Cabin Fever Music Festival Provides Local Artists a Chance to Shine

East End residents will have the perfect opportunity to escape the winter blues with a refreshing twist of live music presented by the Cabin Fever Music Festival. The festival is a two-week event that will showcase local talent from February 3 to 24 at venues in Riverhead and East Hampton.

“It’s really all about the music,” said festival founder and organizer Brendon Henry. “This isn’t like your typical festival where you think of a bunch of people sitting in the backroom counting money, and no one makes anything off it. This is grassroots, and it’s all about getting music out.”

Henry said he started the festival in 2008 to get people into the local bars at night during the off-season.

“Back then, there really wasn’t a year-round population like we have now,” he said. “So when you got to February, it was like there was nobody out, and we were all people that worked in the restaurant industry.”

The first year of the festival had three or four bars participating, with two shows each weekend. It featured all original bands from the East End that the festival wanted to give exposure to. Since then, more than 150 bands have played in the festival.

“It ended up catching on, and people liked it,” Henry said. “It’s one of the very rare opportunities that musicians get to play their music if they choose.”

The festival has been going steady ever since, with the exception of a break in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

While there are some cover bands, most play original music. The festival has also been a springboard for local talent to expand to bigger venues.

“We’ve had people who played it that went on to play Jones Beach, people who played it and ended up at the Paramount, Radio City Music Hall,” Henry said. “So it’s cool because some of our people get out and get to these bigger touring areas.”

Henry is especially excited about this year’s lineup, which he described as an interesting mix between old and new. For example, Craig Whitney, an acoustic songwriter who has played 15 of 16 festivals, will be back.

“He’s been with us since the beginning,” Henry said. “And he’s like the guy who we all grew up watching.”

The Cabin Fever Music Festival kicks off February 3 at 7 p.m. at The Clubhouse in East Hampton. Guilty Pleasure, the band in which Henry plays guitar, along with Souliztik, will take the stage. Guilty Pleasure aims to play music everyone knows every word to, creating a fun, upbeat sing-along with the audience.

“It’s all about the cabin fever and how excited we are to be back,” Henry said.

The next show will be an acoustic night on February 9 at 6 p.m. with several singer-songwriters performing at the North Fork Brewing Company in Riverhead. The brewery’s owner, Pete Barraud, is a huge music fan, and Henry said it has been great to work with him.

“We want to get involved with him because we love him,” Henry explained. “He’s such a nice dude.”

Given the venue’s size, it’s hard to have a rock band with drums, so it was decided that singer-songwriters would be a good fit for the intimate space. Henry hand-selects the performers for the evening, with Craig Whitney, Greg McMullen and Rachelle Rossi among those who will take the stage.

“It doesn’t matter what your style is,” he said. “I just want you to come play some of your music, some of your originals. It’s just mellow. People come to hear music and they just hang out. It’s fun.”

Also in the lineup, on February 10 at 2 p.m., is a punk rock matinee, one of Henry’s favorite shows every year. Around 10 bands are performing at Ubergeek Brewing in Riverhead, which Henry said had become the “de facto punk rock venue out here.” Jones Crusher, an iconic Long Island band, is headlining.

“They’ve been around a while, and they’re fun,” Henry said. “They’re a really, really fun band.”

Clover’s Curfew, another band playing that night, just wrapped a national tour and is releasing new music. The band’s style is Irish, mixed with punk and folk, playing with acoustics and the mandolin.

The festival will return to Ubergeek on February 23 at 6 p.m. with more of a country Americana vibe. The Trailer Park Gigolos, Brian Gallo and his band, and Pat Marelli will perform. The Trailer Park Gigolos are a talented Manorville band with a Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings aura, according to Henry. Gallo plays all over, and solo artist Marelli will open.

Most of the shows are for all ages, with the exception of The Stephen Talkhouse show on February 24 at 6 p.m., or as Henry puts it, the “annual party.” The bands Project Vibe and The Realm are playing. As Project Vibe recently came out with a new album, the event doubles as a record release party. Project Vibe has been a loyal member of the festival for years, Henry said.

“They’ve been in the festival every year, and they didn’t need to when we started,” Henry said. “They were a big band on the East End, and it’s always been about community and helping each other out and getting music out, and that’s the beauty of it. There are no egos involved.”

Henry is from the East End himself, having grown up in Westhampton. He said he has played music since he was a kid, with his first gig at 15.

“We didn’t have the internet or video games,” he said. “We didn’t really have a ton of money growing up. So we had music, and we’d all get together every day after school at my house. We would write songs and record them.”

In becoming a part of the local music scene, Henry discovered there was a tremendous amount of talent in the area that people were not getting to see or hear. In developing the festival, he’s proud that he gave all of these talented artists a chance to break out. Oftentimes, the venues that hosted the festival would book the musicians afterward, impressed by their performances.

The festival does have an application process where musicians can apply, but a large part of the bands that perform are scouted by Henry.

“I’ll go see a local band or a local show,” he said. “And then I’ll see a band open, and I’ll go out and find them. I’ll find them in person or online or wherever I have to. That’s how I developed a lot of relationships with many of the bands we still have. There are some bands that I’ve been friends with now for like 10 years, 15 years. And it was all because I caught them playing a set at some bar one time.”

For more information, visit the Cabin Fever Music Festival’s Facebook page.