On Aug. 6, British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield performed at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vt. as part of the Lake Morey Summer Concert Series. The resort offers free admission to its biweekly outdoor concerts, bringing in popular artists to perform live for the community. The concert also featured catering from various local small businesses and restaurants, lawn games, face painting, photo booths and more.
The series was founded by owner of Lake Morey Resort Mark Avery during the pandemic to bring people together. According to Avery, the series has since produced more than 83 shows across rural Vermont and New Hampshire — including its marquee shows at Lake Morey — in collaboration with Cantamount Arts, a nonprofit arts organization based in Vermont.
“I just wanted to start bringing people together again,” Avery said as he introduced Bedingfield. “This concert series belongs to the community.”
Bedingfield, a mainstream pop artist known for songs such as “These Words” and “Pocketful of Sunshine,” had a career resurgence after her song “Unwritten” was used in the 2023 hit movie “Anyone but You.” Bedingfield currently has 27.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and will be performing globally at various arena stops and festivals in the coming year.
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of the White Mountains, Bedingfield’s performance was an electric, light-filled gathering that brought many Dartmouth students across state lines to attend. The concert offered a spectacular opportunity to engage with the arts, get off of campus, spend time with friends and meet new people. Bedingfield is an artist with a great body of work that is both nostalgic and fresh, offering the perfect opportunity for cross-generational connections. Everyone from toddlers to high schoolers to elderly adults was in attendance.
Ana Arzoumanidis ’28, who has attended one other event in the concert series this summer, said Bedingfield was “definitely someone who I grew up listening to, and so I wanted to get to hear her live in person.”
In addition to her hits and new songs, Bedingfield also performed mashups of “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish, “American Boy” by Estelle and Kanye West, “Smooth Operator” by Sade, and “Dancing on my Own” by Calum Scott. She later performed “Politik” by Coldplay, “Zombies” by The Cranberries and “Purple Rain” by Prince.
Arzoumanidis said the setlist was a highlight.
Bedingfield “really knew how to command an audience in a lot of ways, in the sense that she understands that she doesn’t have a lot of songs people know. And so as a result of that, she played a lot of covers, which I think was a lot of fun because I really enjoyed being able to sing along to a lot of the covers she played,” Arzoumanidis said.
Over the years, attending the Lake Morey Concert Series has become a sophomore summer tradition. Emily Garrard ’28 said she heard about the concert series last spring through an upperclassman who said it was a highlight of her term. Since starting her own sophomore summer, Garrard has attended one other concert at Lake Morey in addition to Bedingfield’s.
“I think it’s so beautiful that they’re bringing people in here and just doing these big artists, and everyone gets free concerts,” Garrard said.
Arzoumanidis emphasized how “accessible” the concert was.
“Being able to have music for free and just super accessible the way that it is, I think, is so incredible because concert tickets have gotten so expensive nowadays, and it’s so awesome to be able to go to such a beautiful place and see artists really close up,” she said.
The Class of 2028 Class Council organized two buses to transport students to and from Lake Morey.
Reece Sharp ’28 said she thought the concert was a great way to bring together the Upper Valley community. She intends to attend Andy Grammer’s concert on Tuesday, Aug. 18, as well.
Garrard also complimented the series, appreciating the way the concert served as a catalyst to bring people together.
“Music brings people together, all types of people. I think my favorite thing is I just like watching people enjoy themselves, and it’s so beautiful, and the fact that literally anyone can come,” said Garrard.
Bedingfield closed her set with her remix of These Words with Badger. She spoke directly to the crowd throughout the show, emphasizing her gratitude and joy.
The concert was “a great way to almost end my summer,” Arzoumandis said.
Ana Arzoumandis ’28 is an opinion columnist for The Dartmouth. She was not involved in writing or editing this article.
