This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Northern Current Music Festival, and our organizing committee extends its thanks to the entire Saranac Lake community for celebrating this milestone with us.

We’ve worked hard to turn the Sunday of Labor Day weekend into a celebration for everyone who calls Saranac Lake and its surrounding communities home. By extension, the energy and kinship on display showcases the best of us to the people who visit for the holiday weekend. Even a 30-minute downpour couldn’t dampen your spirits — and who doesn’t love dancing in the rain?

To the volunteers: You helped our organizing committee with set-up, day-of support and — most importantly, since we’re all exhausted on Monday — break-down. You play a pivotal role in making the festival experience as positive and inclusive as possible. Thank you.

To the village of Saranac Lake: Not only do you make things easy for us logistically, you also stepped up with financial support, ensuring that we could present one of our biggest and most eclectic line-ups to date. Our village trustees and staff deserve kudos for supporting live music and community-focused events.

To the businesses, nonprofits and individuals who chipped in with financial and in-kind support: It takes money and time to pull off an event this big, and 2024 represented the largest group of sponsors we’ve ever had. Our presenting sponsors, Waterhole and Tell Media, provide immeasurable financial and in-kind support, and are the backbone of this event. As headlining sponsor, the Hotel Saranac hosts our musicians for the weekend, markets our events to guests and generally embraces live music as part of this community’s identity. Our event sponsors do the heavy lifting when it comes to the nuts and bolts of Northern Current — tent rentals, site sanitary and all of the critical things that ensure the best possible experience for festival-goers. Our thanks to North Country Community College, Adirondack Health, Play ADK, Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Nori’s Village Market, Elevate ADK and Hammersong Architectural Metal & Design.

The music sponsors bring our diverse musical lineup to the stage: Long Run Wealth, Northern Power & Light, Edward Jones, Fiddlehead Bistro and Fathom Recruitment.

We also thank our lodging sponsors for providing rooms for the traveling musicians. Many thanks to Ampersand Bay Resort, Corey Purcell and Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sara-Placid Inn. Our green room sponsors, Adirondack Lakes & Trails Outfitters, Origin Coffee Co. and High Peaks Distributing help us provide food and drinks for the musicians.

A very special thank you goes to Rob Carr, Kaet O’Brien, Olivia Hunt and Jen Tissot of Play ADK for hosting the Kids Zone, and to Champlain National Bank, Duff’s Dumpsters, Book Nook, Adirondack for Kids and Stewart’s Shop for sponsoring it. This aspect of the festival provides young children with play-based activities that ensure this is an event for all ages.

Our supporting sponsors provide the general support we need to round-out the organization of this event. Many thanks to Explore Adirondack Frontier, Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, Cloudsplitter Foundation, Grizle T’s, Bitters & Bones, Silver Birch Cycles, Blue Line Compost, The Wild Center, Hudson Headwaters, St. Regis Canoe Outfitters and Ampersound. And our media sponsors, North Country Public Radio and NYS Music, help us get the word out far and wide — thank you.

Northern Current is made possible with a grant from the Statewide Community Regrants program, a re-grant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts. This grant is foundational for us. A special thanks to Fred Balzac for working with our team on this process.

A very special thank you goes to the Saranac Lake Rotary Foundation. This is a nonprofit event, and Rotary provides the fiscal sponsorship we need to accept charitable gifts and apply for and receive grants. To Kevin LaPlante, Franny Preston, Mitchel Smith, John Banta and the rest of the Rotary volunteers: thank you.

Last but certainly not least: thank you Saranac Lake. One of the best things about this year’s festival was hearing from our musicians — who came here from as far away as North Carolina and New Orleans — about how welcomed and embraced the felt by everyone they interacted with. This is a special place.

Oh, and one more thank you: to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, for publicizing our event, taking photos and allowing us to run this letter, which certainly extends far beyond the allotted word limit. To anyone we may have omitted, please accept our apologies in advance — there’s a bit of delirium that sets in after an event like this, and we do our best to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Sincerely,

Eric Ackerson

Brandy Hobson

Rachel Karp

Dan and Jenn King

Abbey Lynch

Kenzie Marine

Luke Meissner

Eric Munley

Chris Morris

Kiki Sarko