With dates set for The Village Trip 2019, and new local and creative partnerships to be unveiled shortly, the organisers are thrilled to announce two appointments that will set the course of the festival and enable its strategic development over the years to come.

Danny Kapilian, who produced Bringing It All Back Home to Washington Square, the free concert in Washington Square Park, for the inaugural festival, has been named as Artistic Director of The Village Trip.

Dawn Drew joins The Village Trip team as Associate Producer – Operations.

Each brings to their shared endeavor a broad range of experience, in the United States and beyond, and they have worked together on a number of events, including India Calling. Presented in partnership with National Geographic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009, it featured Ravi and Anoushka Shankar leading a 30-piece orchestra of classical musicians from India, and the Rhythms of Rajasthan dance ensemble.

Danny Kapilian

“As a lifelong NYC resident who grew up in Queens longing to live in the Village, taking the reins as Artistic Director of The Village Trip festival is a personal and professional thrill,” said Kapilian. “The Village Trip focuses attention on Greenwich Village as a world center of daring and creativity for more than a century – great and adventurous music, art, theater, dance, literature, poetry, journalism, and more. The legacy of Greenwich Village is a true bohemian rhapsody. I look forward to establishing The Village Trip as a fixture in the cultural calendar.”

Drew stated: “The Village Trip festival represents a time when cultural and social activism flourished. But this is more than a stroll down ‘memory lane’. Yesterday has become today. The Village Trip is an invitation for everyone to gather, to experience the iconic places where the seeds of change were sown. And to share music, art and opinion in some of the neighborhood’s signature venues that include Washington Square Park, Caffe Reggio, the White Horse Tavern, the Blue Note, the Bitter End, and the Strand Bookstore.”

Kapilian is a Brooklyn-based producer of original live events, touring productions and festivals. Premier presenters of Kapilian productions include Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, BAM, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center, Tanglewood, London’s Barbican Center, Sydney Opera House, and the Montreal, Newport, New Orleans, the North Sea, and Montreux Jazz Festivals. Kapilian has presented great artists of every genre, among them Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, Ravi Shankar, Lou Reed, James Taylor, Snarky Puppy, Herbie Hancock, David Byrne, Roberta Flack, Miles Davis, Tina Turner, Ornette Coleman, Alan Cumming, XTC, John Cage, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Laura Mvula, Wynton Marsalis, La Santa Cecilia, Rufus Wainwright, and George Clinton and P-Funk.

Dawn Drew has always connected music with place, time and culture. As the Vice-President and Publisher of National Geographic Traveler for 16 years, and as head of her Manhattan-based consultancy MOSTE, Inc, Drew –  in association with Danny Kapilian Presents – has co-executive produced more than 20 live cultural programs featuring music, the visual arts, artisan handicrafts and food in major venues around the USA including New York’s Central Park, the Hollywood Bowl, and Millennium Park in Chicago. She has also been creator and co-executive producer of 39 television episodes about food and travel, all filmed on location in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

Liz Thomson, founder and Executive Producer, said:

“To have two such high-caliber figures join The Village Trip at this early stage in its development is very exciting indeed. Along with partners Judy Paul and Marc Garrett, owners of the historic Washington Square Hotel, we share a creative vision for the festival and we look forward to building on the foundation laid down last year.

“The response to TVT 2018 – from performers, partners and audience –  was very positive and plans for this year’s festival are developing rapidly. We look forward to sharing them very soon.”

The Village Trip… Where the beat lives on