I have spent dozens of hours over the last 6 months trying to save the Taughannock Falls Summer Concert Series and it is clear to me that it is untenable for it to continue. I know many people love the concert series and have wondered about the reasons for its cancellation and I think you deserve an explanation.

Last summer, I reached out through Facebook to ask if other people missed the concert series and wanted to offer support to the park to address the issues that caused it to be cancelled. A small group of us have been working diligently towards this end. We have met with park officials, requested data and interpreted it, called elected officials, reached out to potential collaborators and allies, submitted FOIL requests, written letters, created a website and posters. We launched a petition and received over 1500 signatures and some wonderful comments. Thank you. I want you to know that our very best efforts have not been enough.

I have been a professional grant writer for 25 years and worked with hundreds of non-profit leaders to help bring their visions to reality. It is clear that while the NYS Parks team is enthused about infrastructure expansion and upgrades, the concert is not on their list of priorities. I understand. They have a limited staff and budget and I do appreciate the work they have done to build the Black Diamond Trail and their plans to expand it for us.

The reasons cited for cancelling the concert series have included lack of interest by bands, budget shortfalls, sound conflicts with music emanating from the Inn at Taughannock, and the lack of park capacity to meet the demands of the rising numbers of visitors and also host a concert series.

The park is not willing to host the concerts on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday at all. They are open to having an event Monday-Thursday under a permit but the requirements for meeting that would entail tripling the existing budget and limiting revenues. I’m exhausted by the process and concede that it just isn’t possible for our small group of volunteers to proceed without the help, support, and willingness of the park. 

Regardless of my own searing frustration, I am not interested in assigning blame or vilifying anyone. We all do the best that we can and the park works with a lean staff and constrained budget.  And in the end, we all live in the same community and cross paths with each other in everyday life and there is absolutely no value in public venting.  

So, it’s time for me to accept life as it is and that means accepting the loss of something that is truly precious to me – the concert series.  

The reason that I have worked so hard to preserve it is because the concert series is not nothing. It is priceless. The concert series isn’t just about the music, it’s about us. It's a low cost, high value arts event in a beautiful environment that has endured for 44 years. It’s the place we go to see each other after months of being cooped up indoors, dance our hearts out, hang out with our family and friends, watch our kids run and play with their friends, flirt a little, and drink in the sunset over the lake while hearing the music waft through the air. Some of us performed there, met our spouses there, went into labor there, and proposed marriage there. Some people who went as kids are now bringing their own little ones to the concerts. Some of us cherish dancing with our grandkids there.

It is part of the fabric of our community and it’s what makes Trumansburg special.

It humanizes us. We see our kids’ teachers and the pharmacist there. We see people who we’ve known for decades but only cross paths with once in a while. We might have a disagreement with someone but when we see them hanging out at the concert series with their family, we’re reminded that they are a person with good and bad days just like us.

When we come together like this, it’s hard to demonize each other.  Regardless of race, religion, or political beliefs we can all agree that we love going to the lake on those sultry summer evenings with a glass of wine and our favorite companions to dance to some great tunes. You can arrive feeling lonely or down and bump into a friend, dance the grizzlies out, or start chatting with someone new.

We need this like we need oxygen – especially now.

Recently, researchers have shown the health benefits of walking in a forest – or forest bathing. Living here, we know that. The concert series is community bathing. Our souls need community – desperately so, these days. What did we miss the most during the pandemic? Hugs and being with each other. Our society is ignoring this deep core need for community at our peril – the rise in loneliness, anxiety, depression, drug use and suicide are not unrelated and are costing us a fortune psychologically and financially.

We need each other, we need community, and we need places like the concert series to keep our community healthy.

I want to live in a community that treasures and cherishes these traditions which why I have done my best to preserve it. I have walked the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage three times. On a pilgrimage, you carry the bare minimum and learn to rely on the kindness of strangers. Along the way, local people sometimes leave out drinks and snacks with a note saying that it was provided through donations of those who walked by yesterday, to take whatever you need, and leave a small donation, if you can, so that provisions can be left for those who will walk by tomorrow. It's all on the honor system. On the Camino I learned that, despite the obvious viciousness we see in today’s world, we also have an intrinsic capacity for taking care of each other in community, that the world is a gift, and we can be gifts for each other. The concert series is a place where I can sniff a hint of that reality in the air and it buoys my soul.

So, with a broken heart I say adieu. Thank you to Kathleen Damiani for starting the concert series in 1979 and thank you to all the park staff and volunteers who have kept it going in all its incarnations since then. My life has been so much richer for its presence.

I thank my fellow ‘good trouble’ makers for their friendship and camaraderie throughout this process. I’m sorry that it did not work out.

My hope is that the spirit that created this event lingers among us and it may rise from the ashes in another form and another time. I will be there and bring my dancing shoes.

Jana Hexter