Suwannee Hulaween This Halloween Weekend!

The String Cheese Incident. festgrrl photo.

You might wonder how a mash-up of twangy bluegrass and untzy electronica can live in the same universe, much less play well together.

To see how it’s done, check out the upcoming Suwannee Hulaween festival, happening Oct. 30-Nov 1 at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. Hosted by the talented (and oddly named) national touring improvisational band, The String Cheese Incident, Suwannee Hulaween has, in just two years, become a go-to festival of the Southeast. 

Suwannee Hulaween is a community of creatives who break free of the lock-step world for a glorious weekend, and that is a refreshing place to be.

join...us....festgrrl photo

Now in its third year, Hulaween serves up a divergent menu of funk, folk, electronica, bluegrass, prog-rock, disco, blues, DJs, trance, trip-hop, hip-hop, Dub, Americana, reggae, jam and a few bands that pretty much defy description. If you can’t find music you like on this lineup, to quote a friend of mine: “There’s something BAD wrong witcha!”

From the thump-thump fat electric-bass madness of Les Claypool’s Primus to the breezy bluegrass of Railroad Earth, Suwannee Hulaween is a dance festival that rocks it 24 hours a day. After the main stages close down, the Silent Disco (you wear headphones) cranks up through the early morning hours.

Among all the fests at the Spanish-moss draped paradise that is Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Hulaween puts on the biggest and baddest spectacle—we’re talking pillars of fire on the main stage (last year, a disembodied head of Michael Jackson floated above during a cover of Thriller,) a ferris wheel in front of the music, and the “Spirit Lake” psychedelic light forest that has had enormous, fire-filled iron sculptures (a la Burning Man) the past two years, along with fire dancers, trapeze performers, painters, and mandala builders. This short video explains Spirit Lake more than any words I could come up with -- Very Cool! 

This is Halloween, and these festers take their regalia responsibility seriously. I have seen some outrageous group costumes and get-ups the last two years that take the holiday far beyond witches and vampires. Last year, two guys put on Haz-Mat suits with the words “FARMER” on their backs and went through the crowd carrying bright lights and pesticide sprayers spritzing water. Epic! This year’s costume theme is a take on the 1970s dance-party show Soul Train – they are asking folks to come up with costumes in the theme of “Ghoul Train.” But really, pretty much anything goes. There is also an “Ultimate Campsite” contest Friday night that, if you win, earns you and 7 of your friends a VIP upgrade for the weekend.

festgrrl photo.

The String Cheese Incident are madly talented musicians, and they will play all three days of the festival in a variety of styles, sometimes charge-ahead bluegrass, sometimes untzy-beat, sometimes jazz and jam.

The festival kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 29, with a “pre party” that costs $60 (which includes primitive camping plus shows by Dumpstaphunk, Jo Russo’s Almost Dead, Eoto, and Herd of Watts.)

The fest proper starts on Friday, and weekend tickets (which include primitive camping) are $259 advanced and $269 at the gate. (Note to festers – if you bought Early Bird, a weekend ticket was just $170.) Saturday & Sunday only tickets (include primitive camping) are $195, and single-day tickets (no camping, and you can't go into the campground) are $105. VIP options are also available, and campsites with electric and water cost extra.

Festgrrl just returned from a week at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park for the Americana Magnolia Fest, and it is just so beautiful there this time of year. Bonus to camp among a kind community of friends you know and friends you’ll meet.

festgrrl photo

Grab your costume get-up and get on out there to Hulaween. 

Here’s the lineup:

Suwannee Hulaween 2015 Lineup

The String Cheese Incident (3 nights)
Pretty Lights
Primus
Chance the Rapper & Social Experiment
STS9
ODESZA
Slightly Stoopid
GRiZ
Lettuce
Railroad Earth
Papadosio
The Floozies
The Polish Ambassador
Sam Bush Band
The New Mastersounds
Manic Science (Manic Focus x Break Science)
Future Rock
Michal Menert
Dopapod
Goldfish
Elephant Revival
The Nth Power
TAUK
Stick Figure
Little Hurricane
Earphunk
Sister Sparrow and the Dirtybirds
Big Wild
Turbo Suit
The Heavy Pets
Shook Twins
Greenhouse Lounge
Thomas Wynn & The Believers
The Heard
Modern Measure
Jon Stickley Trio
Catfish Alliance
Post Pluto
Master Radical
Great Peacock
Billy Gilmore & Friends
The Hip Abduction
Beebs & Her Money Makers
Come Back Alice
Displace
Juke
Sqeedlepuss
The Groove Orient
S.P.O.R.E.
Flat Land
Bath Salt Zombies
Morning Fatty
Holey Miss Moley

Thursday Pre-Party
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead
Dumpstaphunk
Eoto
Herd of Watts