Nile Rodgers Launches FOLD! Festival

Chic mastermind Nile Rodgers has a new pet project: the FOLD! Festival, a weekend of rock, pop, funk, hip-hop and country music that will hit the Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead, Long Island, New York from August 4-5. (It even comes with a fun acronym: FOLD! stands for “Freak Out Let’s Dance!”)

Rodgers will have an active hand in the inaugural FOLD! programming: his seminal disco band Chic will perform, as will Beck, Duran Duran, Janelle Monàe, Pharrell Williams, Keith Urban and other diverse artists. Early press materials suggest the Grammy-winning Rodgers will jam onstage with several of those acts, as well: “Over two nights, Rodgers will create the ultimate mash-up between each artist’s distinctive sound and his own groundbreaking style,” said a release.

Rodgers will also use the weekend to stage onsite recording sessions with the performers. His co-producers are Michael Ostin – the co-founder of Rodgers’ new record label, Land of the Good Groove – and Peter Herman of Nile Rodgers Productions. The festival is all-ages, and times nicely with the rumored summer release of Chic’s first studio album in 23 years. Tickets are available now.