Hundreds attend music fest in Lynn Woods

LYNN – Hundreds of people braved Saturday?s high temperatures to attend the Hodgepodge Music Festival held at Lynn Woods? amphitheatre.?It?s like Lynn?s own Warped Tour,” said attendee Shawna Upton, a Lynn Classical High School junior. “It?s cool because it?s all local talent.”That was exactly the intention of the two Lynn Classical High School seniors, Dean Albert and Dom Landry, who organized the event. The two musicians wanted to have a festival “get together” to showcase the local young talent of their friends. Now in its second year, the festival featured 14 bands in 25-minute sets from as close as Lynn to as far as New Hampshire.?We wanted it to be a festival for the youth, by the youth,” said Landry.The two teens said they worked with the city to get what they needed to pull the event off – including refreshments, restrooms, police officers and an ambulance to support the crowd they wanted.?We started turning everything from a thought into a reality,” said Landry.Before the event kicked off at noon, the show?s Facebook event page was showing 866 attendees. Landry and Albert estimated they had around 200-300 in the first two hours. They expected more would come around 4 p.m. when the temperature cooled. Until then, the musicians and audience kept cool by sitting in the shade and drinking lots of water.?We have a ridiculous amount of water and we have some sprinklers by the pool,” said Landry, referring to the gated fountains at the reservation.The crowd was made up of more than just high school students – middle aged adults and children were also in attendance, supporting brothers, sisters and friends in the various bands. Some sat on the slope in the shade, others wandered around the site between the sets.Gus Tejeda, a member of Landry?s band Cosmic Origin, said the intent was to have something for everyone to listen to.?There?s a range from ska to funk, classic rock, heavy metal, death metal – we?ve got everything,” he said. “The more variation the better – that way everyone enjoys the show.”?Last year was a lot smaller and they weren?t selling anything,” said Classical High alum Jessica Laramie. “Now they?re selling T-shirts, food and there?s an ice cream truck down the street.”Albert said they even had to turn down about 10 bands this year to fit the noon to 9 p.m. time slot.Albert and Landry are planning to expand the festival to a multi-day event like Woodstock, or even to host a festival in the winter. “The further you can grow, the further the influence can go,” said Albert.