Since 2012, the Caroga Arts Collective has been hosting a summer music festival in the eponymous Fulton County community. With 15 season behind them the nonprofit has big plans for its next 15 seasons.
Dozens of musicians are packed into a dark corner of a dance hall on Caroga Lake’s northern shores rehearsing before the start of their summer programming.
It’s a part of an annual music festival Kyle Price founded when he was just 19 years old – he and his friends shacked up at a home owned by his grandmother just down the shore from where he’s practicing now. That first summer, they performed at a local chapel.
Price now sits in a quiet corner of what once was a summer amusement destination: Sherman’s Park.
“Spending my childhood down the street, you become very connected to the region and also to the property here at Sherman’s in particular. Because you grew up where maybe you take a carousel ride here or there but, really, compared to the heydays of the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, I didn’t get to experience that. So, you hear a lot of stories, but then you notice, what’s actually propelling this to actually happen for me and for future generations? And when it didn’t feel like it was actually happening, I thought, you know, we have the people and we could really build the momentum here to do something special,” said Price.
Sherman’s has laid relatively dormant for years. All that remains standing is a bumper-car pavilion and a carousel. The iconic Ferris Wheel is currently being repaired and moved across the green – that’s to make way for the Caroga Arts Collective’s incoming amphitheater.
“If you really have a venue where you’re bringing people who solo in Carnegie Hall and, all due respect to our current bumper-car pavilion, instead of playing in the bumper-car pavilion they’re playing on a stage, that really highlights them. And then the audience can see them and experience that. That’s a really incredible thing,” said Price.
The CAC was awarded $5.2 million by the New York State Council on the Arts to help build out the planned amphitheater that will run right along the shoreline.
The plans for the physical space are impressive enough as is, but Price has a broader vision – he’d like to continue the expansion of educational programming, which began in 2023 at the facility, and perhaps more importantly, Price sees the CAC as an anchor for the previously adrift local community.
“It is quite surreal at times. But, I think because the whole group has worked really hard along the way it also feels very much like we’re meant to be here and it’s been a long time coming. Although it was innocent beginnings in 2012, there was always a part of the childhood self in me saying, ‘I want to do something in that space.’ And so, it was really more unifying those two timelines,” said Price.
Back inside, musicians are taking a well-earned lunch break catered entirely by local volunteers.
Pianist Kevin Cole — taking a break from the Gershwin — has nothing but praise for Price and the CAC’s work.
“The other thing Kyle has in his favor is he’s a community-oriented person. And he respects history. You’re dealing with Sherman Park and the big bands and the amusement park and all of these people have their own memories and he’s able to incorporate them. Like a good chef he picks the right ingredients and then when he puts them together you get a souffle that rises really high. So, I’m looking forward and I hope I can be on the roster for that opening season in the new amphitheater,” said Cole.
That first season in the initial version of the amphitheater is set for 2027 with construction beginning this month.
Ben Kronk has been coming up from New York City to perform with the CAC since 2016.
“I’m going to buy a place up here because, I’m for real, it’s nice to have a getaway. Service is terrible so it’s nice to be unplugged and just do random stuff here. Even more organized things like, I’ never do this kind-of impromptu play, musical thing for a week. In the city it would be a whole hoopla and it would be obnoxious and it probably would be in Brooklyn. And so being able to be here and be in the water every day, I can be on a jetski right after rehearsal,” said Kronk.
The CAC’s local impact can be felt just a short walk down the shoreline.
John DonVito has sat on the CAC’s board of advisors for three years. He bought a home on the lake a decade ago fully intending to flip it, but the annual music festival quickly changed his tune.
“You know when I came here 10 years ago, every other house was for sale and I feel as though the Caroga Arts Collective has given this community a boost and if you can’t feel it now, you’re going to feel it in the future. And knowing what’s going on down there, I think they’re going to be one of the largest employers in town,” said DonVito.
Richard Nilsen’s father bought a property on the lake in 1949 – he’s seen the ebbs and flows of Caroga Lake.
“No, no way. No way could I have foreseen this. Kyle has done wonders and he has the gravitas to pull the community together for it which I think is wonderful,” said Nilsen.
Nilsen, and many other locals, can’t credit Price and the CAC enough for revitalizing their community.
“When you think he started it when he was 19, I didn’t know which way was up when I was 19. It’s wonderful what he’s done. He’s so community-minded, he’s so gracious, I can’t commend Kyle Price enough for what he’s doing. You know he had the Bacon brothers here, I got to meet Kevin Bacon and we’re friends now on Facebook,” said Nilsen.
If you ask Price about the praise, he takes it in stride – for him, the CAC’s work has just begun.
“We’ll have the dance hall as a year-round building where we can have big bands upstairs and have the nostalgia of the old jazz days. We’ll also have a lot of concerts there, restaurant space in there. Then we’ll have a boardwalk, in the master plan, that goes along the lake behind the amphitheater, behind the carousel and across the creek where we’ll have the bumper car pavilion moved as a picnic pavilion with a playground and a Soundgarden,” said Price.
The CAC's 2026 season runs through September 12th.
