New London — At 2:48 p.m. Saturday on New London's Parade Plaza, the excellent Northampton band Parsonsfield scored protracted, set-ending applause from a large group of dancing, smiling music fans.

Most festival-goers know how rare it is for early-slot performers to score a legitimate encore.

But this was genuine affection.

Credit goes not only to Parsonsfield — who sound like Fleet Foxes if they'd grown up in the Louvin Brothers' barn — but also a fine turnout of folks clearly ready for the warm-weather music season.

And credit also the first-ever Nameaug Gathering, a multi-band, multi-stage, multi-venue event co-founded by Luke Walker, a Connecticut College senior who's served as the school's musical entertainment director for three years, and New London Music Festivals Director Rich Martin.

In addition to creating a vernal music festival that would bookend the city's every-September I AM Fest, Martin and Walker also wanted to focus on drawing students from Conn College, Mitchell College and the Coast Guard Academy to downtown New London.

By mid-afternoon, it was clear the experiment was a success. The crowd was a happy mixture of townies and students — and all seemed to be enjoying the music, the food and crafts, and the simple pleasure of being outdoors together.

The main stage was in the shadow of the UBS building and, during set changes, the demographically-mixed crowd only had to spin 180 degrees and walk about 30 feet to the auxiliary Whale Tail Stage.

Another lineup was playing in the Telegraph Records Shop, and evening bills were scheduled for the Oasis Pub and 33 Golden St.

"I'm actually passionate about pushing together the cultures of New London and Connecticut College," Livvy Kenah, a sophomore at the college, said.

She gestured around the crowded plaza. "I love this reaction. There is a divide between the two and I don't like it. Seeing us all together, interacting like this, is pretty great."

Marko Fontaine, a Norwich resident whose "Punk Rock Juke Box" radio program is heard locally on WCNI and WECS, almost didn't attend Nameaug.

"I was unsure at first," he said, "because I didn't recognize a lot of the bands, but I also thought I should see them. What happened was, the sun came out, it's warm, it's a great, mixed crowd — and there's music. I made the right decision, and it looks like a lot of people did."

Three hours into a long day/night, Walker took a moment to eat a slice of pizza. "It's been pretty amazing so far."

"From the opening set, we had people dancing and a great turnout with a lot of young people maybe experiencing downtown New London for the first time," he said. "And it's encouraging to see that the nonprofit tables are attracting attention and the food vendors are doing good business. So far, so good."

Waterford resident Don Diederich was grateful for the musical bounty.

"I'd heard about Parsonsfield and Brave Baby and wanted to see them," he said. "Plus, I know and like a lot of the local bands playing. It's a fun situation to have so much music to choose from. This way, I figure I can watch a few more acts, go home and do some yard work that won't do itself, and be back tonight."

r.koster@theday.com