A BRILLIANT ART and MUSIC FESTIVAL, “The SUMMER MELTDOWN,” BRINGS TOGETHER LOCAL, REGIONAL and NATIONAL TOURING ACTS as MATISYAHU and DIRTY HEADS for TWO SEPARATE ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCES, along with TWENTY-EIGHT ELECTRIC PERFORMANCES from WELL-KNOWN TOURING ACTS to BENEFIT YOUTH LIVING with AUTISM.

The One-Of-A-Kind Art and Music Festival is Co-Produced by Students with Autism/Aspergers and other Disabilities, along with their Peers and its Founders of The “Yes I Can” Unity Through Music and Education Social Inclusion Program, Bringing World Renowned Acts Together in Support of the World’s Largest Art and Music Festival of Its Kind; A Family-Friendly, Massive, 30-Band, 4-Stage Art and Music Festival like No Other.

March 13, 2014. Santa Clarita, CA. – The Summer Meltdown is the most notable and largest arts and music festival of its kind featuring A-list musicians. This year, Billboard© topping artists Matisyahu and The Dirty Heads perform separate headlining acoustic shows for one fun-packed, music-blissful day to celebrate music, arts and community, while enriching the lives and confidence of youth living with Autism and other disabilities. In conjunction with the Santa Clarita, California based “Yes I Can” (YIC) program, this unique and most inspirational festival is co-produced by youth living on the Autism Spectrum.

The Yes I Can - Unity Through Music and Education Program is a 501-c3 nonprofit organization, which developed the Summer Meltdown Festival in 2004 to provide youth on the Autism spectrum an opportunity to be a part of the community, develop occupational skills and simply find a place to fit-in amongst their peers. The founders, and twelve students, conceptualized the event, with the notion that if they produced a concert for their community, other teens just might find them “cool,” explains festival founder, Bret Lieberman. The Yes I Can Program has benefited more than five hundred students, and is run by YIC students, volunteers, and trained teacher advisors.

The Summer Meltdown Autism Awareness Art & Music Festival takes place on April 26, 2014, at the City of Santa Clarita Skatepark and field, and will feature thirty bands on four stages, with fourteen live artists, who will paint/draw live on stage as the bands perform to enhance the overall experience for fest-goers. All performances will be a traditional electric set, while Matisyahu and the Dirty Heads go back to back for intimate evening performances under the Santa Clarita stars. The festival will offer a variety of specialized food trucks for tantalizing cuisine for the most critical of palette, and will feature many local and regional artisans who will be on hand to both display and sell their handcrafted goods.

This eleventh annual arts and music festival is co-produced with its founders and the students in the Yes I Can program, many of whom are teens living on the spectrum of Autism. Bret Lieberman and Lisa Lamedman, along with their socially isolated students who were being bullied, developed the concept of the Summer Meltdown Art and Music Festival. Together, they came up with the idea of producing a concert in the community in hopes of having a place to fit in. Bret, Lisa, and their Yes I Can students ran with the idea, working to enrich their social and occupational skills.

“To have the opportunity to teach these extraordinary kids true-to-life skills that they could learn alongside music industry professionals, and to be able to grow their new-found talents year after year as they move on to college was a no-brainer for me. As a special education teacher, who specializes in Autism, my passion lies deep with these kids. Just to see the smiles on their faces and watch them make such huge accomplishments, is like nothing else I have experienced,” says co-founder Bret Lieberman. “By exposing these teens to a major music and arts event like the Summer Meltdown Festival, it embraces their team-building skills, while developing their knowledge of the music and arts industries- there is nothing better I could think to give them, as music is our universal language.”

THE COMPLETE ARTIST LINE-UP IS AS FOLLOWS:
Matisyahu & The Dirty Heads (acoustic) * Stick Figure * Seedless
Cisco Adler * Thrive * Krooked Treez * Hirie * The Expanders * Ontronik
Chris Young * Katastro * Mystic Roots * Natural Incense * Arise Roots Forrest Day * Wheeland Bros * Stranger * Papafish * Jet West Rick Thorne * Ease Up * Reeform * Piracy Conspiracy *
Top Shelf * C Def and Breaking Tempo * More to be announced
(Doyle of the Misfits - on hand for autographs & photo opportunities only)

Modeled after a federal program developed by the University of Minnesota, YIC began as a pilot program in the William S. Hart School District in 1999 with the help of the City of Santa Clarita. Yes I Can students learn about disabilities, self-advocacy, goal setting, self-determination, collaboration, communication skills, as well as the appreciation of diversity in a year-long elective class.

“The teens and its founders work closely together on everything imaginable to make the festival come to life. From booking bands, to assisting with sound, lighting and staging, as well as marketing and graphic designing – the teens learn how to work alongside professionals, how to manage small and large projects, and more importantly, in the process, they innately grow their self-confidence by seeing the fruits of their labor as the festival transpires. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m honored to be a part of,” says festival publicist Tanya Moore of Moore Media – whose son is also on the spectrum.

The festival is located at the City of Santa Clarita Skatepark and field at 20840 Centre Pointe Parkway in Santa Clarita, California on Saturday, April 26, 2014, and will take place from noon to 8pm, with gates opening at 11am. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the gate. The festival founders are advising advance ticket purchases, as they are expecting to sell-out this year due to the level of talent. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to benefit the Yes I Can program.

For more information, please visit the website at: www.SummerMeltdownSCV.com. For advance ticket purchases, log-onto: www.etixs.com. For sponsorship opportunities, visit: http://sponsorthemeltdown.com/ and for media inquiries and/or interviews with founders or various artists on the lineup, please contact festival publicist: Tanya Moore of Moore Media via email at: PR@MooreMedia.TV

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LINKS OF INTEREST:
YES I CAN PROGRAM: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yes-I-Can-Summer-Meltdown-Autism-Awa...
YES I CAN VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/15141069
SUMMER MELTDOWN: http://summermeltdownscv.com/
SPONSOR SUMMER MELTDOWN: http://vimeo.com/15141069
MOORE MEDIA: http://mooremedia.tv/

ARTIST LINKS:
Matisyahu: http://matisyahuworld.com/
Dirty Heads: http://www.dirtyheads.com/
Stick Figure: http://www.stickfiguremusic.com/
Seedless: http://seedlessmusic.ning.com/
Doyle of the Misfits: http://hauntedhotsauce.com/officialdoyle_staging/buy-doyle-abominator/
Cisco Adler: http://www.ciscoadlerpresents.com/
Thrive: http://thrivetheband.com/category/music/
Krooked Treez: http://www.krookedtreezmusic.com/
Hirie: http://www.hiriemusic.com/
The Expanders: http://theexpanders.net/
Ontronik: http://ontronik.com/
Chris Young: http://chrisyoungtherapper.bandcamp.com/
Katastro: http://katastro.com/
Mystic Roots: http://www.mysticroots.com/
Natural Incense: http://naturalincensemusic.com/band
Arise Roots: http://www.ariseroots.com/
Forrest Day: http://www.forrestday.com/
Wheeland Bros: http://www.wheelandbrothers.com/
Stranger: http://www.strangerband.com/
Papafish: https://www.bandpage.com/papafish
Jet West: http://www.jetwestband.com/
Rick Thorne: http://rickthorne.tv/
Ease Up: http://easeup.bandcamp.com/
Reeform: http://www.reverbnation.com/Reeform
Piracy Conspiracy: http://www.reverbnation.com/Reeform
Top Shelf: http://www.topshelfbigband.com/
C Def: https://soundcloud.com/yungtruthakacdef
Breaking Tempo: http://www.breakingtempo.com/

Featured Live Painters:
Al Scholl, Kirk O Hara, Timoi, Sparart, Gilbert Bernal, Enrique Gallegos, Michael Richard Rosenbalt, Tara Nichole, Amber Jahn, David Stranger, Jordyn Anaya, Elizabeth Randolph, Christian, Alexander Soto, Anna Randolph

FESTIVAL SPONSORS:
KROQ: http://kroq.cbslocal.com/
MOORE MEDIA: http://mooremedia.tv/
GUITAR CENTER/ Stevenson Ranch: http://stores.guitarcenter.com/Stevenson-Ranch?source=4SOSWXXN
JERSEY MIKES SUBS/ Santa Clarita: http://www.jerseymikes.com/20005
BNV PRODUCTIONS: http://www.bnvproductions.com/
ANDY GUMP: https://www.andygump.com/

ABOUT “YES I CAN” In Conjunction with SUMMER MELTDOWN:
The Yes I Can (YIC) program is a program of the Unity for Music and Education 501-c3 nonprofit organization, which is based out of the William S. Hart School District, in Santa Clarita, California.

The Yes I Can program connects students who have a wide array of spectrum disorders, many with Autism and Asperger’s syndrome with peer mentors, while teaching them social and life skills which embrace acceptance.

The Summer Meltdown was praised by the University of Minnesota as one of the best “Yes I Can” social inclusion activities in the nation. It has been highlighted in local media as a model program for social inclusion and has been featured in Teaching Tolerance Magazine and received “Program of the Year Award” from the California Association of Speech and Hearing in 2005 and the Digital Voice Award in 2010 for Outstanding Technical Achievement by students in a professional
field.

Modeled after a federal program developed by the University of Minnesota, YIC began as pilot program in 1999 with the help of the City of Santa Clarita. Yes I Can students learn about disabilities, self-advocacy, goal setting, self-determination, collaboration and communication skills, as well as the appreciation of diversity in a yearlong elective class.

Many of the students with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome in the program have lived on the social outskirts and have found commonality most difficult with other peers. By utilizing music as the common thread among peers, the Yes I Can program focuses on what these teens have in common, as oppose to their differences by creating shared experiences, while building practical occupational skills needed for planning large events.

The concert element, which began as a class celebration for the first successful year, is the yearly culmination of the program, which is
produced by the youth, for the community to raise social awareness and
tolerance of youth on the spectrum. The students work alongside music industry professionals to produce the event. The program is enriched through the planning of the annual Summer Meltdown Music & Arts Festival.

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CALENDAR RELEASE:
WHO: Matisyahu (acoustic), Dirty Heads (acoustic), Stick Figure, Cisco Adler, Seedless, Hirie, Krooked Treez, Thrive, Mystic Roots, The Expanders, Katastro, and more.
WHAT: Summer Meltdown Music and Arts Festival, presented by Yes I Can students.
WHY: Supporting the Yes I Can program for Autism
WHEN: April 26, 2014 12pm-8pm/ Doors at 11am
WHERE: City of Santa Clarita Skatepark, 20840 Centre Pointe Pkwy, Santa Clarita, California
TICKET LINK: www.etixs.com ;
TICKET PRICE: ADV: $20/ GATES: $25
FESTIVAL CONTACT INFO: Bret Lieberman/ Info@SummerMeltdownSCV.com
PRESS CONTACT INFO: Tanya Moore/ Moore Media/ PR@MooreMedia.TV
FESTIVAL WEBSITE: www.summermeltdownscv.com