A Florida Fest on Valentine's Weekend!

Heads up on a new camping fest outside Lakeland, Fla., happening over Valentine's Weekend!

It's Gov Fest, Feb. 12-15, four days, two stages, 35 bands, art installations, a kid's tent, yoga, workshops and campfire jams at Maddox Ranch. Weekend tickets include primitive camping and are $75 advanced, $100 at the gate. Kids 12 and under are free.

This is a fun group of people with an eclectic lineup of good performers in a laid-back environment. You can get the latest details on the festival's Facebook page.

The promoters say:  

"This is a “bring your own cooler to the stage” event, we will NOT be selling alcohol of any kind! Come prepared…. And please NO GLASS!! We will have many food and merchandise venders here set up for your shopping pleasure.There is ATM on site and also an Ice / Firewood Vender set up by the Maddox Ranch.Maddox Ranch is fully equipped with Outdoor showers to wash off whenever, we will have many port-o-johns onsite for use. No electricity is provided, but generators are welcome as long as they are properly maintained and not disruptive."

Here is the lineup:

1. Beeb’s and her Money Makers

2. Dangermuffin
3. Big Something
4. Come Back Alice 
5. Grandpa’s Cough Medicine 
6. Juanjamon Band
7. Copious Jones
8. Savi Fernandez Band
9. Stadelman Bros. (An acoustic Beatles tribute)
10. New Earth Army
11. Bath Salt Zombies
12. Donna Hopkins Band
13. Lucky Costello
14. Yamadeo
15. Displace
16. Freddys Finest
17. Rev D and the New Diggz
18. Post Pluto
19. Ajeva ( Michael Jackson Tribute)
20. Legacy Orchestra Collective
21. Future Vintage
22. Marvelous Funkshun
23. Fungus Garden Reverb
24. Holey Miss Moley
25. Flat Land
26. The Happy Campers
27. The Greenes
28. Sgammato’s Loopy for Love
29. Travis Reynolds Project
30. Currentz
31. Dropin Pickup
32. Not Tuna 
33. Row Jomah
34. The Groove Orient
35. Prison Wine
Artists at Large: Johnny Nichol, Alex Sears, Corey Peterson, Este Loves 

Just a couple more tips -- you can have a fire only if it is in a raised, contained pit or grill. No pets, golf carts, or fireworks. Kids 17 and under need an adult with them.

Other than that, all ya need is love, love, love festivarians!

Florida Deadhead Has Online Petition to Allow Camping at Chicago Shows

Florida Deadhead Jeremy Davis has started an online petition to Chicago city officials, asking them to allow camping in the parking lots around Soldier Field, where the remaining members of the Grateful Dead and special guests will  play their final three shows July 3-5 in honor of the band's 50th anniversary.

Well HELL YES Jeremy Davis! It's a high bar indeed for folks to swallow both the travel prices, ticket prices, and Chicago hotel prices, and camping would be so ... Deadhead-lot friendly.

Oh we know we will have to endure the insipid media interviews about the 1960s still being alive, blah blah, as reporters wander among the assembled Dead family. But that's the price of hanging on and making history.

Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann will be joined by Trey Anastasio (Guitar), Jeff Chimenti (Keyboards) and Bruce Hornsby (Piano), and will perform two sets of music each night.  You can get all the details about the shows at dead50.net, and you can see some killer ticket mail order envelope art here.

Take a minute and sign Jeremy Davis' Soldier Field camping petition, won't you?

Finally, a "Florida man" we can be proud of!!

Graham Nash Headlines 30A Songwriter's Festival This Month

The great Graham Nash. Eleanor Stills photo.

The 30A Songwriters Festival  is happening Jan. 16-18 along  coastal highway 30A, in and around the town of Seaside in the Florida Panhandle's gorgeous Walton County.

Graham Nash, Indigo Girls, Leon Russell, Jason Isbell, Shawn Mullins, Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), Glen Phillips (Toad the Wet Sprocket), Jeffrey Steele, Chely Wright, Bobby Bare, Jr., Steve Poltz, Angaleena Presley, Over the Rhine, Jesse Harris, Mary Gauthier, Hayes Carll, Bob Schneider, Ellis Paul, Allison Moorer, Toby Lightman, Liz Longley, Deana Carter, Heather Maloney, Peter Karp, Sue Foley and David Ryan Harris are among the 150 artists that play this fest.

This is not a camping fest. You buy a ticket ($237) that lets you in, first come-first serve, to 25 different venues (mostly bars and restaurants) spread out in the area, where the artists will be playing. You'll need a car, a designated driver, and a place to stay.

festgrrl has seen some A-mazing performances at this fest over the years. Additional artists confirmed for 2015 include Vicki Peterson and Susan Cowsill (Psycho Sisters), Charlie Mars, Randall Bramlett, Old Salt Union, Gabriel Kelley, Brigitte DeMeyer, Will Kimbrough, Craig Fuller (Pure Prairie League), Rusty Young (Poco), David Olney, Grant Peeples, Pete Sallis, The Smokin' Novas, David Berkeley, Jeff Black, Crystal Bowersox, Callaghan, Grayson Capps, Adron, Robbie Hecht, Ruston Kelly, Phil Madeira, Mark D. Sanders, Jonathan Singleton, Jeremy Stover, Tommy Talton, Reed Waddle, Daphne Willis, Webb Wilder, Nicole Witt, Alan Rhody, Kyle Jacobs, Joe Leathers, Gretchen Peters, Billy Montana, Season Ammons, Marc Beeson, Cory Branan, Eliot Bronson, Diane Durrett, Griffin House, Ryan Hurd, Jemina & Selina, Jaren Johnston, Ruston Kelly, Tony Lane, Brandon Lay, Emily Lynch, Hunter Phelps, Jameson Rodgers, The Shuggah Pies, Sugarcane Jane, Cooper Carter & the Royal Senders, Hannah Thomas, Pierce Pettis, and Willie Sugarcapps.

If you can't make it to 30A, Graham Nash has five other Florida tour dates -- Jan. 12 in Fort Lauderdale, Jan. 13 in Melbourne, Jan. 14 in Lakeland, Jan. 16 in Fort Lauderdale, and Jan. 17 in Jacksonville. 

And don't forget, that is also the weekend of the Sunshine Blues Fest, happening one day in Boca Raton, Fl. and one day in St. Petersburg, Fl. Grammy winners Tedeschi-Trucks Band headline that fest.