Cider Mag - Dec 2013 | Page 14

issue 38 working_Layout 1 12/7/2013 1:49 PM Page 14 CIDER MAGAZINE ISSUE 36 PG 14 WWW.CIDERMAG.COM Ziontific Productions Announces Dates of Fourth Annual Summer Solstice Festival Shannon Marie Mauro, cofounder (along with Justin Wargo) and creative director of Ziontific Productions, recently announced their fourth annual Summer Solstice Music Festival will once again be held in Stockbridge, Vt. on June 20-23, 2014. Voted last year as Cider Mag’s “Favorite Festival of 2012,” this fast- growing event will feature three days and nights of great music and food, great vibes, camping and nature activities for all ages. To support their local Vermont and New Hampshire music lovers, Ziontific is also offering a special discount in December to all Cider Mag readers only. From Dec. 1 through 31, 2013 full weekend tickets for Ziontific 2014 will be only $60 each for Cider Readers at www.ziontificproductions.com/cider. To support their local Vermont and New Hampshire music lovers, Ziontific is also offering a special discount in December to all Cider Mag readers only. From Dec. 1 through 31, 2013 full weekend tickets for Ziontific 2014 will be only $60 each for Cider Readers at ziontific productions.com/cider The original concept of the Ziontific summer festival was to bring together cool area bands, artists and like-minded folks, along with creating awareness for various non-profit organizations such as the food and clothing drive Strangers Helping Strangers, Mother Nature’s Army and Twenty Paws Rescue. "At the start of all this, between various colleges and new families, life was beginning to pull our circle of friends apart," Shannon Marie Mauro said in a recent Cider interview. "So, we wanted to create an excuse for everyone to take a break from the day-to-day, which is so easy to get stuck in, to catch up once a year and just have a good time together." From there, Shannon’s friend Luke of Our Food Your Gullet, suggested the idea of hosting a party-festival and in 2000, they began hosting an annual friends and family reunion. “The first several get-togethers were quite intimate - an 'invite only' event - with roughly 50 to 75 guests," Shannon said. "And with many of us being artists, we would also showcase whatever projects we had been working on over the past year." As the years went by, however, the party kept growing and growing to include an open mic for music and more friends and family were also getting invited. “Many of us were starting new projects which in turn, brought new people into the mix each year… and more and more of