NolanFest 2025 was held Saturday, June 28 at Silvershell Beach in Marion. The event commemorates the nearly five years since the passing of Nolan Gibbons on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, just after his 15th birthday. Nolan attended Old Rochester Regional High School and had been an at the time. He had, the year before, been an attendee at A Capella Academy in Los Angeles which he had said was “the best 10 days of my life!”
The festival kicked off at 5:00 pm with a recording of Nolan singing the national anthem. Nolan’s parents, Sheila and Warren Gibbons, then spoke, with his father saying, “when we did it the first year, it was his memorial, and we didn’t know what to do. So, we thought we’d do it again and we started a non-profit (the Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund). So, now we’re supporting young, emerging artists with grants and scholarships.” He added, “We started this because Nolan passed, but we keep doing it because of how he lived.”
A food truck and local vendors were present with nearly 20 musical acts performing throughout the night. The first was The Showstoppers, of which Nolan had been a member, who began with a rendition of various songs from Hamilton. On the bottom of the stage was the hashtag “#EverybodyLikesToBeThemselves” or “Everybody Wants To Be Themselves,” the motto Nolan lived by. The group performed while a warm breeze from the sea carried bubbles into the crowd.
Following, many previous receivers of grants from the fund played as well as two winners of 2025 grants, themselves being PJ Hovey and Xavier Monteiro. The festival went long after sunset, with many walking to the beach with chairs to sit and listen. To learn more about Nolan Gibbons, NolanFest 2025, or the Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund, you can visit www.nolangibbons.org.
NolanFest 2025
By Sam Bishop