2024 Year in Review
2024 featured packed, once-in-a-lifetime gigs, happy, bustling markets, essential gallery shows of work by local artists, unbelievable parties, family activities, thoughtful film screenings, and so much more. It was an amazing season of programming in our eco-friendly foundry by the river.
Basilica Hudson has enchanted a global audience of diverse dreamers, bringing in performers and attendees from all over the region, the state, and the world for dazzling, epically scaled, in-person gatherings. By now an undeniable Hudson Valley gem, Basilica has in its 14 years of operation become the place where artists, makers, and other wonderful humans collectively enrich our lives.
You are a part of that magic, too, and here’s a look at what we got up to together this year:
24 HOUR DRONE ’24
24 HOUR DRONE threw down the gauntlet and called in the most ambitious of listeners for another uninterrupted marathon of experiments in sound and music. From noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday, we sprawled on the concrete, reverberations clanging in the rafters.
The 2024 edition featured a number of guest curators who expanded the scope of what we ever considered possible: the heads-only label RVNG brought us immaculate calm from the duo Black Decelerant and Rena Anawke’s A Space for Sound; the new and very exciting experimental electronic music festival Dripping organized a block featuring gong wizard Sphente, nodding-off zones by Earthen Sea, and a truly stunning performance by pioneering Butoh dancer Azumi OE with sounds by Lot Radio darling Space Tak. Our longtime curatorial partners Le Guess Who? wrangled a phenomenal, extra large set from Dragonchild, and Heavy Trip — one of the best booking agencies working today — hooked us up with sets by vocalist Nadah El Shazly and a drum machine forward hour from Alex Zhang Hungtai.
We also opened up a quarter or so of the available slots to a popular Open Call, which introduced our curatorial efforts to an unbelievably exciting array of local and international performers interested in the uncanny format of this festival — there were enough applicants to do DRONE ten times over!
It was one of our most cathartic experiences to ever happen in the factory. You can read a full rundown — and a long list of thank yous and credits — at this link here.
Basilica SoundScape 2024
In 2024 Basilica SoundScape returned to its pre-COVID glory as a true “weekend of art and music.” Friday we danced like dervishes at the largest party ever thrown on site, Saturday ushered in a marathon day of innovative and confrontational live performances, and Sunday brought it all home with family-sized performances and activities for community members of all ages.
Friday’s party — presented by the Bunker, lit by Nitemind, and DJ’d by Eris Drew and Octo Octa transformed the space into a sea of lasers, fog, and positive vibration dance music unlike anything that has ever happened at Basilica before.
Saturday’s day of live performances gave us nine straight hours of loud, memorable music, as well as books and words and readings, and continued well past midnight with an extremely cute afterparty in the West Wing. Ambient hip hop dread of E L U C I D, aggressive volume mania of Couch Slut, the barely-there folk music of Greg Mendez and Maria BC, and the always epic Lightning Bolt — we won’t soon forget the many different ways in which we were captivated.
And Sunday was yet another flavor entirely with a free daytime slate of programming focused on Basilica fans that still have strict bedtimes and the people that love them. Surreal minigolf, mystic storytime, thrifting, free ice cream, collage of self-discovery, a marathon set of toe tappers from the upcoming stars at Rock Academy, and a nervous system resetting culminating drone by Guy Blakeslee, such an incredibly wholesome way to cap off a true weekend of art and music.
Please enjoy this video highlight reel of Saturday’s performances:
And a full recap — with even more photos — can be read here.
Basilica Farm & Flea
We hosted two of our very popular Farm & Flea Markets in 2024 on the two opposite ends of the Hudson Valley Season: in July we held our first-ever Summer edition of the market with a focus on sunshine, refreshing treats, and the bursting bounty of the Valley. At the end of November, our mighty Holiday Market returned bigger and more popular than ever for end-of-year holiday camaraderie, gift-buying for gift-giving, and all the cozy knitwear you could ever desire.
The Summer Farm & Flea Market caught us in between visits to swimming holes and county fairs. And the Holiday Farm & Flea Market, which just wrapped up this past weekend, showed us all the light and warmth still available to us in the darker months of the year. Presented, as always, in partnership with LikeMindedObjects, Farm & Flea remains the “feel good hit of the season.”
Jupiter Nights
Our local summer concert series returned for a third year with one notable change — after a lengthy and very beautifully done renovation project, the Back Gallery reopened for our 2024 season. During the day — due to some well-placed skylights — its a breathtaking space, both wide open and intimate. As the sun sets it takes on another character — a few colored spotlights pointed at a stage make it feel magic, shadows dancing on the cave wall. It was the perfect setting for the transformative, celestial magic of Jupiter Nights.
This year’s music, once again curated by Allie Young, offered the by-now-expected mix of live music by locals and traveling performers that — truly — you would never see anywhere else. Paired with a summer sunset and a new fantastic menu by the kitchen wizards at Local 111 for each and every show, these nights were truly wonderful.
The series kicked off with an incantational performance by Odeya Nini, an unamplified blessing of the space. Then Home Body and Kalbells walloped us with two sets of infectious, gleaming synth pop.
The second Jupiter Nights brought us a night of tender songwriting and intimate performances — the unmistakable star power of Cleo Reed, the delicate, soaring melodies of Rose Stoller, and a special, stripped down set from Cryogeyser.
In July, as part of our duties in hosting the Bard MFA thesis show, we turned over a Jupiter Nights to the program’s performing candidates who transfixed a packed North Hall with beautifully confrontational work. Back in the back gallery for the fourth show of the series, laptop jazz sensations YAI gave us reason to bob our heads and made room for MIZU, whose resonant cello, thundering electronics, and handheld lighting rig filled the space with sound and movement.
In August we welcomed Armbruster, a multi-masked violin conjurer, Deerlady, a fantastic, catchy shoegaze band fronted by two musicians known otherwise for their outre work in jazz, and local legend Arone Dyer who played an unbelievable set accompanied by accordion. Then came perhaps the most sonically diverse lineup of the series — new age yoga mat sprawlers from Saapato, 2000s TRL punk energy script flipping from bright burner Yatta, and a masterful and expansive performance from composer and bassoonist Joy Guidry.
The series wrapped for the year with one more celestial hang — Greem Jellyfish somehow made electronic bangers feel emotionally vulnerable, the Fascinating Chimera Project’s bossa-influenced songwriting lulled us (they also performed one of the best-ever Madonna covers), and Wild Pink — performing a special set as a duo with legendary lap steel player Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner, brought it all home.
Other Concerts & Parties
Perhaps the biggest one-off gig of the year came to the Main Hall in June — presented in collaboration with Bowery Presents, noise-rock legend Kim Gordon brought her thunderous, hip-hop inflected cool-girl word salad to Basilica as part of her The Collective Tour. Her album — one of the best of 2024, surely — sounded brash and fantastic in a live setting. Along with opener Bill Nace, himself a legend in the noise music world, this was easily the loudest thing to happen at Basilica this year. Massive!
Speaking of divinely channeled feminine energy, our final large-scale music production of the year was the Hudson Valley’s own the Goddess Party, an arresting, witchy gathering of many wild women, rock ‘n’ roll, set dressing, costumes, wildlife, and giant yonic fabric sculptures. A mystical art choir unlike any other, their performance in the round took us to somewhere beyond the veils. A truly beautiful evening!
We were also able to host a wonderful music video screening by experimental RnB vocalist and saxophonist Allie Young (whom you may also know as the curator of Jupiter Nights). In the summer of 2024, she traveled to Belgrade with Clara Gallagher, a filmmaker and childhood friend. The result of their collaboration is “Back and Forth,” a hypnotic and infectious music video that also serves as proof-of-concept for an upcoming feature film. On a magical-feeling summer evening, Allie screened the video and performed live in the North Hall cinema. Opening the show was Talullah Calderwood, a musician who beautifully bows homemade metal instruments to disorienting effect.
Other screenings this year included another wildly inspiring iteration of the Climate Action Film Festival, a screening as part of the burgeoning Hudson Film Festival, and a special free presentation of moving image works by Otto Ohle, whom we also featured as an exhibiting artist in the Gallery.
It was also a great year for parties at Basilica, particularly because of how much room to dance the Back Gallery gives you. As part of this year’s Hudson’s Pride offerings, we turned the space over to beloved local eatery Lil Deb’s for their All the Bodies party — on a steamy, rainy night, they organized a fabulous collection of avant drag performances, the sweatiest of DJs, and cranked our fog machines to maximum while music pounded from a scaffolding rigged with LED lights. In August, after we had to unfortunately reschedule it, we threw another iteration of (FREAK) Flag Day, a gothwave counterparty to Hudson’s big Americana outpouring. The dark hearts of Troy’s Hellseeker Goth Night brought the noise (and a selection of horror movies on VHS). Given how fun these parties were, we think it’s totally understandable that our pictures didn’t turn out super clear.
Back Gallery Art
Throughout all of our live programming this season, we were lucky to host four fantastic visual art shows once the Back Gallery opened for real.
Our inaugural show utilizing both spaces featured a huge assortment of paintings large and small by local artist Kirby Crone, a familiar face to anyone who has been around Basilica in the last few years. Her work is colorful, full of gesture and movement, and looked fantastic on the pristine walls.
We then turned the space over to this year’s crop of Bard’s MFA candidates who in the Front Gallery, the Back Gallery, and in the exhibition space at our wonderful neighbors Time & Space Limited, put together a truly dazzling group show of various media — sculpture, photography, painting, installation, sound, and more besides.
In August we welcomed two artists for a unique group show — in the Front Gallery we hung works by painter Martin Muñoz, aka the Llama Man, whose paintings are at first glance are outsider folk art par excellence. On closer inspection, however, you can see a deep, moralistic, intelligent throughline in his work. The second artist in this group show — Otto Ohle — is a photographer, documentarian, and multimedia artist whose photos and multimedia works are poignant, funny, and uniquely in touch with our hybrid digital existences. He’s also the director of a beautiful documentary piece on the Llama Man himself.
And our final gallery show of the year features Bob Braine, an artist whose understanding of local history, ecology, and waterways is truly unparalleled. Through drawings, photographs, artifacts from the hull of a kayak, infrared imaging, and paintings, Braine’s “Leave No Trace: Photographs & Works on Paper” tells the ever-changing story of water, heavy metals, shorelines, and the ecosphere.
Many thanks to the individual donors and Patreon subscribers who made this 2024 season possible.
Curatorial Partners: the Bunker NY, the Creative Independent, LikeMindedObjects, Sarah Van Buren, Le Guess Who?, Allison Young, Shaker Museum, Hudson Film Festival, Bowery Presents, WGXC
Sponsors: Special thanks to season sponsors Herrington’s and Kneller Insurance Agency. Also thanks to ArtPower, Black Diamond Bookkeeping, Gotham, Hover Foundation, Hudson Valley Ceremonies, Stewart’s Shops, and the Wick.
Additional Thanks: the Avalon Lounge, Changing Times Lodging, Del’s Roadside, Hudson North Cider, Jenny Douglas, Liquid Death, Recess, Tubby’s, Willow Pond Motel.
Basilica Hudson’s 2024 season programming was in part made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.