' where holistic healing and alternative medicine practitioners can offer their services and/or distribute literature about their field. Previously we have had professionals in massage therapy, yoga, meditation, kumbacha tea, and more offering their goods and services to Bella Terra Festival attendees.

Families and their children will find a home at Bella Terra Festival, too. Our family friendly camping area is perfect for those seeking an age appropriate festival experience or periods of relative silence for easier sleeping at night. The Bella Terra kid's tent (in our main stage concert area and very nearby family camping) offers games and activities including face painting, contests, music workshops, hula hooping class, t-shirt tie-dyeing, and much more. Kids who are 12 and under admitted free and kids who are 13 thru 16 admitted for a discounted price.

AFFILIATED COMPANIES

Bella Terra Festival is owned and operated by Bella Terra Festival, Inc., based out of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Our affiliate companies which help make the festival a success! These companies include