Solid Sound Welcomes Newcomers & Festival Veterans

People from around the country navigated their way — including over the Hairpin Turn — to get to North Adams for Solid Sound.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — As Solid Sound winded down this weekend, people from throughout the country shared a similar experience of a family friendly and musically diverse music festival.

This was also the first Solid Sound Festival for Arielle Reindeau and Peter Kyller of Boston.

"I looked into going out to the museum and then from there I found they had this cool event going on," Kyller said. "I thought we could probably do some camping along with it, so it turned out to have a bunch of stuff we wanted to do."

Both Reindeau and Kyller said they were amazed by the beauty of the Berkshires.

"This is our first trip up, and the the drive was great. It's amazing, big open spaces," Reindeau said. "It is a mix of both music and art. You have the best of both worlds."

This was the second trip for Tom Schwartz of central Maine. He said the music festival is like no other.

"It's everybody kind of celebrating the music and the art. It's kind of cool when you are there and you see the people in the bands wondering around," Schwartz said. "It's like people in the bands are enjoying the music in the festival as much as the fans are."

Bill Reno and Elizabeth Earnhart are both Solid Sound veterans. Reno has been to all of them.

"That Hairpin Turn scares me but other than that, North Adams is a great little city," Reno said of the landmark turn overlooking the city on the Mohawk Trail. "And it is such a family friendly festival. By 11:30, 12, it's very respectful here, and it's not like one of those places where everyone is up going crazy."

This is Earnhart's second Solid Sound. It would have been her third, but she had to sit out on one after suffering from a mild heart attack.

"I was starting to get chest pains so I went to the hospital and it was a heart attack, a really little one," Earnhart said. "Since it was so mild, I told them to go to the concert. I didn't want them to come home. The doctor was a huge Wilco fan so he understood."

"I sent a note to Wilco's management," Reno said. "They sent to her and the doctor an autographed picture with everyone in the band."