“GREAT SWAMP GREAT MUSIC” FESTIVAL BRINGS LIVE MUSIC TO GIRALDA FARMS PRESERVE FOR A SAFE AND ENTERTAINING AFTERNOON

A family-friendly event

Morristown, NJ —Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) announced today that their 3^rd annual music festival will take place on Sunday, August 16, 2020, 2:00-7:30 PM (gates open at 1:00 PM). The festival’s new location is Giralda Farms Preserve, located just minutes off I-287 in Chatham, New Jersey. The live music festival is open to the public. This family-friendly, outdoor festival is the organization’s 2^nd largest annual fundraiser featuring live music, food, and merchandise vendors.

Tickets can be purchased at GreatSwamp.org. Pricing: $25 in advance ($30 at the gate) for adults, $15 for students, children 13 and under are free. For more information or to purchase tickets by phone, call Val at 908-872-0344.

“We can all use a break from the stress of these last several months,” stated Val Thorpe, GSWA Director of Communications and event producer. “Moving the festival to Giralda Farms Preserve allows everyone to physically distance from one-another while sharing this experience together in a beautiful, sprawling, grassy, open space.”

The event features returning crowd-favorites Not Enough Jeffs and Lenox Underground. New to the festival this year are Big Train, The Big Fuss, and Rosewood. A much-larger stage this year means better visibility for the audience and allows band members to spread out comfortably.

All festival goers are encouraged to bring their blankets or low-lying chairs. For safety reasons, GSWA eliminated the big tent and alcohol sales this year, however, food will be available for purchase from Minuteman Smokehouse & Grill (BBQ), Summer Daze Catering (Philly cheesesteaks and fresh-squeezed lemonade), Pie Oh My Pizza (classic, vegetarian, and vegan options), and Scoops ice cream. Attendees can also enjoy browsing unique items for sale from a variety of merchandise vendors. Parking is free and plentiful.

“This music festival is an important fundraising event for us,” said Sally Rubin, GSWA Executive Director, “but it’s also become a fun, lively, established event that we are proud to offer to the public!”

GSWA will follow all COVID-19 safety protocols to include limiting the number of attendees, enforcing the proper use of face masks for all attendees ages two and older when not seated in their festival space, and social distancing as outlined on New Jersey’s COVID-19 website www.covid19.nj.gov and in the CDC guidelines www.cdc.gov.

The 136-acre Giralda Farms Preserve was permanently preserved for public use in 2015, nearly 100 years after it had been initially purchased by private estate owner, Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, in 1916. The preserve features a combination of meadows and hardwood wetlands and uplands, lawns, winding trails, and majestic trees.

GSWA thanks their generous festival sponsors for making this possible:  Delta Dental of New Jersey, Adrienne & Dillard Kirby, Peapack Private Wealth Management, Pipe Works Home Services, Inc., Senlac Ridge Partners, Atlantic Health System, Community Foundation of New Jersey, Agi & Matt Krauser, Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP Reed & Adrienne Auerbach, and RegentAtlantic.

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About the Great Swamp Watershed Association

Founded in 1981, the Great Swamp Watershed Association (GSWA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and improving the water resources of the Passaic River region, from the Great Swamp headwaters to Newark Bay, for present and future generations. Through education, advocacy, science, land preservation, and stewardship, in collaboration with partners, we work to instill our communities with an awareness of water’s effect on health and the beauty of the environment, from source to sea.  The organization educates nearly 5,000 school children, monitors over 30 stream locations, and holds approximately 50 public events each year.

For more information about the Great Swamp Watershed Association, visit www.GreatSwamp.org.

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