Seeing Sounds Heats Up Edgewood Skate Park

The concrete made the temperature seem twice as high at Edgewood Park’s skate park Saturday, but skateboards still flew through the crowd — and music filled the air at the first annual Seeing Sounds music festival. 

Twelve booths stood between the expansive stage and the skate park. Skaters, bikers, and walkers alike browsed through clothes and jewelry, CBD and water misters as they listened to the bands. 

New Havener and musician Trey Moore and Black Haven organized the festival. He hopes it’ll be a longstanding annual tradition. His goal was to bring different communities together, ones that rarely do come together.

“It’s important to be ambitious about getting everyone together for the future of music. This is my swing at it,” he said.

Moore is a musician and producer himself, and performed at the festival. He said that giving opportunities to people to get out and play is important to him. Even if this festival becomes big enough to get major artists to come someday, which he hopes, Moore will always have spots for local artists. 

“There’s something special to be said about the relationship between skating and music,” he said. Moore pops into the skate park often, and wanted to expand upon the relationship that skaters have with the music they listen to and the people that play it. 

Long Wharf Theater and Roller Magic helped to fund the event. The name Seeing Sounds was inspired by Moore’s favorite N.E.R.D. album. (Read more about Trey Moore here.)

Brian Ardito has been going to the Edgewood Skate Park for 13 years, and calls it home. He appreciates the new section that the city designed in conjunction with skaters. ​“I think it’s great the city allows this to happen. I feel like everything is more together.” 

Friends Stulla and Q sat in the shade of the lone tree in the middle of the park. They said they wish the skate park had more interaction with nature, but like the crowd that hangs out there. Stulla said, ​“the community is helpful here. When I came for the first time, they helped me assemble my skateboard.” 

It was Abby Wisnewski’s first time at Edgewood skate park. ​“It’s so colorful here. And I’m really impressed by the variety of obstacles – that’s unique.” She plans to return on a cooler day and tackle the daunting half-pipe again.

One booth housed the The CBG Gurus, a certified organic farm that makes regenerative, no-till hemp, according to owner Shawn Magill. This is their first year appearing at events. 

DeadBy5am had a booth with a steady stream of customers. They have a store in the Dali tattoo shop on Whitney Avenue. They’ve been open for three years and have developed a cult following. Their name comes from the idea of always having to be at the top level of productivity, even if it means staying up all night and feeling ​“dead by 5 a.m.” Accordingly, everything is made in-store by hand by screen-printing and sewing. One recent drop was skeleton-themed, and was based on the graveyard shift. The brand is run by partners Jae’da Richardson and Brenton Shumaker. Said Richardson of Shumaker: ​“He started the fashion scene in New Haven.” 

SCSU student Zoé Pringle runs Pringle Painting Plus, where she sells handmade jewelry, crochet, and paintings. About a dozen friends crowded her tent throughout the event, excited at each sale. She said that SCSU students like to hang out at the skate park all summer long, with instruments or each other. 

Herve Locus is the man behind DUCE Art. His signature is a friendly yellow blob. Locus has been doing art for 16 years, starting with graffiti and then branching out to tattooing, graphic design, cartoons, illustrations, and even plush toys. Locus said he hopes that his brand grows until DUCE is a household name, and people know New Haven as the home of the blob, not just the home of Yale. He’s also been a regular at the skate park for 12 years. (Read more about Locus here.)

Locus said that he appreciates the culture at Edgewood Skate Park: ​“Edgewood has been my home. It’s a place to raise my kids when I have them.”

“It’s a small community here. If we see someone skating, we feel obliged to talk. If they skate, they speak to my heart, so I speak to them. Come skate Edgewood!”