‘Wouldn’t It Be Fun If There Were a Coachella for Broadway?’ Now There Is
Categoria: Musica
With Tony-winning headliners, campfire singalongs, an original Rent cast reunion and a destination venue, The Festival will bring Broadway crowds way north of Times Square this summer.
Por Billboard | 24/07/2026
“You wish to go to the festival?” “The festival ?” “The king’ s festival?” To any musical theater fan, “the festival” likely first calls to mind those taunting words from the opening number of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods , sung to Cinderella by her evil stepmother and stepsisters. But this August, the organizers of a major new event roughly two hours north of Broadway are hoping the phrase will also take on a bigger meaning. From Friday Aug. 14th through Sunday Aug. 16th, Hutton Brickyards — an industrial-chic riverfront hotel and venue overlooking the Hudson River in New York’s scenic Ulster County — will welcome a slew of the Great White Way’s biggest stars (and their fans) for three concert-packed days: the first-ever iteration of The Festival . “This came about because I am a big music festival guy, and I love, love Coachella,” says Joshua Saltman, co-founder of The Festival. “I love the destination, immersive nature of those music festivals — this sort of escape for a weekend a year, where you’re in this different place with this community.” It was at Coachella, about six years ago, that the “a-ha moment” for The Festival happened for Saltman. “I was with some of my friends who were big theater people also, and we said in kind of a joking way, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if there was a Coachella for Broadway?’” A longtime Disney executive who was still with the company at the time, Saltman thought his pipe dream could only become a reality with a similarly huge sponsorship partner. Then he went on The Broadway Cruise (a five-day Norwegian sailing to the Caribbean with Broadway stars onboard in varied programming, produced by Sixthman) with his wife. “And I had a sort of epiphany,” he recalls. “That was for a community of about 1500 people, and I thought, ‘Hey, what if we did [a festival] not for 20,000 people, but for 3,000 really committed fans?’ That’s something I feel we could do.” Back on dry land, he connected with former Disney colleague and fellow theater-lover David Schwartz to start ideating The Festival; from there, it was “a 13-month sprint,” bringing on a casting agent, production designer, choreographer and directors (Tony-winner Jerry Mitchell and his longtime collaborator DB Bonds) — and of course finding both the venue and talent that would bring in crowds. For the former, the founders immediately had particulars in mind. The venue would have to be within two hours of New York City, accessible for both the core audience and talent. It would need shelter for 3000 people, in case of inclement weather. And it would ideally feel like an urban escape: at “a really good music festival, the place becomes part of the experience,” Saltman says. Hutton Brickyards in Kingston — a town The Festival’s website brands as “where history meets hip” and “a former state capitol turned creative hotbed” — fit the bill perfectly (and