Bridger Stewardson is one cool dude.
The 19-year-old just pulled off the first Henderson Music & Arts Festival in his hometown, which, from all accounts, was a great success. Hundreds of people came out to check out the lineup, which included local bands as well as other musicians and vocalists from Durham and Boston, MA.
Stewardson, who just completed his freshman at the renown Berklee School of Music in Boston, is an accomplished jazz pianist. The 2025 Vance Charter School graduate told WIZS in an earlier interview that the festival is a way for him to give back to his hometown.
He mentioned a couple of takeaways from having the first year under his belt.
One, “That I’m going to do it again next year, for sure, and every year after, hopefully,” Stewardson said on Monday’s TownTalk.
Second takeaway – he’s going to hire some more help.
He got to the site about 8:30 in the morning on Sunday, June 14 and was still there finishing up at 10 that night. In addition to setting up and making sure everything was ready for the performances, Stewardson was a great festival greeter and ambassador. And that was all before he took the stage.
“It was just great to see so many people show up,” he said. “Five, six hundred people, in and out all day…everybody smiling the whole time, dancing. It was a good day.”
People from all different ethnicities, backgrounds and ages made up the crowd, which Stewardson attributes to the music.
“It was the music that worked all that other stuff in,” he said.
Listening to live music creates a special feeling among concertgoers. “You feel like you’re almost part of it, of the moving organism that the event is based around,” he noted.
Jimmy and the Sound Barriers kicked things off, and the Westbrooks provided the intro to Bridger & Friends, which was the final group to take the stage.
“All of the groups were stellar. I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout for the music,” he said.
As he thinks about next year’s festival, Stewardson said he may consider moving the date up just a bit to avoid the heat – it was in the upper 80’s on festival day before a quick shower cooled things off a bit.
There were tents and misting fans which helped, and the breeze was “super nice” under the tents to help keep folks comfortable.
“Everybody I talked to had a great time,” Stewardson said. It was just a happy time, he said, adding that he loved seeing folks out dancing in front of the stage, smiling and talking to old friends and meeting new ones.
Bridger & Friends will be playing from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 25 at Tobacco Wood Brewing Co. in Oxford for the final installment of Quittin’ Time.
Then he’ll be headed off to NYC to hang out with the Parliament Funkadelic guys and the bassist for the Allman Brothers Band and Dead & Company.
All this before beginning his sophomore year.
Yep, Bridger Stewardson is one cool dude.
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