The Dirty Water Music Festival is back for its second annual community building event on April 5 at Powers Hall.
The festival is hosted by Plugged In, the Needham-based music education nonprofit that teaches musicians of all abilities in Massachusetts and worldwide.
Dan Croft, associate director of Plugged In, said he looks forward to a night of music and camaraderie. “This event is really just like a concert: a fun night for people to come out and just hear good music, dance and relax,” Croft said. Last year’s festival drew about 200 attendees.
This year’s lineup includes the return of rock-and-roll cover band Monkeys with Crayons and blues-rock band Mass Bluesbreakers from last year’s festival, in addition to the band Bored of Directors, composed of former Plugged In board members, and the quintet Off Label, which features four medical doctors.
Tony Callini, Plugged In board president and Off Label drummer, said he is eager to expand his band’s reach by playing the festival.
“We’re excited … to do something that’s really mission oriented for us, especially with my bandmates in the medical industry, where their whole lives are mission driven,” Callini said. “It can connect what we’re doing as a band with a mission, and doing it for a really great purpose.”
Jerry McIntyre, drummer with Monkeys with Crayons, said he looks forward to getting people up and dancing.
“That’s the fun part about it for me is playing on the stage, getting people going,” McIntyre said. “It’s for a good cause. So we definitely enjoy it.”
The concert raises funds for Plugged In’s scholarship and inclusion fund, which last year provided more than $70,000 in scholarships — nearly half of which was raised at last year’s festival — and no student has been turned away because of an inability to pay in the organization’s 23-year history, Croft said.
“All of those funds make sure our students with disabilities have the equitable access and same opportunities to thrive and succeed at Plugged In,” he said.
The fund also provides accommodations that ensure equal access for musicians with disabilities, who make up 53% of Plugged In’s spring session students, including hearing protection, light sensitivity sunglasses, Braille-stickered keyboards and color-coded guitar strings.
But true inclusion goes beyond just access, said Croft.
“When we say inclusive, we mean that there is no specific band or specific workshop that is only for students with disabilities,” he said. “They are included in all of our bands, performances and workshops and everything that we do, and in a completely equal way with all of our neurotypical or non-disabled students.”
Femi Wasserman, a board member and parent of two Plugged In musicians, said her sons flourished through the program. One found his passion as a drummer and now plays in his school’s jazz band, while the other gained such confidence as a vocalist that he is auditioning for school plays.
“I love how welcoming they are — they meet you where you are,” Wasserman said of Plugged In’s approach. “Everyone in the entire community is very invested in the success and the culture of the program, and so I think that welcoming aspect means that nobody ever feels out of place, and I personally think that everybody feels valued.”
Currently serving about 140 students on-site and another 180 through Peace Tracks — an international virtual exchange program for high school students — Plugged In creates an environment where students develop not just musical skills but also compassion, confidence and social awareness, said Sandra Rizkallah, the nonprofit’s executive director and co-founder.
“When you give them the opportunity in an environment where that’s celebrated and supported, they access that part of themselves,” Rizkallah said. “It just becomes a little part of their DNA, and as they go out into the world, they have that little connection to that part inside of them.”Fundraising for the Dirty Water festival comes primarily through corporate-sponsored bands that pay a fee to perform, with the proceeds supporting Plugged In’s scholarship and inclusion fund. Bands created through the Plugged In program perform at every end-of-session concert as well as local community performances, Croft said.
The festival runs from 6-10 p.m. in Powers Hall and is for those 21 and over. Tickets are $10, available online. Admission is free for those who need it.