At the center of the beating pulse of Midtown Kingston is the Flood family, who own and operate Rewind Kingston and organize the annual street festival Heart of Midtown, taking place Saturday, September 19. Held off Field Court, the festival centers mental health awareness and advocacy with a lineup of musicians, performers and artists.

For the past four years, the family has channeled the tragedy of losing their daughter, sister and best friend, Cassidy, to mental health struggles in 2020 into an event that raises awareness, provides resources and creates opportunities for others fighting similar battles.

After opening Rewind Kingston in the wake of Cassidy’s death, the Floods began meeting people involved in various mental health related organizations that they wished they knew about when Cassidy was struggling. Realizing the breadth of mental health resources available compared to their limited knowledge of where to turn when Cassidy needed help led them to recognize that many others were likely facing the same challenge — unsure of where to start when seeking support for their mental health.

The family has built on the connections they formed, developing a roster of dozens of organizations over the past four festivals that now form the heart of the festival.

The organizations that now table at Heart of Midtown are not all directly related to the field of mental health, but encompass anything that supports someone through mental health challenges. The hope is not only a greater network of mental health providers for festival attendees, but also to introduce people to new hobbies or passions that will help them cope through a hard time.

The Floods have also opened up space to community members without an organized business or group who have a collaborative, artistic or creative idea that they’d like to see actualized. Currently, Heart of Midtown has over 40 organizations and 20 musicians participating at the festival. We were told that this is Heart of Midtown’s biggest year yet.

We spoke to Karlie Flood, eldest daughter of the Flood family, the Director of Marketing and Creative Strategy for Heart of Midtown, as well as the founder of LoveCass, the nonprofit organization the family started last year to help fund the festival.

“I’ve found a really good coping mechanism that works for me is creating art and writing, but my sister didn’t have that. She didn’t have a go-to outlet,” Karlie said. Her roles include being the point-person for everything festival related, which also ties into outreach, marketing, and managing operations.

“It’s ironic because it’s my most stressed time of the year but it’s also my favorite day,” she said, and added that even though she is busy planning a festival, she acknowledges that even she has to take care of her mental health right now. “[It’s] been a big lesson and still difficult for me to do… we are not people who knew how to put on a music festival, but apparently you can do anything if you want to.”

Karlie and her family often go to music festivals and concerts and see Heart of Midtown as their “dream music festival.” The musicians they invite to perform are all musicians the Floods often listen to; many are local and many others are travelling specifically for the festival. Their only criteria for selected performers is that they address mental health through their music in some capacity. Karlie jokes that she’s branding this year’s event as “Coachella for your mental health.”

Leading the music curation is Sydney Flood, Karlie’s younger sister, who booked names such as Cece Coakley, Benet, Sabrina Song and Ginger Winn. Kicking off the festival lineup are two keynote speakers, Noor Tagouri and Adam Khaff, as well Woodstock-based Sophie Strand. There will also be representatives from different nonprofits explaining what their organization does as they introduce performers to the stage.

“The music is important but the organizations are really what we want to focus on,” Karlie said.

The festival will have three active stages, including one on Field Court as the main Heart of Midtown stage, one at West Kill Supply and one behind Rewind Kingston at Unwind, a quieter area with a garden where MyKingstonKids will have their sensory space zone. Radio Kingston and Doors at 7 are both helping with sound for each stage.

Unwind, Karlie mentioned, was created with the intention of having a microcosm of the same energy of Heart of Midtown but accessible to people year-round. Every Wednesday the space hosts different, free events, such as collaging and journaling.

This year they created “festival passports,” which can be logged by scanning QR codes at each table you go to, encouraging people to meet new faces and attend any of the other events happening locally on the same day, such as ArtWalk and the Streamroller Print Festival.

The passport connects to yet another new feature rolling out this year: an interactive webapp designed by Jeremy McEvoy that displays a map of the festival and Midtown that will help guide people throughout the festival’s many concurrent events, food options, restroom availability, and more.

With September being back to school time, the family wanted their reach to span to people of all ages searching for something to look forward to amidst the stress of school and the coming winter ahead. The festival is also entirely free to attend and every person involved — including the organizers – are volunteers.

There will also be free self-care kits for the first 100 attendees, zines, and flower bouquets handed out to all attendees. The festival also hosts several different activities for people to participant in, including journaling, collaging, other crafts, an open mic and pickleball led by the Flood family matriarch Joanne.

Heart of Midtown also collaborated with Westkill Supply on a limited edition, one-day-only “Heart of Midtown beer,” which Karlie designed the label for. “I didn’t even know that was a bucket list item until I did it,” Karlie said, who created the label design using newspaper from her aunt’s collection of vintage newsprint as well as the cover art for the song “Every Time It Rains” by Ginger Winn, a song that Karlie and sister Sydney wrote. All the proceeds for the beer go towards the LoveCass nonprofit.

From 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. the day of the festival there will be a film showcase screening at Upstate Midtown with a series of mental-health themed short films curated by community members.

The rest of the festival will take place from 2 – 8 p.m., with a full lineup of performers and organizations available to view at heartofmidtown.com, or @rewindkingston on Instagram. There will be a pie eating contest courtesy of Little Rye Bakery at 5 p.m., with the money raised benefiting local mental health organizations. The event will close with a light show by B.A. Miale with projections on Field Court of Karlie’s artwork and positive messages.

The festival is community-based and -oriented at its core, and Karlie said her family could not have made it happen without the overwhelming support they have received.

“My sister was so exhausted trying to find people to help her. [Heart of Midtown] is bringing all of those people to you instead of you having to find them, and making it as easy and fun as possible to find those resources,” Karlie said.