SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — 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 Create and Collide Festival: SouthNext, to be held at multiple venues in downtown South Orange, including the South Orange Performing Arts Center, Friday through Sunday, June 17 through 19.
The South Orange festival is 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.
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,” Schnall said in a release.
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 discussing what it is like to be a “regular” resident in the two towns. Professor Matt Hale from Seton Hall University will “referee” mayors from three 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 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.
Visit the SouthNext website at http://southnextnj.com to purchase all-access wristbands and for full details on the schedule of events.