LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1537744
LOCALadk 16 Party on the Patio: Turning Backyard Vibes Into a Small-Town Music Legacy By Troy Tetrault It's Thursday night in Saranac Lake. Music emanates from downtown, from the Waterhole. Tourists are dancing with locals. Retirees and toddlers enjoying the sounds outside on the packed patio. It's every- one's favorite night of the week in the Adirondacks. This is Party on the Patio. Origins of Partio Party on the Patio (lovingly referred to as "Partio") started in earnest 15 years ago at the Waterhole, the long-standing bar and heartbeat of the music scene in Saranac Lake. In its infancy, Partio was low-key, with some small, acoustic-style solo artists. With no upstairs bar open during that time and maybe 40 folks hanging out around a much smaller patio than now, it felt like a "cozy backyard hang," per Eric Munley and Kiki Sarko, owners of the Waterhole. When Munley became the booker back in 2012, be- fore he and Sarko eventually came to own the Water- hole, everything changed. The acts started to get big- ger, ultimately culminating in a watershed moment for the venue when Big Mean Sound Machine, a 10 -piece Afrobeat band, took to the patio. With so many in the band, members were forced to fit on the rock shelves just to fit into the space. As Munley and Sarko de- scribe, "That moment was surreal. The height differ- ence, the energy pouring off the band, the crowd's reaction, it completely transformed the space." This was a sign of how nearly every future Partio would be. Building a beloved series The success of Partio hasn't happened overnight. It's taken a decade to get here, and there have been innu- merable bumps along the way. Trial and error was the name of the game for Munley and his work booking different acts. They learned about and cultivated new fan favorites, tested out literally hundreds of bands, and took tough financial hits along the way. We take for granted that Partio draws a crowd every single Thursday night, but in the beginning, every week was a bit of a gamble. Will there be people? Will this band land? These questions historically rested on the ability of the band to draw listeners, not the venue itself. But the Waterhole flipped the script. With "consistency, trust, and a lot of love from the community," as Mun- ley and Sarko say, it's no longer solely the band that Photo credit: Cody Updike