Magnolia Fest This Week!

What a truly wonderful festival Magolia Fest is. First off, it is awesome just camping at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park this time of year, even if there weren't a fantastic, family-friendly music festival there. But we get both! Plus campground picking, artistry, the incredibly carved pumpkins of Slopryland, family and friends and all the rest of it. Ahhhhhh.

Tickets for 3 days are $165 online through tomorrow, and $180 at the gate.Single day and Friday-Saturday-only two day tickets are also available.  (FYI, we got our tickets at Suwanee Springfest last year for just $110 -- that includes five days of primitive camping and music; a similar deal will be available for this weekend's Magnolia Fest attendees to buy Springfest 2012 tickets.)

The lineup this year is a melding of Americana and jam bands and, as always, you get a lot for your money. The daily schedule is here.

Lineup includes Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, moe.(headlines Friday and Saturday late night), Steel Pulse, Lucinda Williams, Anders Osborne, Railroad Earth, Lucinda Williams, Keller Williams and the Travelin McCourys, Donna the Buffalo, Jim Lauderdale, the Mosier Brothers, Col Bruce Hampton and the Quark Alliance, Cornmeal, Dread Clampitt, Torrnado Rider, Frontier Ruckus,Toubab Krewe, The Infamous Stringdusters, Honey Island Swamp Band, The Lee Boys, and more. As always, expect lots of collaborative sit ins, especially Sunday night when Donna the Buffalo closes out the fest.

This is gonna be good!

The Big Jammalamma

The Big Jammalamma Hops Art Cram and Hops Slam happens this weekend at a farm outside Lakeland with Cope, 3rd Stone, FunkUs and more playing. Organizers promise a big field of interactive art to go along with the music, and, of course, beer. Tickets are $50 for the weekend, with day pass options available also. Kids are free. Camping is primitive. Food vendors won't be up and runnning until Saturday noon, so if you go Friday night, bring yer vittles.

An update: BOGO ---- The giant DeLuna Fest, in Pensacola Beach this weekend has announced that folks who have 3-day tickets can now bring a friend for free. Also, more hotel rooms have opened up for last-minute decicion-making. Go to the site for details.

Coolest Dance Ever!

Thanks for this, Craig!

Do You Deluna? Pensacola Fest This Weekend

The heavy-hitter-headliner Deluna Fest happens on Pensacola Beach this weekend, with a wide variety of acts from West Coast indie to New Orleans and a lot of stuff in between.

Linkin Park, one of the headliners, has pulled out due to a band member's surgery. But there are 80 bands on the bill on five stages.

This is the fest's second year. This is not a camping festival, and there will be shuttles from downtown Pensacola and other locations to get people in and out of the venue on the beach. It's a $10 round trip.

It runs from noon to midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $190 advanced. Day passes are $75 plus tax, (here's the daily lineup) and there are steep discounts for active military members. Kids under age 10 are free.

For some reason, you can't bring your own chair -- not sure what's up with that. Anyway, here's the lineup:


* Jane's Addiction

* Weezer

* The Shins

* Cake

* Girl Talk

* Big Boi

* Stars

* The Airborne Toxic Event

* Cut Copy

* Diplo

* Matt & Kim

* Cold War Kids

* The New Pornographers

* MuteMath

* Manchester Orchestra

* Ghostland Observatory

* Ladytron

* Dirty Dozen Brass Band

* Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

* Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers

* The Sounds

* Wanda Jackson

* Ra Ra Riot

* Awolnation

* Givers

* Dirty Heads

* The Limousines

* Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

* Grouplove

* JJ Grey & Mofro

* wallpaper.

* The Little Death

* Bettye LaVette

* Toubab Krewe

* The Hood Internet

* Cowboy Mouth

* The Constellations

* Telekinesis

* Bad Books

* Papa Grows Funk

* Kevin Devine

* The Infamous Stringdusters

* The Parlotones

* The War On Drugs

* Honey Island Swamp Band

* Nico Vega

* Rehab

* Motopony

* Anders Osbourne

* The Stone Foxes

* Still Corners

* Royal Bangs

* Sleeper Agent

* Griffin House

* Dinosaur Feathers

* PS I Love You

* Bear Hands

* Asobi Seksu

* Free the Robots

* Robbers On High Street

* Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs

* Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band

* Hands

* K. Flay

* Jonathon Tyler and the Northern Lights

* Colour Revolt

* Saints of Valory

* The Listening

* NICOS GUN

* Antoine Knight

* The Revivalists

* Blackbells

* Dragoon

* Gary Fields

* The Icarus Effect

* Eerie Rockwell

* DLP

* Mr. Fahrenheit

* Kitt Lough

* June In January

* PALOMA

Ticket Bargains!

If you are going to Bear Creek Music and Art Festival November 10-13, and trust me -- you should not miss this most excellent North Florida  funk extravaganza -- you might want to get your ticket this week, because you can save a little.

This Saturday (October 15), the prices increase.  This week, you can pick  up a 3-day ticket for $165, a 4-day ticket for $235 and a 5-day ticket for $255. All tickets include primitive camping at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. You'll be able to get Friday- and Saturday-only tickets at the gate for $130.

Bear Creek is a mighty musical explosion: There are seven bands scheduled on Wednesday night, four stages and 16 bands Thursday night, six stages running Friday and Saturday, and four stages running Sunday. Plus all the crazy surprises, like pop-up performances throughout the park. Here is the lineup.

Another bargain will be available at Magnolia Fest October 20-23. If you go to Magfest, you'll be able to pick up tickets the Suwanee Springfest bluegrass-newgrass March 24-27 throwdown for just $110. Here's the Springfest lineup.

Music Everywhere: Alabama, Suwannee, Crawfordville

The Acoustic Cafe, which holds music festivals outside Birmingham in Haleyville, Alabama, has a little fest this weekend called Folk in the Fall with Dread Clampitt and others. This is always a great time, a single stage, phenomenal string players, and kind folks. Very family friendly, camping included in the $40 price at the gate.

Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl. hosts  Disc Jams, a music and frisbee disc golf series with music Friday and Saturday nights. This is the first time for this event. The Whethermen, Saltwater Grass, SOSOS and 3rd Stone play. It costs $30 for the tournament, $20 if you don't want to play golf but want to camp for the weekend and join the party. Players can win free tickets to Magnolia Fest and Bear Creek Music and Art Festival.

Woodstork, a benefit for the Florida Wild Mammal Association, happens on Saturday in Crafordville, south of Tallahassee. This is not a camping festival, suggested donation is $5, and proceeds go to rescue wild critters. There's a silent auction, and Ralph Pelletier, Swingin Harpoon, Mimi & The HearnDogs, the Sarah Mac Band and the Rick Ott Band play.

And if that isn't enough for you, see my previous posts for two other festies this weekend: Farm to Family outside Gainesville and  Harvest Moon in Callaway Gardens, just south of Atlanta, with gourmet food, the B 52s, John Hiatt, the Gin Blossoms, Shawn Colvin, and more.

Chill Fest Outside Gainesville This Weekend

I made this musical note into a hat. It was quite tall.

Farm To Family Full Moon Festival -- such a sweet little bargain fest outside Gainesville, great for families, right near the gorgeous Ginnie Springs. It's $20 for the weekend advanced, $25 at the gate.

You might not have heard of many of the bands that are playing, but I have been to this long-running event many times and I have not been disappointed.The kick-ass  Thomas Wynn and The Believers plays Saturday night, along with the Jesse Smith Project with Hannah Barber.

You can hear audio of the other bands on the lineup section of  the fest website.

This little fest is chill and small, with nice, shady  camping, a few vendors and a single stage. The Grilled Cheese Wagon will feed you. Just a great, relaxing time among cool folk.  No one cares if you bring your own stuff to drink. Bring some chairs and maybe a blanket to relax by the stage. Bliss!

Here is Jesse Smith Project with Hannah Barber: