August 21, 2024 – The Mansfield Downtown Partnership is pleased to announce the headliner for its 21st Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival will be Jake Kulak and the Modern Vandals!
Award-winning musician and guitar phenom, Jake Kulak has been performing professionally in front
of audiences since the age of 12. Thrilling audiences from Norway to Boston, from Sydney to New York City, and down to the Mississippi Delta, Jake plays guitar-driven rock music which highlights his improvisational and jam abilities. Jake has spent five summers playing in the home of the Blues - Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Jake was voted Best Blues Band or Singer by The Hartford Courant’s CTNOW Reader’s Poll. He and his power trio were also nominated for a New England Music Award for “Best New Act of the Year.” In 2019, they competed all summer in the Foxwoods Resort Casino’s prestigious “Battle of the Bands” and took home the $10,000 Grand Prize award.
His original pop song “Better” and his rock tunes “Circles” and “Caution Tape” were all chosen as semi-finalists in the International Songwriting Competition, the “competition to take note of,” according to The New York Times. The band has won the Connecticut Blues Society Band Challenge and performed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. Jake’s debut album, Get Faded and Go, was recognized in The Hartford Courant’s “Best Album by CT Musicians.”
Jake is a cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston with concentrations in guitar performance, songwriting and music business, along with a minor in philosophy. He has been inducted into the Connecticut Blues Hall of Fame.
Jake Kulak and the Modern Vandals will perform from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM on the stage of the Jeffrey P. Ossen Family Foundation Pavilion on Betsy Paterson Square.
Visitors are invited to bring a blanket or lawn chair. Refreshments will be available for purchase from the Festival food booths and at Downtown Storrs restaurants.
Please note: Alcohol is prohibited on the Square. Smoking and vaping are also prohibited on the Square.
The Celebrate Mansfield Festival is free and open to everyone.
The Mansfield Downtown Partnership produces the Celebrate Mansfield Festival with the generous support of local sponsors. The 2024 Platinum Sponsors are Barnes & Noble UConn, Gulemo Printers, Inc., The Oaks on the Square, and Wilcox & Reynolds.
The 2024 Gold Sponsors are the Town of Mansfield; University of Connecticut; E. O. Smith High School; Mansfield Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation; The M&T Charitable Foundation; National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM); Price Chopper; and WILI.
The 2024 Silver Sponsors are Advanced Window Systems; The Adventure Park at Storrs; Casella Waste Systems; Coyote Flaco; Cynthia van Zelm and Christopher Kennedy; Green Valley Hospitality; LAZ Parking; Mansfield Orthodontics; Mountain Dairy; OBGYN and Midwifery of CT; Renewal by Andersen; UConn Foundation; and Weichert Realtors, Four Corners Real Estate. The Partnership thanks these businesses and organizations for their support of our community!
For more information, please visit downtownstorrsfestival.org or call the Mansfield Downtown Partnership (860.429.2740).