By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer
---- — Hobofest dares transients to slow down and meet at the tracks.
It's a festival marking the drift of music and art through community.
Todd Smith, curator of ever-changing art at Gallery 7444, and artist Peter Seward decided to make a day of it last year — and Hobofest drew more than 450 people in its first incarnation.
It's a hootenanny in the true meaning of the word, dating back to early folk music gatherings where hours of song and dance were shared in a field with food and conversation.
Hobos are iconic of transient culture and considered the upper echelon of a society moving from place to place to find work, Smith explained.
In doing so, they carry in fresh hands, new ideas, different languages, music and customs.
In many ways, the railroad lines symbolize their passage.
"Originally, we talked about holding this at both ends of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad line in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake," Seward said.
The festival, which returns Sunday with 10 hours of music, settled instead at an Adirondack crossroads.
"Saranac Lake is an interesting micro-climate of culture, a mix of artists, professionals and hardworking people. Everybody sort of respects what everyone else is doing," Smith said.
"If there was (an inspiration) to a hobofest, it would be about this place," Seward said, gesturing toward the oblong park at the end of Depot Street, a scruffy patch of land under civic restoration encompassing the tracks.
POCKET OF CALM
Union Depot and the Branch & Callahan building, which was once headquarters to builders dispersed throughout the Adirondacks, are already renovated.
The former depot agent's building has been reclaimed and is now occupied by Smith's gallery.
There are still neighboring remnants of an industrial era — the old lumberyard, its warehouses, some outbuildings parked at a dusty end of the road.
"In Saranac Lake, you have all these thoroughfares that converge," Smith said.
Church Street is also Route 86. Main Street is also Route 3. And River Street is Route 86 until it morphs into Route 3 at the Main Street intersection.
They count transience in numbers of people passing by.
But Depot Street slips into a quiet side pocket of calm that works like an invitation.
"This site doesn't have the pressure of being in traffic," Seward said.
"This is one of the last vacant areas in town that has the potential to make a mark," Smith suggested.
And the train pulls in and out, transience in one stop.
When the train whistle blows at a quarter to noon Sunday, musicians will step onto a temporary stage to get Hobofest rolling.
The event is free in the spirit of roaming vagabonds, largely because the musicians have agreed to play for a stipend.
FESTIVAL OF FOLK
The Roulette Sisters headline Hobofest this year. Coming up from Brooklyn, their music blends the harmony of their own songs with American folk classics from the early 1900s.
Frankenpine, with one leg already in the Adirondacks, returns to Hobofest this year, along with Cracking Foxy, the Barn Cats, Big Slyde and the Pine Ridge Rounders.
A host of local musicians, singers and songwriters are also lined up to play as the day unfolds.
Promoters call it A Seward's Folly Production and gained sponsorship this year from North Country Public Radio.
Their effort hearkens to a kinder, simpler time in the roots of an industrial awakening. Acknowledging the Great Recession, promoters decided last year to make it a free concert.
"We started it as free to see if it's feasible to hold this type of event here," Smith said, looking around at the open Depot Street Park and parking lot.
"We're very aware we can't give art away, so we restructured how people can contribute," Seward said, looking toward the future.
They are selling hats and buttons and food, all of which supports musical guests and the common festival of folk.
The T-shirts were silkscreened one at a time last week by Seward and Smith at Bluseed Studios.
Chefs will be roasting heritage pig on a hobo grill alongside vegetarian fare and, of course, beans are on the menu.
"Putting events like this in place, where it all of a sudden crowds uptown, you can feel the energy," Smith said.
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
