A message from Tom Palmieri, Ann Rinaldi, and the ProgStock volunteer staff…
Hello ProgStockers!
First and foremost, we at ProgStock hope that all of you, your families, and your friends and loved ones are safe, healthy, and finding the strength and good fortune to persevere during these challenging and unprecedented times. Everyone, everywhere on Earth is suffering from the devastating impacts of this pandemic…yet we remain hopeful that, eventually, we will all be able to return to a more “familiar” way of life, including having the freedom to gather together safely with amazing musicians and fellow fans to enjoy live-music events without fear or danger.
There is no way to sugarcoat this…2020 has been disastrous for everyone and has foiled all efforts to successfully plan and produce live events everywhere. We are all watching and waiting as our collective situation unfolds, and this uncertainty makes producing any live event nearly impossible. Now that we are three months away from our intended festival weekend, we at ProgStock have been forced to accept the reality that, regardless of what the law may permit, we will not be able to produce our usual high-quality, live-music festival experience this October.
With so many events cancelled or (optimistically) postponed this year, we know that this is yet more depressing news. We are devastated by this outcome, and we humbly apologize. The COVID-19 pandemic may have won this round…but we are determined to return to the stage, with a vengeance, in October 2021! Meanwhile, we feel a solemn duty to continue, unabated, to shine light on one of the most exciting and creative genres of rock music, Progressive Rock. That is the vital mission of ProgStock, and as the saying goes…where there’s a will, there’s a way!
To that end, we are tremendously proud to announce the ProgStock Presents Virtual Series, bringing live-streamed musical performances directly to you from a treasure trove of incredibly talented artists performing from their homes, home studios, or wherever they can safely assemble. We are also working on adding some special events to this series, such as live interviews, exhibitor presentations, and a few other surprises we’d love to bring you. ProgStock Presents will stream every Saturday evening starting August 1, 2020 from 5:00pm to 11:00pm US Eastern time.
Some of the phenomenal artists on our schedule for August include Rachel Flowers, Julie Slick (Echotest), Jean Pageau (Mystery), Frogbelly & Symphony, Bob Richardson (Cell15), Jane Getter & Adam Holzman, Mile Marker Zero, Melanie Mau & Martin Schnelle, Potter’s Daughter, Joe Deninzon (Stratospheerius), Harry Waters & Larry McNally (McNally Waters), and Mark Trueack & Sean Timms (Unitopia). Please consider joining us on Saturday evenings to support both ProgStock and our performing artists as often as you can. Stay tuned for more details and announcements!
ProgStock Festival, the American Northeast’s Only International Progressive Rock Festival, is proud to bring you the ProgStock Presents Virtual Series.
The pandemic has closed music venues and brought in-person live music performances to a screeching halt. We don’t know how long we will have to wait before it will be truly safe to stage a festival, but we will be back! Meanwhile, we will be bringing music right to you with some great shows from artists performing live in their homes or home studios. The series will be presented every Saturday night, 5PM – 11PM US Eastern, starting on August 1, 2020.
Shows will be presented on StageIt. To participate, you must have a StageIt account. If you don’t yet have an account, here’s what to do:
- Go to stageit.com (on your laptop or desktop, the site is not mobile-friendly for accounting, but works on mobile for viewing)
- Click Sign Up (upper right corner)
- Create a username and password
- Click “Buy Notes” (10 notes = $1) – The StageIt system sells Notes in minimum intervals of $5 (50 Notes).
- After choosing how many Notes you want to purchase, choose your payment type – it’ll be credit card or PayPal (with PayPal, you do not need to have an account, you can use a credit/debit card as a guest).
- Go to the direct ticket link for ProgStock Presents and purchase tickets to the shows you want to watch. Please note the shows are NOT on the StageIt website, yet, but it is a good idea to get your account set up and ready to go! Feel free to contact us, if you have any issues.
- You will also be able to tip the artists before, during and after the shows with Notes, so consider loading up your account in advance, so you can have some fun with tipping while supporting your favorite artists.
Direct Ticket Link for ProgStock Presents (when the shows become available): https://www.stageit.com/ProgStock
As always, our sincere thanks go out to Ed Unitsky for designing the logo and artwork for ProgStock! You can learn more about Ed, and hire him to make beautiful art for your project by visiting his Facebook page and sending him a message.
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