NolanFest 2025 celebrates aspiring musicians and life of Nolan Gibbons

MARION — When 15-year-old musician Nolan Gibbons passed away in August 2020, his parents Warren and Sheila could not host a funeral with a full attendance due to COVID restrictions.

“We knew we were going to do some kind of memorial service for him when COVID restrictions lifted,” said Sheila.

The following July in 2021 also would have marked Nolan’s 16th birthday.

“I was like, ‘I can’t let his 16th birthday go by,’ and so we decided to have NolanFest,” said Sheila.

Since 2021, NolanFest has brought together over 400 attendees each year, all coming together to enjoy live music, food and community. Over 20 musicians and bands performed at NolanFest 2025 on Saturday, June 28, some of which also received scholarships and funding from the Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund.

Nolan was an Old Rochester student and accomplished young musician, having toured across the country as a member of Acapop! KIDS, a youth a cappella group formed by members of the world-renowned a cappella group Pentatonix.

“He wrote over 80 songs. Starting when he was 11, he started writing songs and then he started making a cappella arrangements. He wrote 52 of those,” said Warren.

Warren and Sheila worked with Nolan’s friends and producers like Ben Bram to complete and refine some of Nolan’s unfinished works.

At this year’s fest, the Gibbons surprised the audience with a previously unreleased original song by Nolan that was recently recorded by three-time Grammy-Award winning singer Scott Hoying who is a member of Pentatonix.

“He got to work with Nolan and [he’s] just a dear friend and amazing human,” said Warren.

Recipients of scholarships and grants from the Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund are given to musicians of “all varying experiences and ages.”

“In the application process, we ask them to show us who they are. Our tagline is ‘everybody likes to be themselves’ and we want to hear their interpretation of that,” said Sheila.

She adds, “They just remind us of Nolan in a lot of ways so that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for heart.”

Since 2021, the memorial fund has given over $50,000 to aspiring musicians to help with music lessons, camps and tuition.

Berklee College of Music student and Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund recipient Miles Platt performed at NolanFest 2025 with his band Smilley.

While Platt is a Los Angeles native, he went to A Capella Academy, a virtual arts camp, with Nolan.

“We never met in person, but I did it over Zoom the same year that Nolan did and we collaborated on a few things and we would hangout in the Zoom Rooms after camp and all that and we connected,” he said.

Platt ran into Nolan’s father at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella which was hosted at Berklee last spring. The two spoke about scholarship opportunities that the memorial fund offers and Gibbons encouraged Platt to apply.

“I received a very generous donation from them and I put it towards my Berklee education,” said Platt.

Smilley is considered to be Platt’s solo project but he fortified his hard-edged indie-rock sound with help from drummer JoJo Berry, bassist Kate Yoder and guitarist Sebastian Stinnett at the fest.

Marion resident and Nolan Gibbons Memorial Fund recipient Jay Carrillo also performed at this year’s fest, alongside his Hartford-based emo band Nor Fork.

“I’ve been doing this every year since the second NolanFest happened and each year, it’s just something that I really look forward to,” he said.

Carrillo received funding from the memorial fund in 2023 to attend the Music Career Mastermind program.

“They really helped me further understand how to be a little more professional about my music, how to make a proper marketing campaign,” he said. “I’m especially thankful for that because before going into Music Mastermind, I had no clue how to do any of that.”

He also worked with two-time Grammy-Award winning producer Mike Mangini during the program.

“I was getting instructions from him so that was awesome and that was such a good opportunity,” said Carrillo.

While the Gibbons family said there can be grief, pain and hard work intertwined with putting together the festival, they find it “worth it” to be able to share in Nolan’s memory with the community.

“It’s how we keep him with us,” said Sheila.