'Celebration of the island': Beach Road Weekend brings Beck and other big music acts to Vineyard

After a year of silence in 2020 and a “mini” socially distant version in 2021, the Beach Road Weekend music festival on Martha’s Vineyard will return at full strength for the first time since its inaugural weekend in 2019.

Headlining this year’s three-day event at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven will be eight-time Grammy Award winner Beck, Wilco, the Avett Brothers, and a list of more than 30 other bands in what is shaping up to be possibly the biggest concert to ever take place on the island.

“This is stocked with 10 hours of solid music every day,” says Adam Epstein, festival founder and CEO of Innovation Arts and Entertainment as well as the president of the Friends of Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series. “There are not a bunch of filler bands on here. From beginning to end, it is incredible. If you’re missing it, you’re going to regret it.”

The concert bill also features local talent you’re sure to be familiar with, such as Falmouth’s own Crooked Coast and Boston-born funk/rock group Lettuce. Plenty of vendors and good eats will be available for what some would consider the ultimate summer weekend.

“It’s a celebration of the island,” says Epstein.

The road to Beach Road weekend

Epstein is a native New Yorker who now owns property on Martha’s Vineyard and “feels integrated into the community.” He spent his first summer on the island in 1988 as a college student picking up trash in Vineyard Haven during the day and washing dishes at night.

The island that “birthed James Taylor” has an “incredible history of live music,” Epstein says, but what he noticed as he came back as a visitor later in life didn’t live up to the reputation.

“Some of that rich musical history and integration with the rest of the world had started to disappear,” he says. “There (weren’t many) touring musicians traveling here. There’s a lot of local music, but for some reason it seemed that integration with the rest of the world had seemed to disappear.”

Epstein says he decided to use his resources to create what he describes as a setting where music from all over the world can be embraced. His lineup this year includes folk, funk, rock and pop.

Who’s playing?

Beach Road Weekend hit the ground running in 2019 with a bill that included John Fogerty and Phil Lesh, and returned in 2021 with Tedeschi Trucks and moe.. Epstein is picking up where he had hoped to be in 2020 by getting who was supposed to be that year’s headliner, Beck, back on the schedule. Beck’s Saturday performance, Epstein says, will be Beck’s first-ever show on Martha’s Vineyard. Folk rock group the Avett Brothers will headline Friday’s lineup, and alternative rock band Wilco will close out the shows on Sunday.

Those planning to be at the three-day event will have plenty of different bands to see perform live as groups will be playing on two different stages — the Lighthouse stage and Black Dog stage — beginning each day at 10:45 a.m. and finishing at 8 p.m.

“We’re honored and we’re happy that we are (part of Beach Road Weekend) and we can’t wait to come to Martha’s Vineyard and play with such an incredible lineup,” says Lettuce guitarist Adam Smirnoff. Lettuce — playing on the Lighthouse Stage at 2:15 p.m. Saturday — got its start in Boston 30 years ago and is a Grammy-nominated band, but Smirnoff doesn’t recall the group ever playing live on the Vineyard.

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As for what listeners can expect to hear the funk rock veterans play, that’s up in the air, although it’s possible there could be some new tracks from their latest album, “Unify.”

“There’s no real formula to how we go about it,” Smirnoff says about choosing a set list. “Hopefully whatever we end up playing is something that we enjoy playing that day and we’re able to dig deep and pull the most from our souls and put the most emotion we can behind the music.”

Falmouth’s Crooked Coast band is touting a new album, “Picture This” and will be playing Beach Road Weekend hot off the heels of headlining its very own music festival, Coast-Fest, and playing Boston Calling. Crooked Coast will perform at 11:15 a.m. Saturday on the same stage as Lettuce.

“I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Beck, that’s a huge bucket list, and just hanging out with all of our friends from the Vineyard and all our friends from Falmouth who are going to come over,” says Crooked Coast guitarist Luke Vose. “And like anything when you’re in front of a bunch of new people, that opportunity to share our music with them and hopefully make some new fans out of it.”

Traveling to Beach Road Weekend

Concert goers have multiple options when it comes to deciding how they want to travel to Beach Road Weekend. Depending on where they’re departing from, those include Hy-Line Cruises in Hyannis; the Seastreak that makes stops in New Jersey, New York City and New Bedford; the Steamship Authority ferries from Woods Hole; and the Island Queen in Falmouth. There’s a fast ferry that leaves Rhode Island for Martha’s Vineyard, too.

Cape Air, Delta, Jet Blue and American Airlines could get attendees there by air. Martha’s Vineyard Airport is located six miles from Veterans Memorial Park where the festival is taking place.

Once on the island, there is a shuttle service provided for a fee by the concert organizers that makes stops from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. in Oak Bluffs, Edgartown and West Tisbury. There will also be a “water taxi” being offered exclusively to Beach Road Weekend ticket holders from Martha’s Vineyard to “the mainland,” according to the event’s website, where you can reserve a spot, including late-night.

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What’s still available, up to $2,500 seats in the Skydeck, can be found on the Beach Road Weekend website.

Looking ahead

Beach Road Weekend has yet to make a profit since its start in 2019, Epstein says, when its costs exceeded its income by about $1.5 million. But Epstein says that isn’t unusual when investing in an event that you can build off of year after year.

“We’re building an attraction, an event, and that event comes with a significant multi-million-dollar investment,” he says. “So, with the festival in the first year, it was about the concept and doing it again. You recover a little more each year you do the festival.”

Epstein recently signed a three-year deal – counting this year – with the town of Tisbury to ensure that Beach Road Weekend will not be going anywhere and will have a chance to recoup its expenses.

As part of the deal, the town will get a certain percentage of the profit after the festival reaches the point of covering its costs, on top of the sales tax income the town already receives from everything sold at the festival.

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“There is a fund created for providing services for certain organizations, but it goes into a fund and the town decides what it will be for,” Epstein explains. When asked how much of a cut of the profit the town of Tisbury will receive, Epstein says, “I don’t remember.”

Despite expecting about 12,000 people to attend this year’s Beach Road Weekend, when asked if the event would see a profit in 2022, Epstein says, “We were.” But the spike in prices for everything from diesel fuel to hotel rooms for staff and talent has made that seem less likely, he says.

Epstein remains optimistic for the next two years of Beach Road Weekend, repeating that’s why “You build a system that you can repeat every year.” The interest and buzz around the event continues to increase year after year, he says, and the support from Tisbury has been “incredible.”

“We’re dedicated to having a safe, fun event that everybody comes to and sees this island in its best light: welcoming, hospitable,” Epstein says. “We want to welcome people to our home here, show them a good time, and then see them off safely.”

How to be part of Beach Road Weekend 

When: 10:45 a.m. – 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 26 through Sunday, Aug. 28 (doors open at 10 a.m.)

 Where: Veterans Memorial Park, off Causeway Road, Vineyard Haven

Tickets: $150 single-day pass general admission, $275 three-day pass general admission, $2,000-2,500 Skydeck, $1,500 three-day VIP

Reservations and information: https://www.beachroadweekend.com/

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Beach Road Weekend: Martha's Vineyard gets Beck, Wilco, more music