A tobacco barn becomes a music venue for one night — June 13, Southwick MA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Century-Old Tobacco Barn Becomes a Music Hall — and Then a Tobacco Barn Again — for One Night in Southwick

Barn Sessions: Summer Haze brings four bands, craft beer, and food trucks to Johnson Brook Farm on June 13 — inside a barn that takes weeks to build out and weeks more to tear down

SOUTHWICK, Mass. — For weeks, Devon Arnold has been turning a century-old tobacco barn on his family’s farm into something it has never been. Lights run along the rafters. Carpet covers a floor built for drying leaf. A full working bar sits where curing racks usually hang. By Saturday, June 13, the barn will be a music venue for one night. By the time the work to undo it is finished — another stretch of weeks — every piece will be gone. The walls have to be empty and ready when the tobacco crop comes in.

Johnson Brook Farm has been in the Arnold family for six generations. Devon’s father, John, still works the land daily. Devon’s teenage children, Gage and Lilly, will be the seventh. The farm sits on College Highway in Southwick and produces cured tobacco the traditional way: hung in long, slatted New England barns through the autumn.

What Devon hosts inside those barns is something he has been building quietly for years. The first Barn Sessions took shape in fall 2023 as a friends-and-family gathering. A few more followed. Last September, the event went public and sold out. Barn Sessions: Summer Haze opens its first full public season.

“It takes weeks to put in, and weeks to take out,” Arnold said. “The barn doesn’t belong to the show — it belongs to the crop. We just get to borrow it.”

To bring the event to a wider audience, Devon partnered with Brandon Robb, co-owner of Vicennial Brewing. Craft beer will be provided by Vicennial Brewing and Rustic Brewing, with both labels pouring on site. Food trucks and select local vendors will be on the property throughout the day.

The music runs from 2 to 10 p.m. on an open-air stage tented for shade and weather. Punk-and-covers opener Lost in Transit starts at 2. Misc Meat — the hard-rock and metal cover band from the Vicennial Brewing circle — follows. Pioneer Valley original-rock veterans Vining Hill take the stage in support. Regional cover-band headliner Black Cadillac closes the night.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. The event is all-ages; children are admitted free with a ticketed adult, who must reserve a child’s ticket for headcount. A 21+ wristband is required for beer service. No outside food or drink.

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