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First Posted: 5/25/2009

By Steve Mocarsky [email protected] Writer
WILKES-BARRE – Kirby Park was awash in music on Sunday, with performing artists and disc jockeys who specialize in various genres coming together to benefit members of the military and their families.

It was the second annual MayDay! – a music festival that this year featured six live bands and more than 40 DJs and artists performing on five stages scattered throughout the park.
“It’s a chance for people to experience a little something different than what they might hear on the radio. So far it went pretty well, except for the rain,” said Randy Inadreem, a 28-year-old DJ from Kingston who helped organize this year’s event.
“We’re all volunteers that put this together. All of the proceeds go to Soldiers Angels. … We’ll be doing this every year, every Memorial Day weekend,” Inadreem said.
Inadreem’s wife, Alicia Conley, said the event was organized last year when her husband was serving in Iraq with the Pennsylvania based at the 109th Field Artillery Armory, just across Kirby Park.
DJs who were friends of her husband’s called her to ask who they should contact because they wanted to raise money to support American troops, and she referred them to the 109th. The group chose to raise money for Soldiers Angels as a way to support Inadreem and his fellow soldiers overseas.
Though MayDay! was free to the public, funds were raised through raffles and donations. Several area businesses donated prizes and bought program ads. Anyone who donated $1 got a raffle ticket and a free admission to Club Evolution at The Woodlands Inn & Resort for that night’s official “After-Party,” along with $3 drinks.
Performances on the live bands stage encompassed styles including Indie, rock, jam, bluegrass, live electronica, ska, jazz, funk and soul.
DJs playing dubstep – electronic music with a dark mood and emphasis on bass – had a stage all their own, as did hip hop DJs and those specializing in “drum and bass,” also known as “jungle” – electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats with heavy sub-bass lines. The fifth stage was dedicated to house/4×4/soul.
“We all play different genres of music at various clubs. It’s everyone coming together and getting involved,” Inadreem said.
The festival, which began at noon and went to about 8 p.m., had raised “double what we did last year, and we’re approaching triple,” DJ Ricky Dunkailo, 28, of Scranton, said at about 4:30 p.m., about an hour after a sudden downpour had ended.
Tara Whitmore, 26, of Dallas, said the festival was “good, but the rain sucks.” She had heard some of the music before, but much of it was new to her, she said while sitting with her friend Banana Houldan, of Hopewell, N.Y., on an edge of a concrete pavilion floor where a band was playing.
Houldan said she was in town to visit friends and listen to the music. “This should be the new Jam on the River,” Houldan said.