Great South Bay Music Festival returns to Shorefront Park

The Great South Bay Music Festival returns to Shorefront Park in Patchogue on July 18-21.

It’s the 16th year for the popular event, which this year includes headliners Jim Messina, Yes frontman Jon Anderson, and Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues.

Locally based performers will also be on the bill, led by Cassandra House, folk-rock band Miles to Dayton, and Katie Pearlman and The Joni Project, who play the music of Joni Mitchell.

The festival will also include food and beverage vendors, arts and crafts vendors, and kids shows on Saturday and Sunday

This year’s event is expected to draw as many as 15,000 people to Patchogue over four days. That’s a far cry from the 3,500 people who came out the first year the festival was held in 2007, festival founder Jim Faith said. Faith is also one of the founding members of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook.

Faith originally planned to hold the festival in Riverhead, but Patchogue mayor Paul Pontieri reached out and suggested Faith hold it in Patchogue.

When Pontieri and members of the Village Board of Trustees braved a snowstorm for a meeting with Faith, the concert promoter knew the town was seriously interested.

“These are the kind of people I want to be involved with,” he remembers thinking.

Over the years, the festival has attracted music fans who come back each year and spend money in area restaurants, bars, and stores while in town, Faith said.

“We’ve been credited with helping Patchogue become the entertainment destination it is now,” Faith said.

As in past years, several nonprofit organizations will be able to distribute literature and solicit donations in the festival’s Storyville tent.

This year, the organizers also donated 350 tickets to area organizations that serve military veterans.

Here’s the festival lineup:

Thursday, July 18

• (doors 4 p.m., performances until 10 p.m.)
• Joe Bonamassa
• Jim Messina
• Brandon “Taz” Niederauer
• Kerry Kearney
• MJT
• Chloe Halpin
• Lex Grey & The Urban Pioneers

Friday, July 19

(doors 4 p.m., performances until 11 p.m.)

• Pepper
• StreetLight Manifesto
• Badfish
• Tropidelic
• Oogee Wawa
• Aqua Cherry
• Roots Foundation
• Enrose
• Nonstop to Cairo
• Chris Ruben Band
• IRIEspect
• Halfbreeds
• Samsara

Saturday, July 20

(doors 1 p.m. performances until 11 p.m.)

• Dark Star Orchestra
• The Disco Biscuits
• Dogs in a Pile
• Dopapod
• Karina Rykman
• Cassandra House
• Allmost Brothers
• The Joni Project
• Circus Mind
• Ernie & The Band
• Robinson Treacher
• Soundswell
• Drop the 4
• Imposters
• Andrew Weiss & Friends

Sunday, July 21

(doors 2 p.m. performances until 10 p.m.)

• Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks
• Justin Hayward
• Martin Barre
• Start Making Sense
• Miles to Dayton
• Wondrous Stories
• Electrix
• Stanton Anderson Band
• Rob Europe
• Foster Europe Band
• Funkin’ A
• Om-En
• Paris Ray
• Original Gossip Band
• Bleeding Egos

Find prices and ticket packages and order tickets at greatsouthbaymusicfestival.com. $1 per ticket will be donated to the GSB-SB Hospital Cancer Fund at Stony Brook University Hospital.