Escape to New York fest opens in Southampton

The experiment begins Friday.

Thousands of fans of independent-minded music, public art and high-end food are converging on the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton for the Escape to New York Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday.

Poet-rocker Patti Smith, hot up-and-comers Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and the unpredictable collective Of Montreal will headline the festival, the brainchild of organizer Freddie Fellowes, who has modeled the event after his well-respected, long-running Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire, England.

It's the first festival of any size geared toward young people to be allowed in Suffolk County in years -- the first to be attempted since the Field Day festival featuring Radiohead and the Beastie Boys, originally scheduled for Calverton, was canceled in 2003 because of security issues and community pressure. Fellowes expects between 8,000 and 10,000 concertgoers; ticket prices range from $100 daily to $275 for the weekend. (Another, larger gathering, the Music to Know Festival, is set for Aug. 13 and 14 in East Hampton.)

Fellowes, a concert promoter who has been working on Escape to New York for more than two years and says he has invested "millions" of his own money, hopes to forge a long-term partnership with the community. The festival will pay Southampton Town police for traffic control on County Road 39 at the intersections of Tuckahoe Road and Tuckahoe Lane, as well as for patrols in the camping area.

"I think we're a very different kind of festival and the welcome rests with that," he said. "We aren't bringing Coachella [the massive California rock festival held each April] to the Hamptons. This is a very different event, one that has been rather warmly received in the neighborhood."

Escape to New York certainly has some unusual ambitions in addition to the nearly 100 musical acts booked. Fellowes hopes to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark for the world's biggest brunch at an outdoor festival Sunday. He has interactive public art exhibits planned, as well as a series of lectures from Guerilla Science on such topics as "Neurological Wonders" and "How to Destroy Things With Light." The fest's food will be curated by Silkstone, which runs the Fat Radish in Manhattan and Ruschmeyer's in Montauk.

Fellowes says the event is already a success. Spaces for "glamping" -- glamorous camping -- have already sold out and the festival hopes to bring in more local visitors by offering $30 tickets each night for people walking up after 5 p.m.