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Bridgeport Prepares To Rock In Black Rock For Charity

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Black Rock Rocks, a day charitable music festival in Bridgeport’s Black Rock Community, returns Saturday, Feb. 28, marking the organization's 10th anniversary.

Funds from the 10th Annual Black Rock Rocks Celebration will be donated to Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County.

Funds from the 10th Annual Black Rock Rocks Celebration will be donated to Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County.

Photo Credit: Black Rock Rocks
The Business Catskill Chill (artists pictured above) perform at the 2014 Black Rock Rocks festival.

The Business Catskill Chill (artists pictured above) perform at the 2014 Black Rock Rocks festival.

Photo Credit: Black Rock Rocks

“We’re putting on a spectacular group of bands,” said Melissa Bernstein, secretary and a board member of the Black Rock Rocks Organization. “We always try to get a good balance of new bands and bands that play Black Rock Rocks every year.”

Started in 2005 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Black Rock Rocks was designed as a way to raise money for victims of the deadly storm.

“Within a week we put together a small event of three bands at the Acoustic Cafe [on Fairfield Avenue],” Bernstein said. “It was a down and dirty fundraiser to send money to the Red Cross.”

The aim of the event was to help support music and arts programs in the area, which may have not received the help otherwise given the huge needs the area had after Katrina, Bernstein said.

There was a massive “loss of instruments and books and teachers,” Bernstein added, and the Black Rock Rocks Organization wanted to help groups in New Orleans that couldn’t sustain themselves after the 2005 tragedy.

Today, Black Rock Rocks has grown into a major event. Since the three-band one-venue, inaugural event, the 10th anniversary will see four venues hosting an unprecedented 24 bands.

Furthermore, since 2010, the event has been refocused.

“In 2010 we saw a bigger shift because New Orleans was doing well,” Berstein said.

Today, Black Rock Rocks still supports music and arts in New Orleans, but it also has begun to focus on its home city of Bridgeport as well, she said.

On Saturday, The Acoustic Cafe, Tautog Tavern, Fire Engine Pizza Co. and B.R.Y.A.C. -- all located on Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport -- will host the 24 bands for a total of 14 hours.

Last year’s Black Rock Rocks Mardi Gras-themed event drew more than 800 supporters.This year, Bernstein believes they can match that number, or do better.

Since the event will take place both inside and outside of the venues, an “operations team” of volunteers has been “chipping away at ice on the sidewalk to make sure the path between venues is safer,” Bernstein said.

Saturday’s annual event will cost $25 for adults, $5 for those ages 12 to 20 with free admission for children under 12.

The event will be family friendly until about 8 p.m., with face painters and raffles during the day.

“The idea is to support music education,” she said. “What better way to learn, than to see live music.”

For the Black Rock Rocks organization, the daylong music fest is a reflection of the community. Bernstein -- a former Black Rock resident -- described as a tight-knit “old-fashioned neighborhood … a community lost in the 21st century.”

“[Black Rock Rocks] has seen some amazing growth that has to do with the community that supports it,” Bernstein said. “We wouldn’t be able to sustain it if we didn’t have hundreds of people coming each year.”

For a list of Saturday’s artists and more information on Black Rock Rocks, visit the website here.

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