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Arts & Entertainment

HOMEGROWN MUSIC CAFE - Robinson Treacher, Eddie Ayala and Dean Steiding LIVE!

Now in its third year, the Homegrown Music Café has established itself as one of Long Island’s premier concert venues. Since its launch in September 2009, the Homegrown stage at St. Gerard Majella Church’s Chapel in Port Jefferson Station has brought our audiences some of the very best musical talent in the region. Well over 100 performers graced the Homegrown stage in its first year, and our cumulative audience is in the thousands.  
  Long Island is a true hot spot of musical talent, and as such, it deserves a quality venue that consistently delivers excellent shows. This is why the organizers of Homegrown Music Café have spared no effort in recruiting the best available acts to play on our stage, and invested in a concert-quality sound system that has won repeated accolades. Our efforts to deliver quality will continue unabated through our second year and beyond. 
Since its start, the Homegrown Music Café brought you some of the best-known names in the Long Island and New York Metro music community. Among them were Miles to Dayton, Sonny Meadows, Hank Stone, Katie Pearlman Band, Sunrise Skyline, Caroline Doctorow, Johnny Cuomo and American Idol contestant Erinn Furey.   
Homegrown Music Café performers do not get paid. They donate their time to help us raise funds for the St. Gerard Majella parish outreach program, which over the years has fed, clad and comforted hundreds of families in need. In its first year, the Homegrown Music Café netted over $3,000 for the outreach program. For the February show, the Homegrown organization made an exception and, instead, donated the night’s proceeds of $400 to the victims of the devastating hurricane in Haiti.  
Every Thursday, the outreach program feeds as many as 100 people at our Stewardship Supper soup kitchen, and each month 72 families pick up food at our community pantry. At Thanksgiving, 130 families receive food baskets, 165 families get food and gifts at Christmas, and 55 families get baskets at Easter. All this is thanks to the kindhearted staff of our Parish workers.  
Homegrown Music Café performances take place monthly at the St. Gerard Majella Church Chapel, 300 Terryville Road, Port Jefferson Station. Our Chapel is an intimate and comfortable space with seating for 100 people. Show night is the second Saturday of every month at 8 p.m. (Occasionally that changes, so be sure to check our “Upcoming Shows” page.) The suggested donation for show nights is $5, but if you can give more, we are grateful for that.  
  Each show consists of two five-song performances by Long Island artists, followed by a 15-minute intermission, during which audience members can stretch their legs and purchase refreshments and baked goods. The featured act of the evening takes the stage after the break.  
If you haven’t yet attended a Homegrown Music Café performance, we encourage you to check out an upcoming show. You will not find a better venue for the price of admission on Long Island.

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