Concert Organizer Leading Live Music Resurgence Concert Organizer Leading Post-COVID Resurgence of Live Music in Syracuse

Porter Holt: With average crowd sizes in the 200s, it’s not hard to find someone who’s attended a show at The Harrington. But it can be hard to find the people who make those shows happen.

Josh Feldman: I don’t want to be famous in any way, shape or form. I want to be known within the music industry by all the artists, like, ‘Oh Josh throws shows, he’s the show guy.’

Holt: Josh Feldman is the co-founder of the Summit. His organization partners with local artists and venues to staff and promote shows. Over the past six months, the Harrington has become the go-to venue for Summit shows.

Will Harrington: We felt like we had a pretty good venue, so we reached out and it all lined up well.

Holt: Will Harrington is literally the face of The Harrington, and he’s also one of the main men working behind the scenes at the venue.

Harrington: I just love the support that everyone gives each other and the general desire for improving the scene.

Holt: Since October of 2021, The Harrington has been rocking and rolling. But for the months before that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the venue looked, well, like this—empty.

Harrington: It was like my life had stopped.

Holt: For months on end, The Harrington sat quiet. No artists. No fans. No concerts. And then, this Fall, the venue came roaring to life.

Harrington: We just had like a crazy amount of people talking about how excited they were for house shows and things like that, and like that first night when everyone was here, like I felt a noticeable energy, like people were really into house shows.

Holt: One of Harrington’s partners in crime, Sam Stehle, says that not only is live music back—it’s better than ever.

Sam Stehle: We’re kind of on a way better pace than we were before. Shows get sold out more. We just make more money in general. Artists get paid more, which is a really important thing.

Harrington: I feel like now the music scene is where people want to be.

Holt: Reporting from where people want to be in Syracuse, I’m Porter Holt, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The Summit, an organization that staffs and promotes concerts at venues around Syracuse, is providing music fans and artists long-awaited opportunities to attend and perform live, in-person concerts.

The Summit holds a unique position in the live music scene, acting as a sort of middleman between artists and venues. The group works with both local Syracuse artists, including Syracuse University students, and artists from across the country. Co-founder Josh Feldman feels that there’s something unique about seeing artists perform live.

“Watching someone play an instrument and hearing it is just such an experience,” Feldman said.

Feldman, fellow co-founder Buddy Murphy, and the rest of The Summit crew put on concerts at a long list of house show venues around Syracuse. Last October, The Summit partnered with a venue called The Harrington for the first time.

“We reached out to Buddy [Murphy] because we knew they had that whole thing going and saw that they were looking for venues,” Will Harrington, co-owner of The Harrington, said. “We felt like we had a pretty good venue, so we reached out and it all lined up well.”

The relationship between The Harrington and The Summit quickly blossomed. The two organizations have collaborated on seven concerts since October of 2021.

The success of the partnership between The Harrington and The Summit has been extra sweet due in part to how long the partnership had to wait. During the height of the pandemic, in-person concerts were simply not an option at The Harrington, or anywhere else in Syracuse for that matter.

“I was really sad because there was just nothing we could do,” Feldman said.

Harrington added that “it was like my life had stopped.”

When in-person concerts finally returned, Harrington and Feldman were not the only ones excited for the comeback.

“We just had like a crazy amount of people talking about how excited they were for house shows and things like that, and that first night when everyone was here, I felt a noticeable energy,” said Harrington, adding that concertgoers have seemed extra enthusiastic about attending shows since in-person concerts returned to the mainstream.

Fans have flocked to The Harrington since last Fall. Harrington’s partner, Sam Stehle, has the numbers to prove it.

“We’re kind of on a way better pace than we were before [the pandemic]. Shows get sold out more. We just make more money in general. Artists get paid more,” Stehle said.

For Feldman, Harrington and Stehle, though, it is not about the money.

“It’s really satisfying when the doors finally close and I can go to bed and know that everyone in the house had a good time and I was responsible for it,” Stehle said.

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