Purple Hatter's Ball Was a Ball For All

Sweeties!

Monarch butterflies fluttered through the campground at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida on Saturday afternoon at The Purple Hatter's Ball. The magical butterflies were released on the ampitheater stage by Rachel Morningstar Hoffman's friends and family in a memorial service to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the Florida State University graduate's tragic death.

Spirit of  the Suwannee was one of Rachel's favorite places, and in the years since her death, friends and family have gathered together to listen to the live music she loved. And wear the purple hats in her honor.

This year's fest was a raging dance party from start to finish, capped off by a blistering 3-hour set by Colorado power-funk masters The Motet on Sunday night.

Rachel's' mom, Margie Weiss, in the 2013 memorial

Rachel Hoffman

Rachel  was stopped in Tallahassee in 2007 for a traffic violation and arrested for having pot. Police convinced her to be a confidential informant to avoid jail and a criminal record. For her first assignment, the Tallahassee Police had her buy guns and drugs from two big-time drug dealers.The police lost track of Rachel during the sting and the drug dealers shot Rachel to death.

After her death, Rachel's family advocated successfully to change the confidential informant law.  “Rachel’s Law” is now in place to protect others from the same kind of coercion by authorities. The family also won a wrongful death suit against the City of Tallahassee.

And now, every Mother's Day Weekend is Purple Hatter's Ball. It is a small,  intimate, friendly festival with a kind vibe, good food, nice wares and a great crowd.

Rachel's mom and friends

This year the fest started early with a Thursday pre-party. On Friday, folks started strutting their purple outfits while a host of bands took to the stages. A funk band out of Atlanta, Cherrry Royale, played Friday afternoon and was among the best bands of the weekend. Friday featured the reggae band Trial by Stone, jammers The Heavy Pets, newgrass pickers Grandpa's Cough Medicine, electronica acts The Fritz, Greenhouse Lounge and Emancipator Ensemble, and New Orleans R&B group The Nth Power.

Cherry Royale

Like I said, people came out with some FINE finery:

Saturday was another packed day of music. Standouts included the newgrass band Applebutter Express, reggae band Dubconcious, and North Florida sex-rock band, Catfish Alliance.

Applebutter Express

Dubconcious

The progressive Appalachian groove band, Rising Appalachia, gave a spellbinding performance at happy hour in the ampitheater.

Rising Appalachia

Rising Appalachia

Rising Appalachia

Another Saturday standout; Space Capone, kickin' it disco style and shaking the booties. If you like to dance, don't miss this band.

The Mind-Officially-Blown Award goes to Beats Antique. I don't even know how to describe this show, but I will try: Balinese dancers dancing inside flames projected behind the stage, acrobatic shadow dancing, a GIANT inflatable Cyclops monster with psychedelic lights projected on it jumping out of the stage and over the crowd, a Vaudeville-themed "game show" film running behind the musicians -- just an amazing spectacle set against Middle-Eastern inspired electronica beats. This is the wildest stage show I have seen outside of The Flaming Lips. I'm sorry I did not get any pictures that would even begin to show how wild it was.

The Floozies out of Lawrence, Kansas delivered a solid jam/dance show and British funkateers The New Mastersounds rounded out the night with a dance frenzy just when we thought we couldn't dance anymore.

Sunday was a special day of music, with many bands from festgrrl's hometown of Tallahassee on the bill. The Avis Berry/Scott Campbell and Friends show was a gospel/folk/blues/Americana wonder. Here are some pics of that marvelous performance:

The amazing Avis Berry -- goosebumps

Guitarist extraordinaire Scott Campbell

Tallahassee jamband Stillwood ended a long hiatus with a solid performance on the porch stage.

 Stillwood's Danny Goddard brought out the purple guitar

Stillwood's Danny Goddard and Brian Durham

A group I had never seen before but definitely want to see again was the Miami Latin dance band Locos por Juana. Just when we thought we couldn't dance anymore, they sparked it up

Locos por Juana

And then it started raining ever so gently, enough to cool us all off but never enough to be bothersome. Surprise, The Motet started early, and powered through a 3-hour killer set to bring Purple Hatter's Ball to a close.

The Motet