Beach Road Weekend Announces Summer 2023 Lineup

Mumford & Sons, Bon Iver and Leon Bridges will headline Beach Road Weekend this summer. Festival organizer Adam Epstein said this year's lineup was the culmination of all his effort since he founded the event back in 2018.

Addressing both fans and critics of Beach Road Weekend, founder and producer Adam Epstein this week announced a lineup of acts for 2023 representing a diversity of music and delivered a lengthy report pledging better noise and crowd control.

In an announcement Tuesday afternoon, coordinated with an interview at local radio station MVY, Mr. Epstein said headliners for the three-day August event would include British folk rock band Mumford & Sons, indie band Bon Iver and singer-songwriter Leon Bridges.

In addition to last year’s focus on “Americana folk-rock roots, this year we’ve got some indie and some serious R&B,” he said, describing the lineup as a “wide array of music that will reflect the Island and its diversity.”

The Beach Road festival began in 2018 and each year since, excluding the pandemic summers, it has grown in musical acts and audience. In 2022, the Tisbury select board signed a three-year contract for the festival’s use of Veteran’s Memorial Park, with the concert producers paying $12,500 a day, plus reimbursing the town for police, fire, water, highway and emergency services required during the festival. This year’s event is scheduled for Aug. 25-27.

Veterans Memorial Park was packed for summer 2022 event.
Mark Alan Lovewell
Veterans Memorial Park was packed for summer 2022 event.
Mark Alan Lovewell

While last year’s festival drew thousands of happy concertgoers, not everyone in the neighborhood was pleased, citing numerous noise and traffic complaints.

Just prior to this week’s lineup announcement Mr. Epstein released a 28-page internal review of last-year’s operations. In it he addressed a variety of concerns from noise mitigation and parking to emergency preparation. The full document can be found on the Tisbury town website.

The document emerged out of a series of meetings held among festival organizers, town officials and town residents in the months following last year’s festival, said town administrator Jay Grande, who called the review “very solid and well-crafted.”

“The report, I think, speaks for itself,” Mr. Grande said. “That’s not to say it answers everything... but it’s a very good, very positive report.”

Among changes outlined in the review, Mr. Epstein said he plans to have audio technicians perform a soundcheck, install decibel measuring technology across the town, reduce festival mainstage hours to 12 to 8 p.m. and establish “roaming public service festival ambassadors” and a hotline to field complaints.

“We are a very determined team of people who want to do things well,” Mr. Epstein said in a phone interview with the Gazette. “We want to put on an event designed in a way to make it resilient, efficient...and conscientious of our surroundings.”

Going forward, Mr. Epstein emphasized a collaborative planning process with the town, saying he hopes to gain more clarity on an agreement to maintain and repair the park field, as well as to improve their recycling program.

“It’s all about preparation,” he said. “We are definitely working towards finding solutions for every problem all the time.”

Mr. Grande said next steps for the town will involve meeting with various public agencies to review the document before he brings it before the town select board later this month. Mr. Grande also said he had distributed the document to town moderator Deborah Medders, who is in contact with a group of abutters to the park.

Mr. Epstein said his goal for the festival has been to “create an event that makes bands want to play and audiences coming back again and again.”

“I’ve been working on getting this band to the Island for the last five years,” Mr. Epstein said of Mumford & Sons.

The lineup for 2023 also includes Gary Clark Jr., The Head and the Heart, Japanese Breakfast, Regina Spektor, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Kevin Morby, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Gregory Porter, with more bands to be announced.

“We’ve achieved the goal of building an A-list festival,” he continued. “We’ve brought it right here to this Island.”

Island residents will have an opportunity to purchase tickets in person at the old Educomp building at 4 State Road, beginning at noon on Jan. 22 and can receive $125 off a two-ticket purchase by donating $50 to the Tisbury School Fund or spending that amount at one of five partner stores: The Greenroom, LaRoux, Waterside, Martha’s Vineyard Made and CB Stark.

Presale tickets sales begin Jan. 23, more details can be found at beachroadweekend.com.

Comments

Tonia Gassmann Monument beach

Well Leon Bridges has an old school soul feel. Gary Clark jr. and Gregory Porter are some other old school sounds I look forward to. Regina Specktor is amazing as well! Great line up!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/17/2023 - 13:33

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Tom VH

Great News! I hope everyone enjoys the show!
This is a good thing for tue Island in so many ways… it’s just one weekend….

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/17/2023 - 16:32

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Susan Bucks County, Pennsylvania

This is an impressive group of musicians - especially Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr., St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
I hope the situation can be improved with the neighbors; their complaints should be acknowledged.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 01/17/2023 - 20:04

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Jennifer Baskin Ny

Really disappointed in this line up, I’d thought after the great success of 2022 we would see some very special acts or at least the same caliber as last year. I think the people behind this have already phoned it in and are trying to let the location sell the event rather than the talent they book.

Matt West Tiz

Me too. Won’t be going this yr. Seems geared to a younger audience, much like last year’s Friday lineup. Glad I got to see Phil & Friends, Fogerty, Wilco, Jason Isbell, & Beck, but for me, this is a much weaker lineup.

Islander61 OB

I am in my 60's and saw Gary Clark Jr. play as a warm up for the Stones a few years ago, he is an amazing artist, a headliner. I haven't heard of many of the acts but it doesn't mean they aren't any good because us older folks haven't heard of them. At some point all the bands that are all considered classic rock bands were nobodies, The Beatles, Bruce, The Stones, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffet, all at one time no one had ever heard of them. I'm willing to give these groups a chance and let them be heard.

MVD Edgartown

Oh no, what a shame. Just because you don’t like the acts this year doesn’t mean the organizers have “phoned it in.” To me, this line up is way better than last year. Everyone’s taste is different. Don’t like it? Don’t go.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/18/2023 - 05:33

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Marie

It is impossible to figure out which bands are playing on any of the days. Not interested in 3 day commitment.

Their website is not well organized. Maybe by design.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/18/2023 - 09:20

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cj, VH

For the life of me, I can't understand why this isn't done in October, when the weather is beautiful and the island could benefit from the business, rather than in August when the hotels, restaurants, ferries, roads are full.

Christine Senge

I agree. A weekend in September would be lovely. Also, how about some jazz artists? When I look at the photos from the website, I see a whole lot of white people.

Bob Edgartown

There is a jazz event coming up this weekend at pathways. I hope to see you there. There will be plenty of room. It will not sell out.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/20/2023 - 09:38

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Tom Vineyard Haven

Where's the money? has the BOS demanded 5% of gross receipts for entire production if the answer is no then please off load this private cash cow concern which munches off of Vineyard Haven’s Park system. 5% gross receipts that way when we are told by the producers, they had a great event and great learning experience but did not clear any money it will not matter to the town because we will already have or 5% off the top of the gross which includes ticket sales, rent paid by vendors, monies off of sales on BRW merchandise and any other revenue being sucked into this event. And it goes without saying yet the producers find it necessary to bring up taxes in every interview, even though state and federal taxes are mandated and paid by all of us like everyone else in this life.

Tom VH

Tom,
I think this is a great think for Tisbury and the Island. You can’t make everyone happy… that being said we could use the money for the School which costs are skyrocketing…

Bob Edgartown

Tom, without bringing the 12,000 people to the event, they would not be spending any money to pay taxes so it is part of the benefit. The town is getting money maybe not as much as you would like them to get. The promoter is entitled to get paid for his work, and yes it is a public park and it seems that 12,000 people are very happy to use it. They are after all the public. And this promoter has done more to improve the condition of the park than any of the other groups that use the park.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 01/20/2023 - 11:45

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WD Vineyard Haven

I agree about the website - last summer I could not find info I was looking for. The organizers need fresh eyes to look at the site to determine intuitiveness and things which are simply missing.

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