The latest in the EAC Studio Visit series warms viewers up in a look back at summer 2020. With Downeast Rainbow Alliance’s Pop-up Pride festival as the background, EAC Video captured Zach Smith’s transformation into drag queen Sandy River, the much-loved lead singer of Beach Trash. Inter-spliced with Beach Trash concert footage from the Eastport Gallery’s Music on the Deck series, this in-depth interview covers Zach’s thoughts on drag, music, and living Down East. Fans will be excited to hear a new Sandy River album is in the works with a tentative summer release date, and that Zach is “dreaming of singing live again soon.”
Recalling the event, and the summer of 2020, Eastport Gallery president Joan Lowden remarked, “As a musician, I couldn’t have imagined a summer without live music, and thankfully the Eastport Gallery was able to safely present a series of 5 pop-up music concerts from the gallery deck. Partnering with Anne Shields Hopkins and the Downeast Rainbow Alliance to present Beach Trash on Labor Day weekend was probably the highlight of my summer. Seeing the joy on everyone’s face on that beautiful day was so needed, and this video brings it all back with a smile and even a grateful tear.”
This video was produced by Eastport Arts Center, with support from the Belvedere Traditional Handcrafts Fund of the Maine Community Foundation. Camerawork and editing was done by Mark Macey including concert footage by Jude Kempe. Check out more videos from the Studio Visit series here; find Jude Kempe’s Music on the Deck videos here.
The work of Eastport Arts Center is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.