The Summer Meltdown Autism Awareness Art & Music Festival takes place on April 26, 2014, at the City of Santa Clarita Skatepark and Field, and will feature thirty bands on four stages, with fourteen live artists, who will paint/ draw live on stage as the bands perform to enhance the overall experience for fest-goers. All performances will be a traditional electric set, while Matisyahu and the Dirty Heads go back to back for an intimate evening of acoustic performances under the Santa Clarita stars. The festival will offer a variety of specialized food trucks, and will feature many local and regional artisans who will be on hand to both display and sell their handcrafted goods.
The Summer Meltdown Autism Awareness Art & Music Festival celebrates the lives of youth living with Autism and other disabilities and is produced in conjunction with the Santa Clarita, California based “Yes I Can” (YIC) program.
This eleventh annual arts and music festival is co-produced with its founders, Bret Lieberman and Lisa Lamedman, and the students in the Yes I Can program, many of whom are teens living on the spectrum of Autism. The students work alongside music industry professionals to produce the event.
The Summer Meltdown Autism Awareness Art & Music Festival
“The Yes I Can” Unity Through Music and Education Program is a 501-c3 nonprofit organization, which developed the Summer Meltdown Festival in 2004 to provide youth on the Autism spectrum an opportunity to be a part of the community, develop occupational skills and simply find a place to fit-in amongst their peers. The founders, and twelve students, conceptualized the event, with the notion that if they produced a concert for their community, other teens just might find them “cool,” explains festival founder, Bret Lieberman.
The Yes I Can Program has benefited more than five hundred students, and is run by YIC students, volunteers, and trained teacher advisors.
Live music from the likes of Matisyahu, The Dirty Heads (acoustic), Stick Figure, Seedless, Cisco Adler, Thrive, Krooked, Treez, Hirie, The Expanders and many others round out the line-up of artists to this year’s festival.
The festival is located at the City of Santa Clarita Skatepark and field at 20840 Centre Pointe Parkway in Santa Clarita, California on Saturday, April 26, 2014, and will take place from noon to 8pm, with gates opening at 11am. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. The festival founders are advising advance ticket purchases, as they are expecting to sell-out this year due to the level of talent. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to benefit the Yes I Can program. For more information, please visit the website at: www.SummerMeltdownSCV.com.