JP Music Festival Prides Itself on Local Draw
While throngs of college students sporting flower crowns and wayfarers flocked to City Hall Plaza for Boston Calling on Saturday, Sept. 6, thousands of other music fans were expected to head to Jamaica Plain’s Pinebank Baseball Field for a festival of entirely different proportions.
In contrast to Boston Calling, which sells tickets and features internationally recognized headliners, the JP Music Festival prides itself on representing the people, music, and cultures of its neighborhood.
The festival is the product of a collaboration between Rick Berlin, one of Jamaica Plain’s most noted musicians, and Shaymus Moynihan, the booking agent for JP live-music hot spot, the Midway Cafe.
In 2010, Berlin approached Moynihan at a laundromat and posed a question which he had been asked by a music lover at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge: If Somerville and Cambridge can do it, why doesn’t Jamaica Plain have its own music festival?
The next year, the first JP Music Festival took flight.
At least one member of the 21 bands on this year’s ticket was a Jamaica Plain resident and Charlie McEnerney, a marketing consultant and member of the festivals board of directors, thinks the exclusivity of the festival’s lineup is part of what makes it so special.
“It was kind of a brilliant move in a way because it kind of automatically limits who can be there, but it does make it very Boston,’’ McEnerney said of the submission restrictions. “You have to have local roots in order to be in front of [the audience].’’
“The way that I’ve looked at it over the years is that it’s kind of like the neighborhood gets to meet their neighbors and see who it is that they live among.’’
McEnerney, who chatted with Boston.com ahead of the festival, has witnesssed the festival grow from a crowd of 1,200 to one of about 4,000 in 2013 — despite going head-to-head with Boston Calling on the calendar — and the ages of folks in attendance run the gambit.
“There’s a ton of families there with kids, there’s plenty of older people, there’s tons of locals,’’ McEnerney said of the turnout. “I think it’s people who probably, most of them, wouldn’t go to Boston Calling anyway…I think that it’s great that there’s Boston Calling and I hope that there’s more big festivals because I love ‘em.’’
McEnerney is a music enthusiast, former musician, and festival-goer himself, and he’s used his expertise in the arts and marketing worlds to help get the word out about the successes of the JP Music Festival.
After hearing from residents of other neighborhoods and cities, McEnerney helped create a 15-step tutorial titled “15 Steps to Starting a Local Music Festival,’’ which has been used by folks as far away as North Carolina and Texas.
McEnerney, who has lived in Queens, N.Y., Brighton, Seattle, and Los Angeles, settled in Jamaica Plain about 15 years ago after falling in love with its vibe.
“It feels kind of like a small town inside a big city,’’ McEnerney remarked on his neighborhood. “It’s funny because a lot of people from Cambridge and Somerville will say ‘Oh it’s so hard to get to JP,’ and ‘I never go there,’ and I think that’s actually made it what it is.’’
If you couldn’t make it to this year’s JP Music Festival, head over to the event’s SoundCloud page to listen to a playlist of music from the bands who performed.
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