Neil Young, John Mayer and Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills and Nash are scheduled to play a daytime benefit concert from 11 a.m. to about 6 p.
m. on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Painted Turtle Camp in Lake Hughes.
The event, dubbed “Harvest Moon,” is a fundraiser for the Painted Turtle, a year-round camp for children with serious medical conditions, and the Bridge School in Hillsborough, California, which offers educational services to children with severe speech and physical disabilities, according to Jessica Santos, events manager for the Painted Turtle. “The concert is on our campsite in Lake Hughes,” Santos said during a telephone interview, “and it’s a magical day because it’s a daytime concert, which makes it really fun, and very much a festival kind of atmosphere. We’re going to have food trucks there, face painting in a kids’ zone, it’s on this giant lawn, and the backdrop is the .
.. Angeles National Forest mountains, which is beautiful.
” Santos said this is the second event of its kind at Painted Turtle, the first one taking place in September 2019, which featured the musical talents of Young, Nora Jones and Father John Misty. Organizers had hoped to do these shows every year after, but the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on that. This year’s event, which is put on by Goldenvoice, the music concert company behind Coachella and Stagecoach, is the first one since then.
“We’re fortunate enough to have Page and Lou Adler as our founders, along with Paul Newman,” Santos said. “Lou Adler is a big music producer, and with his wonderful connections and his body of work over the last many, many years — he started out in the ’60s — he’s very well connected with the music industry.” Also performing at “Harvest Moon” is Masanga Marimba, known for their traditional and popular music from Africa and Latin America.
According to Santos, the first “Harvest Moon” event was limited to 1,500 people to keep the show more intimate. This year, however, they opened it up to 3,000 guests, though it’ll still be small, she said, in comparison to other concerts of its kind. General admission for “Harvest Moon” starts at $275 per person.
Kids 12 and under will be admitted free. A couple of the larger packages offered include a night in one of the cabins on the property that comes with a chef’s dinner. Those packages, Santos said, range from $25,000 to $50,000.
Half of the proceeds from the “Harvest Moon” will go toward the Painted Turtle. Santos said the camp, which began in 2004 and has served over 200,000 kids since, operates solely on funds they raise in these kinds of events, through corporate sponsorships and private donors, as they provide services free of charge to the kids who attend the camps. “These are kids who wouldn’t be able to have a traditional camp experience anywhere else, because their medical needs are so high,” Santos said.
“We run family weekends throughout the year, and then also summer sessions.” According to Santos, the camp sessions are what she called “disease specific.” “So, for instance,” she said, “a child that has maybe liver disease or a liver transplant would come during our liver session, and it would be all kids with liver disease or a transplant — or awaiting a transplant — that would be at the camp for that particular week.
” Santos added that each camp session is a large undertaking. Painted Turtle brings in doctors, nurses and volunteers to help. The other half of the proceeds from the “Harvest Moon” show will go toward the Bridge School.
“The Bridge School is sort of brought to us by Neil,” Santos said. “Neil Young, you might know, has a child with serious medical conditions, and so, he’s a big supporter of the Bridge School — they’re up in Northern California — and their mission is to serve children and individuals with speech and physical impairments in the community. They’re an incredible organization, as well.
” For more information or to buy tickets, go to HarvestMoonGathering.com ..
