A year ago, Eric Coles launched 413Ska, an event production and marketing organization in Northampton. He booked his first show at JJ’s Tavern in Florence. It was a small show but it was a start, and over time the shows and audiences have grown. He’s presented events at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield, Marigold Theater in Easthampton and other venues throughout the Valley.

Here we are, only a year later, and he is now hosting his first festival — The Pioneer Valley Ska Festival, which will be held on Saturday, July 27 at Hawks & Reed. The all-ages festival will begin at noon and end around 11 p.m. and will feature 20 ska bands (and more) for only $20 entry.

Coles has been a ska fan since his early teens and started 413Ska in part for selfish reasons: “I wanted the shows to come to me,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Coles had moved his family from Somerville to the Valley during the pandemic, a decision based on a pre-COVID visit to Northampton to attend a show at the Pearl Street Ballroom. He loved the area and was impressed with the music scene. The problem was that once venues started re-opening, places like Pearl Street remained closed, and he found himself driving to Boston to see shows. He quickly discovered this wasn’t very practical.

“The more I talked to people and learned about the history of the music scene here, the more I discovered there used to be more ska and punk here, and people were still hungry for it,” said Coles. He knew that presenting shows in these genres wouldn’t be easy, but he soon found an audience.

This was evident this past Saturday when 413Ska hosted a show with BimSkalaBim, a ska band from Boston who are currently celebrating their 40th anniversary. They played at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton, and despite the beautiful weather, the place was packed with sweaty dancers enjoying the band’s blaring horns and big energy.

A large part of ska’s appeal is its dance-ability. This music combines Jamaican and Caribbean rhythms, punk rock energy, and horn sections. Ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was made popular by bands like the Skatalites. Over time, however, its popularity was eclipsed by rock-steady and reggae.

Ska enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the early 1980s with English bands like the Specials and Madness which were part of the two-tone movement in the U.K. Another moment in popularity occurred in the 1990s with what is referred to as third-wave ska. This included bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Less than Jake, and the Pilfers, who are headlining the Pioneer Valley Ska Festival.

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“I had always wanted to host a festival so I could get bigger bands,” Coles said. “This started when a couple of bands hit me up for a show and it started to snowball. Putting it together, I was able to get the Pilfers, and I thought, ‘Let’s turn this into a festival!’”

The Pilfers are an international band hailing from New York that formed in 1997. Their lineup includes former Toasters vocalist Coolie Ranx and BimSkalaBim trombonist Vinny Nobile.

“New England and the world has been our stomping grounds for many a year,” said the band’s vocalist Coolie Ranx in a recent email. “We created a unique style from Ska, Hip Hop, Hardcore, Punk, Dub Jungle Dancehall Reggae known as Raggacore.”

He said the band’s debut performance occurred at a ska festival in Westford in 1998. They are excited to return to Massachusetts all these years later to play the Pioneer Valley Ska Festival.

“We are looking forward to closing the gap and continuing the legacy of ‘unity in the community,’” Ranx said. “There are a lot of bands we are looking forward to seeing. This particular event is special in so many ways. Events of this magnitude haven’t been executed since our first debut back in 1998 in the New England area.”

Most bands are from the Northeast, with one from Florida.

Also in the lineup are Hub City Stompers, whose music embraces various styles and eras of ska from the 1960s through the 1980s, Sgt. Scag (aka Sgt. Scagnetti), who has been has been a fixture on the Northeast ska and punk scene since the late 1990s, and Fuselaje who utilizes dual saxophones to play surf rock/ska with Cumbia and Afrobeat influences. One of their sax players, Cody Freedom, also helps with promotion on 413Ska events.

The lineup also includes Brunt of It, Chilled Monkey Brains, Cuidado, Nick and the Adversaries, Threat Level Burgundy and more.

There are also some local bands, including the Valley Moonstompers Society, a collective of musicians from the Valley and beyond, who play old-school ska, rocksteady, 2-tone, and dub. The band has a monthly residency at Marigold Theater in Easthampton, and fans, if you haven’t been able to catch one of those shows, this is your chance as the band plays in the afternoon.

“We also have Teen Driver, a very fun band out of Northampton, and Green St Fiends, who play doom ska, which is like some metal/hardcore with saxophone,” Coles said. “Then there is Futon Lasagna from central Massachusetts, but they often play out here. The Agonizers have some members from the Longmeadow area.”

“It’s an awesome lineup,” Coles said of the festival, hoping people will come out to check out the great bands. “One thing I have to say is that the community has been great, and everyone seems to be loving it.”

There will be two stages with music going at all times. Coles is committed to offering music in the afternoon for adults who, due to issues like childcare, find it difficult to get out at night.

Tickets are available at hawksandreed.com.

Saturday

It’s that time of year again when swaying dancers dressed all in red will take over the lawn of the Greenfield Energy Park as they duplicate the movements from Kate Bush infamous music video for her 1978 song ”Wuthering Heights.” As they dance to lyrics about the ghostly Cathy, dancers worldwide will be doing the same thing at the same time. That’s right — The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever is upon us this Saturday, July 27.

As they have in previous years, local Kate Bush fans Abby Rusk and Vanessa Brewster of the Massachusetts Kate Bush Society will host the event at the Energy Park with a dance lesson at 5 p.m. followed by the dance performance at 6:15 p.m.

If you are a Kate Bush fan, you likely love the song, know all about this day, and probably view it as a national holiday. For the rest of you, this is a celebration of British singer-songwriter Kate Bush and her song ”Wuthering Heights,” which was inspired by the Emily Bronte novel of the same name. Bush is far more popular in her homeland than here in the U.S., where she has always had a small but strong fan base.

The Most Wuthering Heights Day was inspired by an event held in Brighton, England in 2013, where hundreds gathered to pay tribute to Bush by reenacting the dance performed in her ”Wuthering Heights” video. Their goal was to break a record for most Kate Bush lookalikes. Instead, they sparked a global yearly tradition.

The Massachusetts Kate Bush Society has hosted the event every year beginning in 2019, and the crowd grows every year.

This year, 10 Forward is getting in on the fun and will have four Kate Bush tribute bands perform after the dance. Maria Danielson from Greenfield Records will be spinning Kate Bush tunes all night. This show will take place at 7 p.m.

So get out your red dress and head to the energy park. No dance experience is necessary — just a willingness to have fun and celebrate Kate Bush’s beautiful music.

The after-show at 10 Forward is a benefit for the Looky Here Gallery and a $10 to $20 donation is suggested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Sheryl Hunter is a freelance writer who resides in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national publications. She can be reached at Soundslocal@yahoo.com.