Lynn music fest draws raves

LYNN – Hundreds of high school students, recent graduates and their families attended or performed in a music festival Saturday in Lynn Woods that has become a summer institution for many Lynn youth.”It’s gotten to the point where everyone we know, even people we don’t know, go to Hodgepodge,” said Dom Landry, who organized the event with fellow Lynn Classical alumni Dean Albert. This is the third annual Hodgepodge the two have put together, and they said it keeps growing every year.Lynn resident Courtney McDonald said she and her friends mark Hodgepodge on their calendars now.”It’s the start of summer,” McDonald said, shouting over music from the current band on stage.View a photo gallery.That band, “The Dirty Floorboards,” featured lead singer Bailey Trahant, drummer Johnny Plunkett, keyboardist Bradley Pill and guitarist Andrew Blocksidge.Trahant’s father, Ward 2 City Councilor William Trahant, found shade of a tree next to the festival’s hot dog stand to watch his son play.He said the music festival is a wonderful event for Lynn’s youth.”It’s a great place that they can come to; something positive,” he said.The festival also unites different groups of people, he said.”Kids from all different parts of the city who probably never would have met each other are here,” he said.Lynn English junior Jasmeen Bandoo agreed. She and her friends, fellow English students Samantha Angelone and Chance Hudson, shared a blanket they had laid out on yet another shady spot.”You see people you haven’t seen in forever,” she said.Nearby, Lynn English junior Chris Tinkham was dancing in the sun with his friends Petey Dow, Randy Gerrish and Mark Mishel.Tinkham said you can’t have a bad time at a music festival like Hodgepodge.”It’s a bunch of people our age and music,” he said.Part of the versatile appeal of Hodgepodge is the variety of music performed during the seven-hour festival, said organizers Albert and Landry. The pair booked acts from rap to classic rock to solo acoustic sets to metal and everything in between.They said most of the acts are local but that every year they try to expand the lineup.One of the newer bands to perform in this year’s festival was Panic Candy, a metal band based out of Wilmington.Band member Jeff Lariviere, who is from Lynn, said Hodgepodge is the first time his band has played on the North Shore.”A lot of Lynn kids will come, and it’s such a new group, so why not bring our music to them,” he said.Another band slated for later in the evening was “Exempt,” featuring 19-year-old Kirk Dow, a graduate of Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, and his band mates Jarred Zorzy, Ellis Hobby and Joe Fitzgerald, all from Lynn.Dow said Hodgepodge has become a key gig on his band’s list.”There’s no way we could turn down playing at this festival,” he said.His friend, Jonathan St. Laurent, also a graduate from Lynn Tech, said that the festival has become a can’t-miss experience even for those in the audience, like him.”I love Hodgepodge,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you’ll look back and say, ?We had so much fun, where did the time go?'”Albert and Landry said the festival wouldn’t have been possible with out help from Allen Klein and Tony Doucette of Lynn Ladder, which donated the stage, and Doug Beville of DA Beville, which assembled the stage. Albert’s father, Dean Albert, and his employees of Albert’s Improvement Services also helped make Saturday a reality, he said.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].