A weekend that combines Audra McDonald, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and a full Rent reunion in one place sounds like a fever dream for musical theater fans, but it’s happening this August in the Hudson Valley.
The Festival, billed as the first music festival built entirely around Broadway, takes over Hutton Brickyards in Kingston, NY, from August 14 through 16, and the lineup is stacked enough to make even lifelong theater kids lose their absolute minds.
Here are the details that you absolutely must check for this once-in-a-lifetime event.
The lineup reads like a Tony Awards fever dream
This isn’t a handful of Broadway stars doing a casual concert set, it’s a genuinely massive roster spread across three days and four different stages.
Confirmed performers include Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Adrienne Warren, Eva Noblezada, Alex Newell, and dozens more, with additional names still being announced.
Each night closes with what organizers are calling “The Big Show,” a collective performance where the day’s cast comes together for beloved numbers from the American Songbook.
Saturday night alone features Jenn Colella, Kelli O’Hara, Norbert Leo Butz, and Renée Elise Goldsberry sharing a single stage.
The Rent reunion is the real headline here
Buried in the lineup is arguably the biggest draw of the entire weekend: a 30th anniversary celebration of Rent, featuring nearly the entire original Broadway cast.
Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Taye Diggs, and more original cast members are reuniting on Saturday night for what’s shaping up to be one of the more emotional theater moments of the summer.
For anyone who came of age with Rent’s soundtrack, watching that many original cast members share a stage again, thirty years later, is the kind of moment that doesn’t come around twice.
It’s more than just concerts
The Festival is leaning hard into the “immersive fan experience” angle, and the programming backs that up.
Beyond the main stage performances, the weekend includes:
- Campfire sing-alongs hosted by names like Betty Who and Matt Rodin, offering stripped-down, late-night sets
- A piano bar and Club Cumming experience, running inside one of the festival’s indoor stages
- Broadway Rave, a full dance party dedicated to musical theater music
- Don’t Quit Your Night Job, the long-running Broadway comedy improv show, reuniting just for the weekend
- Workshops, panels, and master classes for theater fans who want to go deeper than just watching
There’s also a marketplace spotlighting local Hudson Valley artisans and makers, plus food and drinks from regional chefs and mixologists, so there’s plenty to do between sets.
Why Kingston, and why now
The Festival is being held at Hutton Brickyards, a former 19th-century brickyard that’s been transformed into a riverfront hotel and event space spanning 100 acres directly along the Hudson River.
It’s a striking, scenic setting that’s become a go-to for outdoor events in the region, and organizers behind The Festival are explicitly positioning this as the “Coachella of Broadway,” a title that feels appropriate given the scale of what’s being planned.
The event is directed by Jerry Mitchell, known for Broadway hits like Hairspray and Kinky Boots, alongside D.B. Bonds, and it’s also paying tribute to the theatrical nonprofit Broadway Cares as part of the weekend’s programming.
How to get here and what it costs
Hutton Brickyards sits roughly two hours from Manhattan, making this one of the more doable weekend trips out of the city for anyone who wants the full three-day experience rather than a single day.
Weekend passes for The Festival start at $375 before taxes and fees, covering all three days, with tiered options available up through VIP experiences.
Given the lineup, the Rent reunion alone, and the fact that this festival didn’t even exist a year ago, it’s shaping up to be one of the more unmissable theater events happening anywhere in the state this summer.