New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Old Time Fiddle Session and Southcoast Lessons will host a “New” Bedford take on an old Appalachian holiday at Hatch Street Studios in New Bedford on December 29th. The event runs 12:00 to 6:00pm and shares a name and mission with a long-standing Old Time tradition of musical and social gatherings between Christmas and New Years.
Dubbed “Breaking Up Christmas,” the event includes playing opportunities for musicians, children’s activities, workshops, dancing, local craft and comfort food vendors, giveaways, games, and a full schedule of performances by traditional fiddle acts, dancers, performance artists, and ukulele ensembles. 3 time Rochester fiddle champion Hank Poitras, flat-foot dance instructor and multi-instrumental Armand Aromin of Providence, and New Hampshire’s banjo picking, barn dance calling, roller-blading, hula hooping, stilt-walking Old Time Dave Talmadge serve as keepers of the tradition’s roots, while local ukulele ensembles The Misfits and The Unlikely Strummers bring a new island flare to the performance stage.
“It’s our goal to bring people together as a community, just as this tradition has done for a very long time before us, with music, dance, and social participation as our primary connecting force,” says Old Time Fiddle Session founder Jeff Angeley. As such, interactive activities for children and adults are at the center of the day’s offerings. Some highlights of the social programming include a masquerade parade, flatfoot, barn, and contra dance instruction, nature-based art activities with Elements Learning Collaborative, a cookie contest, a cake walk, and a whole lot of open jamming.
Tickets are $20 for individuals, $10 for children 12 and under, and $50 for family passes. Online sales are available at Eventbrite. In person sales can be found at Hippo boutique in New Bedford and The Symphony Music Shop in Dartmouth.
About Old Time Fiddle Session & Southcoast Lessons
Old Time Fiddle Session and Community Gathering was founded in January of 2017. It’s mission is to provide traditional fiddle music programming for the South Coast of Massachusetts in an interactive, community-based format. In addition to the annual “Breaking Up Christmas” event, the organization hosts free regular monthly sessions on 4th Saturdays, a festive “World Fiddle Day” celebration, and a jam at the New Bedford Folk Festival. Southcoast Lessons provides individual and group music instruction at Hatch Street Studios and hosts social programming as well. As recent recipient of New Bedford Arts and Culture’s “Wicked Cool Places” grant, they’ll be providing a free participatory dance, singing, & instrumental music series in2019.
