THE FESTIVAL | Weirdos In The Woods

SEPTEMBER 4 - 6, 2026

MAIN FESTIVAL:

Friday September 4 - Sunday September 6

DAY #1 - Friday September 4, 2026

The Tavern

3978 Atwood Road (at the corner of Tongore Road) in Stone Ridge, NY

4-7:PM - Open Studio at The Tavern

Supporting Actor (motorhome version) by PuppetWarp art group including Pieter Schoolwerth and Phil Vanderhyden, with sound by Aaron Dilloway.

7:PM - Main Event at The Tavern

Four sets of wild Jazz music

Biotonic
Peyton Pleninger - tenor saxophone
Will McEvoy - bass
Bram Kincheloe - drums
Adam Siegel - alto saxophone

Biotonic performs Peyton Pleninger’s original music in a style he refers to as “animal maximalism.” This is fiery, exuberant, high-energy, way too-much-of-everything music that pushes melody, rhythm, and improvisation totally off the edge. With Adam Siegel now joining the band on saxophone, the quartet brings a sense of joyful excess. The music is energetic, made to be immediate, and fully alive.

Adam Siegel Quartet
Adam Siegel - alto saxophone
Joe Doubleday - vibraphone
Pete Swanson - bass
Aaron Yanda - drums

Adam Siegel’s quartet explores newly written music shaped in part by Arnold Hammerschlag’s interval workshops at The Tavern and Siegel’s investigations into tone-clock systems, unusual interval combinations, and the possibilities contained within the octave. Adam’s music is fresh and cutting edge, existing at the brink of tonal composition, with melodies that are sweet and singing.

Shakoor Hakeem + Peyton Pleninger

Shakoor Hakeem - percussion

Peyton Pleninger - saxophone, electronics

Peyton and Shakoor’s duo moves between the deeply familiar and the nearly intangible. Shakoor draws on simple, song-like melodies that trigger forgotten lullabies or music you heard somewhere but can’t remember where. Peyton brings his own language, adding his impulse to make the saxophone “sound like the wind.” Add in some live electronics and the duo coaxes improvisation into something both grounded and ethereal, reliable yet mysterious. The pair will spend the week before Weirdos recording an album together at The Tavern.

Blacks’ Myths
Luke Stewart - bass
Trae Crudup - drums

Blacks' Myths closes the night with an improvised heap of grooves, ambient sonics, electric bass, percussion, and electronic samples. The two are wild improvisers but also hang tough in the spacious terrain of lofty atmospheric music with its cooler more boundless spacious terrain. This is music built as much from atmosphere and texture as from embodied pulses, suited equally to close listening as well as what you might hear the moment you fall asleep at the end of an excellent day.

DAY #2 - Saturday September 5, 2026

Three Phase Center

3607 Atwood Rd. Stone Ridge, NY

4-10:PM

Performance art and demonstrations

Heather Duke

Ernest Goodmaw

Karen Dazzler

Joseph Latka

Sergey Jivetin

Koby Weston

Ruby Zuckerman