The Golden Pony: A Decade of Culture, Community, and Creative Courage
After a decade of serving Harrisonburg's diverse arts community, The Golden Pony continues to prove that cultural institutions don't just happen; they're built through dedication, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to creative expression.
Source : The Golden Pony
Navigating Challenges, Celebrating Resilience
Owner Paul Somers reflects on 2025 as a year of economic challenges, yet one that reinforced The Pony's essential role in the community. Despite tougher sales, compared to the banner years of 2023 and 2024, the venue pushed through by staying true to its mission: providing culture and creating a welcoming space for everyone who walks through the door.
"We pride ourselves on all the different kinds of people that we get to serve," Somers says. "We want to provide as much culture as we possibly can—a place for people to hang out and feel comfortable and welcome no matter what they do outside The Pony."
The year wasn't without bright spots. The Golden Pony raised six thousand dollars for Palestine relief and over three thousand for the local immigrant community, demonstrating how a business can rally its customer base around shared values.
"It was cool to kind of come together and do something that we believed in and see that all of our customers also have the same sentiment," Somers notes. "It's always nice to feel understood by your customer base in deeper ways like that."
Keeping the Heavy Music Alive
Source : The Golden Pony
One of the venue's most vital contributions continues to be its commitment to metal and experimental music—genres that found a home at the Blue Nile, and might have disappeared from Harrisonburg entirely without someone willing to carry that torch.
"The metal community has been one of our most consistent markets that we've been able to serve and work with year after year," Somers explains. "Part of the reason I was so passionate about doing The Golden Pony after the Blue Nile was because I knew how much of a guarantee it would be for so much of that stuff to go away if the Blue Nile wasn't there and there was nobody else to do it."
The 2025 lineup featured impressive acts, including Corrosion of Conformity, Black Tusk, Spirit World, No Moss, Earthling, and CARE from LA. The venue also launched its first Metal Fest, with plans to make it an annual event in May 2026.
Source : The Golden Pony
But Somers is quick to point out that heavy music serves a purpose beyond entertainment. "It definitely makes for a special catharsis that I think is especially valuable during times like these," he reflects. "We might not even understand how meaningful it is until ten years down the road, looking back."
Standout shows in 2025 included Tim Capello (who toured with Tina Turner and was featured in "The Lost Boys"), and the Palmyra and Illiterate Light show that brought back Eric Shaw, The Pony's former sound engineer, who now works with Illiterate Light. Two members of Palmyra also worked at The Golden Pony years ago, making it a full-circle moment.
Beyond music, the venue continues to champion visual artists through carefully curated gallery shows. Tory Topper's final Harrisonburg exhibition before relocating showcased an astronomical number of pieces, while Chris Porter's show drew crowds eager to purchase work. The venue also added paintings by LA-based artist Kulture Jacobs to the dining room and is preparing to release a t-shirt design featuring his work.
A Choose Your Own Adventure Experience
“You can dance on a Friday night. You can see a show on a Wednesday night and sing karaoke on a Sunday, or talk to Noah C about poetry on the patio at brunch on a Saturday. It’s just really like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.”
Source : Chris Porter
The Golden Pony's complexity is part of its charm. The venue hosts everything from hardcore metal shows to poetry readings, art openings to the Just Yes film festival awards, karaoke nights to the MACROCK music festival.
"We don't have a singular mission statement that will express all the different things that you might see at The Golden Pony," Somers says. "But that element of surprise is something that we value, and our customers value."
The staff—many of them artists, musicians, and writers themselves—help guide visitors through the venue's many facets. For newcomers wondering how to engage with all The Golden Pony has to offer, Somers embraces the complexity rather than trying to simplify it.
The tenth anniversary celebration in 2024 featured Crab Action and Buck Gooder, the same bands that played the venue's very first event, creating a full-circle moment.
"You don't have the luxury of being able to look back on the past too much when you're running a restaurant, because it's just so much work ahead of you," Somers reflects. "But when you do that for ten years and then you kind of stop to take a look back, it's like hiking ten miles to get to a lookout. In that moment, it's just kind of like, wow."
Supporting What We Love: A Call to Action
The closure of Court Square Theater weighs on Somers' mind as he considers the fragile ecosystem of arts venues. He draws parallels between the theater's struggle and The Golden Pony's position as a hybrid business—part for-profit venture, part cultural institution.
He argues that Harrisonburg's arts community has given tremendously to the city's economic and cultural vitality, often at personal cost. "All of these art shows and goings on and things like that—if we had to pay for all that stuff, there's no way we could afford it."
“If we don’t fight for the things that we love and care about and are important to us, they will go away. The community, in a sense, is already subsidizing all of the cultural wealth that the city of Harrisonburg has.”
Somers encourages everyone to support not just The Golden Pony, but all businesses in the community doing things that push the cultural envelope.
"If the things that we do are important to people, we want people to appreciate that and patronize that as much as possible," he emphasizes. "We're going to need to be able to see plays and films and music and all that stuff."
Looking Ahead to 2026
As The Golden Pony enters its eleventh year, the momentum continues to build. The 2026 calendar includes Metal Fest in May, an art show with Katie Cousins in April, the annual MACROCK DIY music festival, and continued collaborations with Furious Flower Poetry Center.
The venue will also continue hosting community events like the punk market (returning in spring and possibly late summer) and poetry readings.
Spring 2026 will feature the St. Patrick's Day anniversary celebration with Crab Action on March 17—an annual tradition that marks another year of cultural service to Harrisonburg.
Somers credits HDR and the supportive downtown business community for helping create the environment where venues like the Golden Pony can thrive. But he's also clear that survival requires active participation from the community.
That community spirit, combined with the Golden Pony's commitment to providing space for underserved genres and art forms, ensures the venue will continue serving as a vital cultural hub—one show, one art opening, one poetry reading at a time.
The Golden Pony is located at 37 S Main St, Harrisonburg. Follow them on social media for upcoming shows and events, including their St. Patrick's Day anniversary celebration with Crab Action on March 17.
Interview by Sarah Golibart Gorman | Written & edited by Michelle Hinegardner
