PREVIEW: O+ Festival is Reimagining the Way Artists Access Holistic Healthcare
10/10 - 10/12 Throughout Kingston
*This article originally appeared in our October issue.*
“It's not just another music festival; this exists purely to create wellness in the community by providing equitable access to arts and music for the community, and in exchange, all those artists that are providing that are in the other room getting clinic services.”
For 15 years, the folks at O+ Festival in Kingston have been creating their own solution to a systemic issue – how to get artists access to consistent, quality healthcare.
In our Western, capitalist world, we often are conditioned to see art as transactional; something with monetary value already built-in. The cost of your ticket to the theatre is the value of the play, the cover at the bar is the value of the band, and so on. But this model fails to consider the intrinsic value of the art that we walk away with, nor does it consider the physical and emotional work that the artist puts into their craft day in and day out. As a result, we find ourselves falling short of a model in which artists can truly care for themselves and their families effectively and consistently. From this dilemma, O+ Festival was born.
“We have people on our team that keep their households below the poverty line in order to stay on Medicaid, because it's the best insurance they've ever had and if they were to be kicked off of it, can no longer go to their therapist or access their medication. That feels like an impossible choice,” Art Director Lindsey Wolkowicz shares.
O+ Festival began in 2010 through a fateful meeting of the minds at Kingston Ale, which is still a venue of the festival today. Lara Hope, Music Director of Programming, explains the origin story, admitting, “It sounds like a joke that a dentist, a bar owner, and artist-activists are sitting in a bar together.” The dentist said he wished he could find a way to get a band from the city to come play in Kingston, yet all he had to offer was teeth cleaning. Joe Concra, the artist-activist and one of the festival’s founders, immediately leaned in, suggesting that he give the offer a shot. The result? The band took them up on the offer, and a new path forward was illuminated.
The festival takes place October 10-12, and features musicians, dancers, artists, comedians, filmmakers, and writers at various venues across the Kingston area. When performers are not on stage, they have access to a variety of medical and holistic wellness services ranging from routine doctor and dentist visits to acupuncture, massage therapy, and beyond.
“It's important to note that even people that do have insurance, oftentimes, many things aren't covered, like dental or like acupuncture or chiropractic,” says Lara. “Being an artist or as a musician is a manual labor job. Plenty of doctors in the medical field in the United States in general are faster to push a prescription then they would be to say, ‘Why don't you try some acupuncture? Why don't you try some Chiro? Why is your rotator cuff like that? Because you're painting in the same motion or strumming the guitar the same way a million times. Let's actually fix you.’”
While in previous years, access to healthcare was only available for this one festival weekend per year, O+ has been able to launch a new initiative over the last year – the O+ Exchange Clinic. With this permanent model, medical professionals are still volunteering their time at the clinic where alumni of the festival can come year-round to receive a variety of services. Furthermore, the crew at O+ is working to provide increased programming for the Kingston area itself, from workshops on trans health to tick-borne illnesses.
“The hope is that folks will start to understand that the festival is there in part just to support this work that we're doing all the time,” Lindsey furthers. “It's not just another music festival; this exists purely to create wellness in the community by providing equitable access to arts and music for the community, and in exchange, all those artists that are providing that are in the other room getting clinic services.”
This year’s festival will bring musicians like Fiery Furnaces and Rachel Yamagata, a screening of the film Beautiful Losers with two of the filmmakers present, comics, authors, The Chase Brock Experience dance company, a psychedelics panel, gong & reiki, and much more. While artists are finding their own wellness backstage, endeavors towards wellness will be happening all around you. Because, let us not forget: experiencing and partaking in art is a form of healing all its own.
O+ Festival will be taking place in various venues in Kingston, NY from October 10-12. Wristbands are available for access with purchase being a sliding scale suggested donation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information on the festival, exchange clinic, and the extensive work done by O+, visit their website at opositivefestival.org.
