escapetony

Escape to New York Fest coming to Southampton, NY

Escape to NY

“As the 2011 North American music festival season kicks into high gear during the next several months, U.K. fest organizer Fred Fellowes will test the New York market with a three-day lifestyle event in August modeled after his Secret Garden Party in England.

The inaugural Escape to New York festival will be held Aug. 5-7 on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton, N.Y. The initial lineup includes Best Coast, White Rabbits and the Vaccines, and a full list of performers will be announced in the coming weeks, a representative says.

“We’re not coming out guns blazing with a huge mega-list of an event, by any means,” says Fellowes, whose summertime Secret Garden Party annually draws about 30,000 people to Grange Farm in Cambridgeshire. Founded in 2003, the event has featured such acts as Phoenix, Florence & the Machine and the xx. “We are trying to start with a modest grass-roots type of approach with about 5,000 people and slowly grow it from there,” Fellowes adds.

The idea to stage an event on an Indian reservation was spurred by a chance encounter Fellowes had five years ago at Austin’s South by Southwest with entrepreneur Rocco Gardner, who had ties with the Shinnecock tribe.” [Billboard]

Tickets are already on sale. Watch a video teaser below…