WANEE Festival This Week!

festgrrl photo

Wanee, one of the biggest and finest festivals in our region, kicks off  this week with a Grateful Happy Hour pre-party on Wednesday April 15. 

The festival proper happens at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. from Thursday April 16 through Saturday April 18. Wanee is always an excellent time; festgrrl has seen some of the best shows of her life at this annual gathering in the North Florida woods. 

Gregg Allman playing Wanee last year. Josh Webster photo

The Allman Brothers have held this festival for lo these many years, and this year will definitely be different without the Brothers in their familiar configuration taking the stage each evening. Still, Gregg Allman will play for us, as will Jaimoe's Jassz Band and Butch Trucks and Very Special Friends (Derek and Susan? One can hope. )


Widespread Panic headlines Friday and Saturday nights, the rest of the line-up includes: Gov’t Mule ¤ Earth, Wind & Fire ¤ Cheap Trick ¤ The Word featuring: Robert Randolph, John Medeski, Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson & Chris Chew ¤ Hot Tuna Electric ¤ JJ Grey & Mofro ¤ Galactic ¤ Zappa Plays Zappa ¤ Leftover Salmon featuring Bill Payne ¤ Yonder Mountain String Band ¤ Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk ¤ Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes featuring Doyle Bramhall II ¤ Raw Oyster Cult ¤  Dragon Smoke ¤ The Revivalists ¤ Home At Last - The Nth Power Performs Steely Dan ¤ Tea Leaf Green ¤ Bobby Lee Rogers Trio ¤ Pink Talking Fish ¤ Eric Lindell & Company ¤ Royal Southern Brotherhood ¤ Natural Child ¤ Twiddle ¤ Jacob Jeffries Band ¤ Juke. 

The park's lovely lake camping area. festgrrl photo

A 3-day ticket (which includes primitive camping) is $215 (plus $23 service fee.) Keep in mind that Wanee's crowd is larger than most festivals at Spirit of the Suwannee, so stock up on supplies and bring a lightweight chair to carry to the shows.

Wednesday's very cool Happy Hour lineup is included with your 3-day ticket price, but be aware that there's a $20 per person camping fee to attend Wednesday's shows. 

Totally worth it: the Happy Hour lineup includes Melvin Seals & JGB along with Crazyfingers, Cope, Juke, The Parker Urban Band and Bonnie Blue. Wednesday's shows happen in the ampitheater, starting at 3 p.m.

festgrrl is telling you all this so you can plan now to get there as early as you can next week, I promise that you'll be so very, very glad you did. 

"Nuff said. festgrrl photo