By LA Guzda
Living in the Pocono Mountains means great outdoor opportunities – hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, theater and concerts. That’s right, outdoor entertainment is one of the area’s great summer gifts.
One can often walk through the woods listening to the sounds of nature that combine into a symphony. Birds, frogs, wind, cicadas – they are each vibrating in a key that often harmonizes; add coyotes howling, owls hooting and sometimes it’s a ballad and sometimes it creates a cacophony that tickles your senses.
We have several outdoor venues to provide outstanding musical performances. Here are my favs:
- Harmony in the Woods – A jewel located in Hawley. Drive slowly around the bend or you’ll miss the entrance! I have been knocked out by the level of talent. They also do a fantastic job with a diversity of offerings from blues to Celtic to soft rock.
- Wildflower at Dorflinger – always a pleasure to pack a meal, spread out the blanket and enjoy a beautiful evening under the stars listening to family-friendly music.
- Arlo’s – this may well be one of the coolest offerings in the area and one of the best kept secrets! It’s a gas station. It’s a store. It’s a restaurant… but not really. They call themselves a music venue that also sells food. It’s off-beat and well worth the effort to get there and enjoy it’s Woodstock vibe.
- Bethel Woods – speaking of Woodstock… the Big Daddy of music venues in our area is Bethel Woods. You can purchase seats under the pavilion roof or kick back on the grass where no light pollution makes for dramatic star-filled skies. Lawn seats also make seeing your favorite bands affordable. Go early and tailgate. Or go early and enjoy the museum.
A special treat in August is the Farms Arts Collective original climate change performances, Dream on the Farm – August 8-13, 6:30pm.
‘The More Things Change’ is play number four in the 10 play Dream on the Farm series taking place from 2020 to 2030. This year’s promenade performance tells the tale of a multi-generational farm family who is offered a considerable sum of money to sell their organic farmland to a group of developers who want to turn the farm into a “biodiversity” theme park called EcoLand.
Told in a series of memories by the narrator–a family member who lives as a hermit in the nearby woods–the audience is led across the farm to witness scenes and vignettes featuring the various family members. When the developers arrive on the farm and make their offer, a riveting family drama unfolds as they decide what to do in the face of climate change—to sell or not to sell?
The More Things Change is created and performed by the Farm Arts Collective ensemble and features original music, spectacle, and a poetry of performance that works in a unique harmony with the landscape and bucolic vistas of Willow Wisp Organic Farm, a 25-acre farm on the Delaware River. The audience is invited to a farm-fresh meal following the show as part of the performance experience.
Supported by National Endowment for the Arts, Radio Drama Network, William E. Chatlos Foundation, Honesdale National Bank and Deep Roots individual donors.
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