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Tiny houses frame New Paltz fireworks in thunderstorms’ wake

by Frances Marion Platt
July 6, 2017
in Community
0
Tiny houses frame New Paltz fireworks in thunderstorms’ wake

Brother and sister David Jr. and Grace Lewis check out the tiny houses with their parents last Friday night at the Ulster County Fairgrounds.

Brother and sister David Jr. and Grace Lewis check out the tiny houses with their parents last Friday night at the Ulster County Fairgrounds. (Photos by Lauren Thomas)

Things weren’t looking good around 5 p.m. on Friday, June 30, when the Ulster County Fairgrounds were scheduled to be throwing open their gates for the Town of New Paltz’s annual pre-Independence Day fireworks extravaganza. Thunderstorms had been making their way through the valley since midafternoon, and on Facebook, locals were wondering what the backup plan was. Saturday night was the official rain date; but how was that going to work when the Tiny House & Green Living Freedom Fest would already be in progress by then, charging admission to the site?

Then word got around that the show would go on. The rain was supposed to move out by 6:30 p.m., and the pyrotechnicians were already on-site readying the sky show. Well before sunset, the Fairgrounds were teeming with festive crowds and the live music in full swing. New Paltz Rock opened the performances, with Carl Welden emceeing in his trademark top hat. Town supervisor Neil Bettez welcomed the audience and thanked the volunteers and sponsors — ShopRite chief among them — who were making the evening’s festivities possible.

(Above) Nathaniel Lewis of Saugerties dances to the sounds of the New Paltz band Upstate Rubdown (top).

Upstate Rubdown was the next locally based band to perform, featuring three women singing close harmony, backed by upright bass, saxophones, flute, mandolin and drums. With the sky still light, thousands of happy attendees wandered the grounds, chowing down on a wide array of fair food and peeking into the windows of the dozens of tiny houses already in place around the perimeter of the field. Kids got their faces painted, crawled through mazes and slid down inflatable slides, while their elders checked out the informational exhibits about home solar arrays, crafts made from repurposed materials and other displays pertinent to sustainable living options.

Friday night was billed as a free preview for the Tiny House Fest; and although the interiors of the structures weren’t open to visitors as they would be on Saturday and Sunday, the glimpses available were tantalizing indeed. The variety of portable dwellings ranged from unfinished garden sheds and a converted panel truck to high-end custom-built tiny homes complete with furnishings and art hanging on the walls. Demonstrating the truism that the kitchen is the heart of a home, many had fully equipped kitchens that were larger than those commonly found in Manhattan apartments. Cantilevered upper decks and pop-up roofs created additional space for sleeping without sacrificing a small footprint, and staircases to these loft bedrooms typically were engineered to provide ingenious storage options underneath. A stroll through the festival was a lesson in living simply, using space with maximal efficiency and cozy feng shui.

Anthony Gallo and Dylan Freer blow bubbles while their mom smiles.

With the overcast sky breaking up as the sun neared the horizon, a fluffy cloudbank very like the ones described as “ice cream castles in the air” in Joni Mitchell’s classic song “Both Sides Now” turned first golden, then pink: the second of the day’s spectacular sky-shows following the afternoon’s displays of lightning. As dusk came on, Soul Purpose took over the soundstage and the serious dancers came out, some bedecked in the glow-sticks that were selling briskly at the ShopRite booth. This seven-piece little Big Band specializes in danceable tunes from the era of jazz, swing and jump right through the heyday of soul and Motown. They played both before the fireworks and afterwards, giving part of the crowd an excuse to stick around and have some more fun while waiting for the auto traffic back into town to thin out.

When it finally got dark enough for the fireworks to be seen to best advantage, Soul Purpose ceded the stage to Esme Ariel Hyman, whose soulful, belting rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has become a Fourth of July tradition in recent years. Then the rockets’ red glare began in earnest — along with plenty of other shimmering colors bespangling the sky. Once again, summer has officially come to New Paltz.

New Paltz Fireworks Celebration emcee Carl Welden with his eleven-year-old daughter Nadja.
Andrew, Mary and Althea Stone share some supper.
Thank you for reading Hudson Valley One. We rely on your support to continue providing local, substantive news. Please check out our subscription options to keep local journalism alive in the Hudson Valley.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
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Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

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