JEFFERSONVILE, NY — The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office shut down a concert that has been held since 2014 without a permit. The religious concert, called “The Camping Trip,” had grown to a three-day festival, featuring some 14 music acts this year, held on property on Sickmiller Road. just outside Jeffersonville.

A website about the event says, “The Camping Trip is an exclusive, invite-only Shabbat [Jewish Sabbath] festival located on many acres of beautiful woodland, fields and freshwater streams in scenic upstate New York. This rural escape offers an opportunity to relax and let go of the trivial day-to-day happenings for a weekend while enjoying Shabbat Nachamu, Tu B’Av, [special Sabbath days] nature, new people, and unity."

As of the morning of July 27, the website was still selling tickets, and there was no word about the two-year legal battle the organizer, Ian Leifer, was having with the town, or the fact that two courts had already ruled that the concert could not go forward.

On that morning, officers were stationed on both ends of the rural road, blocking cars from entering to attend the event. On the afternoon of July 27, young people carrying backpacks and camping gear could be seen leaving Sickmiller Road and walking along Route 52.

According to the Town of Delaware zoning code, a public performance in that zone, in a theater, or on a concert stage, is prohibited unless the organizer has obtained a use variance. Leifer did not apply for a use variance, and the town and Leifer went to court.

In 2017 Judge Stephan Schick issued a decision that prohibited Leifer “from continuing to advertise, sell tickets to and from holding or permitting to be held upon the premises,” although Leifer was allowed to participate in “any uses consistent with single-family residence situated on the premises.”

Leifer appealed, and according to court documents, he challenged “the validity of the theater restriction by arguing, among other things, that it excessively interferes with expressive conduct in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”

But the appellate court wrote, “The theater restriction does not target specific speech or ideas and instead regulates the time, place and manner in which expressive activity may occur ….”  

The court said further, “The theater restriction only prevents a property owner in the same zoning district from setting up facilities for a cultural presentation, such as an outdoor music festival where hundreds of paid ticket holders enter onto his or her land to take part in it.” The courts said the zoning restriction is “valid.”

The Camping Trip website says that the proceeds from the event will be donated to charity, and the tickets can be pricey. The cost of a four-person camping pass sells for $800, and the price of a meal ticket, which is good for “three deliciously catered, Glatt Kosher Shabbat meals,” is $75. The website also advises, “This is not an exclusively Jewish event, however everyone is encouraged to observe Shabbat.”