As you have may have already heard, the ownership of St. Joe’s is being returned to the city. This change has clear implications for Rest Fest 2013…namely, the festival will not be held at St. Joe’s.

First off, we would like to extend a gigantic Thank You to the Historic Albany Foundation for the opportunity to utilize St. Joe’s and turn a crazy idea for a weekend show into a successful annual event that continues to grow. We would also like to thank the Ten Broeck and Arbor Hill communities for being welcoming, supportive and open minded as we figured out how to hold a music festival in an ancient cathedral. Finding a new venue was no easy task, but we at B3nson have always figured that one day we would move from St Joe’s.

Now, for some exciting and excellent news! We have secured the amazing Contemporary Artists Center at Woodside to be the location for the 2013 Restoration Festival! The CAC is a Non-Profit arts organization which has set up shop at the Historic Woodside Church and Chapel in Troy to serve as a sustainable incubator for contemporary artists. Its international artist residency program opened in 2009, and the grand opening of its performance and exhibition space will be May 2014. The folks at CAC Woodside have been kind enough to let us sneak in there and use their space prior to their official opening to continue the mission of Rest Fest to showcase local musicians, culture, architecture, and community. Needless to say, we are very very excited.

If the mission of CAC Woodside is as exciting to you as it is to us, you should certainly check out their website for more information.

Ok, so big changes right? Here is a quick Rundown:

• Restoration Festival 2013 will take place on Friday September 6th and Saturday September 7th at the Contemporary Arts Center, Woodside located at 71 Mill Street, Troy NY 12180 (the amazing old church on top of the hill).

• Tickets will be available at a special early bird rate in June, once we start announcing bands. Those on our mailing list will get first dibs on all tickets, and will get any updates prior to us posting on the internet (we know, not this one, but this was just too big to hold back once we knew we could announce). You can sign up for our mailing list by putting your email address over at the right side of the page.

• Twenty Five Percent of net proceeds will go to CAC, Woodside to help with the final stages of the building’s restoration – Doing good while having fun!

• Many, many more updates to come…

I am sure there are many questions and concerns, so if you have any, or just want to say hi, feel free to email festival@b3nson.net, and I will get back to you. That said, our FAQ was taken over by internet bots over the past few months, so if you have sent something there, we unfortunately did not get it. Please bear with us, as we will be updating the website and the FAQ to reflect all of the changes happening this year.

We really can’t wait, and we hope to see you this Fall.