David Chase, Melissa Etheridge, ‘Dylan Archives V’ confirmed for Asbury Park Music + Film Festival

by JAY LUSTIG
David Chase Sopranos apmff

DAVID CHASE

A conversation with “The Sopranos” creator David Chase and a concert by Melissa Etheridge will be the headline events of the 2020 Asbury Park Music + Film Festival, taking place April 23-26. Also confirmed is the fifth installment in a series of screenings of clips (in some cases not previously shown in public) from the Bob Dylan Archive at the University of Tulsa.

Etheridge will perform at the Paramount Theatre, April 23 at 7:30 p.m., and Chase will appear at the Paramount Theatre in a conversation moderated by Mike Fleming of Deadline Hollywood, April 25 at 7 p.m. Tickets for both shows go on sale Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. Chase’s conversation will undoubtedly at least touch on “The Many Saints of Newark,” his “The Sopranos” prequel, due out as a feature film in September 2020.

The Dylan event will take place at House of Independents, April 26 at noon, with tickets going on sale Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. Here is a review of last year’s installment, to give you an idea about what to expect.

The festival helps fund music education for children in the Asbury Park area. Many more events will be announced in the months to come. For information, visit apmff.org.

APMFF board co-chair Adam Block, global head of music catalog for Amazon Music, said he became involved in the festival after “recognizing, like so many other cities in America, how desperately underfunded arts programs are (in Asbury Park), and music programs. Any organization that is interested in raising awareness, and raising funds, and trying to keep music alive among kids, and show kids other paths through arts, was something that I wanted to be a part of.”

Melissa Etheridge interview

MELISSA ETHERIDGE

One of the things he loves about the festival, he says, is that “on festival weekends, as you’re walking from venue to venue, you’re seeing a lot of the same people. You’re seeing the filmmakers, you’re seeing the musicians. You’re interacting, and you can approach them all. That, to me, feels like a fairly uniquely Asbury Park Music + Film Festival kind of thing. There’s not a lot of velvet rope shit going on. And that’s quite by design.”

The festival has been presented annually since 2015. “The growth of the festival is consistent and, to this point, pretty organic,” said Block. “It feels like we are starting to be more widely recognized every year, which is exciting, because it makes me feel that we’re right on the cusp of turning this, not just into a really cool local festival, but a small destination festival.

“I remember very clearly, my first year, sort of being down there, thinking, ‘God, this feels so much like when I started going to South by Southwest.’ And I really believe in my heart that there’s a version of this that could become a national destination festival, which would just obviously take this mission, and what we can achieve, to a whole other place.”

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