Caffè Lena is set to celebrate 65 years in Saratoga Springs this weekend with an outdoor concert throughout downtown.
The world-renowned folk venue will mark its 65th anniversary Sunday with its fourth annual Sing in the Streets festival. Seven stages throughout downtown Saratoga Springs will feature more than a dozen genre-spanning artists.
Finance and Operations Director Mateo Vesganian said the support means the world to Caffè Lena staff.
“Well, I think there’s something special to be said about a place that can be somewhere for 65 years and to be thriving for 65 years. It’s the center point of a lot of people’s creative worlds and their expressive worlds. And I think that this is a way for us to celebrate that together. Caffè Lena doesn’t exist without everyone that comes through those doors or performs on that stage. So, lets get it out on the streets let’s sing about it together,” said Vesganian.
The country’s oldest continuously operating folk venue got a $2 million facelift in 2017. The venue on Phila Street now features a two-story glass exterior wall while preserving its iconic small wooden stage on the second floor.
Performers like Cold Chocolate, Golfstorm, and Sara Milonovich will perform, as will a set of student groups from Caffè Lena’s own School of Music.
“We’ve cultivated this education program that enables kids to sit down in a group setting and learn music and share that. And I think that is something that is maybe being lost in this generation,” said Matt Griffin.
Matt Griffin directs the School of Music, one of the primary beneficiaries of Sunday’s event. He’s been playing on Caffè Lena’s stages since he was in middle school.
“I think coming together and spreading music in-person, in a group setting, learning old songs learning new songs and expressing yourself is one of the corner stones of humanity. And I think that having the opportunity to pass this on to the next generation and having so many people willing to help along the way has just been like inspiring for me to see,” said Griffin.
Executive Director Sarah Craig has led the venue for 30 years. She says one of her favorite parts of the job is that nearly everyone she interacts with has a Caffè Lena story.
“It’s the very fact that the venue has its doors wide open so that people come in and they can feel like they’re part of the community and like they’re part of something big and important. That’s really what this celebration is all about on Sunday is because it’s not that there’s a team of usually talented professionals behind the scenes keeping this together, it really is the whole community,” said Craig.
When planning to celebrate such a milestone, she thinks of the luminaries who came through Caffè Lena like Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and, most famously, Bob Dylan.
In her time, Craig has seen a number of artists perform in the Spa City before making it big, including Billy Strings, who is now in the middle of an international tour.
“And just a few years ago he was standing on that little corner stage out there in the next room and just blowing our minds. Sweating and turning red, and his hands were on fire, and there was smoke coming out of the strings he was playing so fast, it was unbelievable. Did we know he was going to turn into what he’s turned into? No. But that’s the nature of the place, it’s like every single night you’ll come in and you’ll see something extraordinary and sometimes the fates conspire to put that person on a huge national stage, and sometimes they don’t, but the show is just as good,” said Craig.
Sunday’s free festival runs from 12-4 p.m.
