A new, high-profile music festival is set to land in the region this summer, bringing some of the most celebrated voices in contemporary Broadway to Kingston’s waterfront.
Announced today, The Festival—a first-of-its-kind, three-day outdoor festival dedicated to Broadway music—will take place August 14–16 at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston. Conceived as a destination event, the festival represents a major expansion of the region’s summer cultural calendar, pairing world-class stage talent with one of the Hudson Valley’s most striking outdoor venues.
The initial lineup reads like a roll call of modern Broadway royalty. Headliners include six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Christopher Jackson, James Monroe Iglehart, Eva Noblezada, Adrienne Warren, and Casey Likes. They are joined by an expansive roster that also includes Renee Elise Goldsberry, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Norbert Leo Butz, Mandy Gonzalez, Denee Benton, Jason Robert Brown, Tom Kitt, Jenn Colella, Lauren Patten, Julie Benko, Seth Rudetsky, and Joy Woods, among many others, with additional performers to be announced.
The festival is produced by Josh Saltman and David B. Schwartz, former colleagues at The Walt Disney Company, who envision The Festival as both a celebration of the art form and a gathering place for theater lovers. The event will be directed and choreographed by Broadway vets Jerry Mitchell and D. B. Bonds.
Hutton Brickyards, a former industrial site turned cultural destination, has increasingly become a magnet for ambitious programming like the Field + Supply craft fair. The Festival marks the venue’s most theater-forward undertaking to date, and one of the largest Broadway-centered events ever staged in the Hudson Valley.
Beyond the main-stage performances, The Festival will layer in a slate of immersive fan experiences designed to turn the weekend into a full-spectrum theater gathering. Programming will include a 30th-anniversary celebration of “Rent” with original cast members, late-night campfire sing-alongs, a “Club Cumming on the Hudson” piano bar—named for the Manhattan cabaret co-owned by Alan Cumming, a Broadway Rave dance party, and theatrical costume contests, among other interactive events that blur the line between concert, cabaret, and communal hang.
Tickets and additional festival details are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. For now, the message is clear: this August, Broadway’s biggest voices are heading to Kingston.
