South Orange Village Festival 'SouthNext' Set for June

Like nuclear fusion, ideas can collide and create an explosion of something new born from separate components. Experimenting with the meeting and colliding of minds and ideas is at the heart of the second annual Create and Collide Festival: SouthNext, to be held at multiple venues in downtown South Orange, including South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), Fri.-Sun. June 17-19. The Festival is a project of the Village of South Orange, and sponsored by Saint Barnabas Medical Center. SouthNext will feature 20 creative and interactive sessions, 12 musical performances, and a "Creative Midway" of participatory happenings and community art projects available to the general public. Considered the first such festival in New Jersey, SouthNext focuses on the intersection where art, music, and provocative ideas meet and the creative explosions that come from connecting and collaborating. For the schedule of events, and to purchase weekend Festival passes visit http://www.southnextnj.com.

Saint Barnabas Medical Center is proud to be a continued lead sponsor of the SouthNext Festival. "It provides the community with the opportunity to come out, meet people, see all the town has to offer, and engage in various health and wellness 'collisions', all while embracing the local creative culture of the area. It truly encompasses the definition of community, which is something that Saint Barnabas actively supports and is thrilled to be a part of," states Administrative Director of Community Health & Outreach at Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Margie Heller.

Event founder and South Orange Village Trustee Stephen Schnall said the theme of the festival draws on the community's strengths. "Create and Collide" is a natural theme for South Orange, where so many different types of people, ideas, and sensibilities collide every day to make something incredibly wonderful," said Schnall.

The Festival launches at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 26, with the Tech(ing) Ball at SOPAC, in a ground-breaking interactive experience involving jazz musicians and online developers as they create music and build a web application, side-by-side, interacting and improvising with each other. The headline concert on Saturday will feature NJ-based The Smithereens who will appear on SOPAC's main stage at 8 p.m.

A highlight of the weekend will be a session with David Brancaccio, host of public radio's business program Marketplace, who will host a panel of local celebrities talking about what it is like to be a "regular" resident in our special towns. Professor Matt Hale from Seton Hall University will "referee" mayors from 3 local towns and their counterparts from decades ago to contrast who had a better Village. This session will be set in a boxing ring as a way to amp up the sense of conflict, yet it will all be peaceful.

Saturday's programming is scheduled from 10 a.m. to midnight and Sunday's events run from 11 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. As an added convenience for busy parents, local business operator Work and Play will provide programmed childcare for wristband-holders during the festival.

All- access wristbands for the three-day Festival are $30. The "early-bird" price is $25 until April 21 only. Visit the SouthNext website http://southnextnj.com to purchase all-access wristbands and for full details on the schedule of events.

New Jersey Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. THE LITTLE MERMAID (HOWELL PAL THEATRE COMPANY)

3.1% of votes

2. SCHOOL OF ROCK (Playhouse 22)

2.9% of votes

3. HAIR (Vanguard Theater Company)

2.9% of votes

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