photo credit Andrew Blackstein

This past weekend’s Catskill Chill Festival featured several sit ins and collaborations, including a Particle & Fam finale that served as a fond farewell to Camp Minglewood.

Some of the countless sit its included the Shady Horns (Ryan Zoidis and Eric Benny Bloom) with Break Science, American Babies’ Justin Mazer with Electron and Nigel Hall with Lettuce.

Guitarist and son of Dave Matthews Band’s Stefan Lessard Diggy Lessard, along with Moon Hooch horn players Mike Wilbur and Wenzi McGowen, took the stage with moe. for “Happy Hour Hero,” and Pink Talking Fish welcomed The Werks’ saxophonist Greg Sanderson and Turkuaz’s Rob Chafin and Michelangelo Carubba for a cover of Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless.”

The Twiddle guys got into the sit ins as well, joining The Werks’ for a run of “G-Twerk” then returning the favor by bringing The Werks’ Chris Houser and keyboardist Todd Stoops to the stage during their Grateful Dead set for “The Music Never Stopped.” Wiley Griffen and Stoops joined Twiddle for their regular set.

The planned collaborations didn’t disappoint either, with the Chillfam Allstars tribute to Herbie Hancock and the Stratosphere Allstars featuring members of Particle, Lotus and Dopapod. The Dopapod/Turkuaz mashup also delivered “Dopakuaz plays Studio 54,” in which they busted out some favorites like “Le Freak,” “Funky Town” and “Good Times”

The highlight of the festival came with the spectacular finale, when Particle, the only band to have played all Catskill Chills so far, played an epic final set that featured Haley Jane, DJ Logic and Tom Hamilton of Billy and the Kids and American Babies along with members of Lotus, Turkuaz, Disco Biscuits, Pink Talking Fish, The Werks, Perpetual Groove, Shwizz and Fikus. To wave a final goodbye to Camp Minglewood, a huge ensemble closed out the festival with a run of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Family Affair” into Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” a fitting tribute to the place that has hosted the Chillfam for many years.