It’s the late 2000s again at Staten Island’s Maker Park Music Fest

Part of Staten Island is effectively transforming into late-2000s Brooklyn this weekend with a two-day indie revival ripped from the Pandora stations of yesteryear.

The Maker Park Music and Art Fest will be headlined by avant-electronic musician Dan Deacon on Friday and garage-punk legend Jon Spencer on Saturday. With tickets at $20-$25 per day, it promises a house show-like experience on the North Shore and a free ferry ride to get there that’s more like a summer adventure than a commute.

Festival producer Maker Park Radio was founded by Kristin Wallace and Tom Ferrie in 2017. It began as a grassroots streaming radio station tucked inside MakerSpace NYC, a creative fabrication warehouse launched after Superstorm Sandy destroyed a studio used by local artists.

Wallace, a longtime promoter and tour manager for artists like Rancid, the Offspring and David Byrne, said she relocated to Staten Island from Park Slope in 2009 and found herself “bored outta my mind.” She put her skills to work to make her own scene.

“At first, I was like, 'What is this, where are my people at?'” Wallace said. “People are sort of isolated in their communities here, so I had to build something for them to gravitate to, to find music nerds such as myself.”

Since then, she said the station has grown to host more than 120 volunteer DJs and an audio learning hub called SONIQLAB that holds classes for live sound, DJing and music production. The group has transformed an empty lot into a community space with a stage, sculpture garden and beehive center.

This weekend’s bill reads like an iPod-era MP3 mix. The Chicago post-punk trio Horsegirl will join Deacon on the lineup Friday, along with Queens punk band Balaclava. Spencer of Blues Explosion fame will be joined Saturday by members of the Bobby Lees, as well as Juno-award winning Nobro from Montreal.

Festivalgoers will also find Maker Park DJs spinning between sets, live portrait photography and rotating art installations.

Local vendors will be selling food and crafts, and the festival is for all ages. Wallace said that contributes to a community feeling where "everyone that's here wants to be here."

“The music scene is smaller compared to Brooklyn, but when we do cool stuff, people really come out," she said.

She added that it's easy to get to on public transit by riding the Staten Island Ferry, then taking the Staten Island Railway two stops to Stapleton.

“It’s not as scary as one might think,” Wallace said. “A lot of people come up to us and say, ‘This is cool, I didn’t even know this existed.’”

The Maker Park Music and Art Fest kicks off at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12, at Maker Park on Staten Island. Tickets, which are $23 in advance or $25 at the door for each day, are available here.