1. There's a giant bat house at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. It is just beyond lake camping in the field. At sunset, you can grab a beverage and go watch incredible numbers of bats fly out!
2. You can camp for free on a beautiful cypress lake -- choose primitive "lake camping." Reese Lake, lined with cypress trees, is home to the campground stage, it has nearby Port-o-lets, and the lake bathhouse and showers are a three-minute walk away. Don't be discouraged by the roundabout kooky drive to get to lake camping. Keep a level head. Persevere. You'll find it. It's worth it.
3. You can bring your own beverages to performances on the campground stage, but not the other stages.
4. The on-site Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park restaurant has a good breakfast buffet. They have nice bathrooms. Also a really cool hand-painted mural of local wildlife. You can get food from the restaurant while watching shows in the Music Hall.
5. You can get fresh ice at the camp store next to the restaurant.
6. The white sand Suwannee River beach is not to be missed, especially with the big fat moon shining on it this week. The river's a long walk from the fest site -- grab a bike, a ride, or a golf cart.
7. The Suwannee River water is dark (dyed by tree tannins), but it is spring-fed and the river bottom is clean and sandy.
8. It can be chilly at night in North Florida. Then you dance. Then you sweat. Then you’re chilly. As festgrrl's friend says; "Layering -You're a fool if you don't!"
9. Bring a hammock. The Big IV Ampitheater is full of trees! The informal rule is you can get in anybody’s hammock until they want to use it. Then you go find another one, and so on.
10. Sunday night is awesome for those lucky enough to stay around for it. Check out my Bear Creek preview for more!
The musicians are coming south this week to play at two epic fests -- Bear Creek Music and Art Festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl. (Thursday- Sunday, with a Wednesday night pre-party) and Orlando Calling (Friday and Saturday) at the Ctirus Bowl.
You get all the details at the links above. Here's a little taste of what you're going to hear.
Orlando Calling performers the great Avett Brothers sing "Shame:"
Some Central-South Florida peeps aked me to remind folks today about this weekend's Riverhawk festival. Check out my post with all the details from earlier this week. I can't make this one, sorry to say, but wishing everyone a relaxing, sweet time, because I know you will have one in that special place!
Bob Seger, Kid Rock, The Raconteurs and The Killers headline the two-day rock extravaganza Orlando Calling which happens Nov. 12 and 13 in Citrus Bowl Park. This first-time fest has a roster of heavy-hitting performers.It's not a camping festival -- in fact you can't bring your own chair, kids under 3 are prohibited, and kids over 3 have to get an adult ticket. So this is one of those giant stadium shows, with a lineup to match:
The Killers, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band, Kid Rock, The Raconteurs, The Pixies, The Avett Brothers, The Roots, Gogol Bordello,O.A.R. (...Of A Revolution), Iron & Wine, Pete Yorn, Jenny and Johnny, Gavin DeGraw, Drive-By Truckers, Dr. Dog, Civil Twilight, Blake Shelton, Doobie Brothers, Dwight Yoakam, Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes Band, Chris Isaak, Brandi Carlile, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Lucero, The Felice Brothers, Ben Sollee,The Flatlanders, Los Lonely Boys, Blues Traveler, Michelle Branch, Justin Townes Earle, The David Mayfield Parade,The Supervillains, and Renee & The Translators
With fees, day tickets are $93.25 each day, weekend tickets are $170.50. Some important stuff to know: You can't park on site, but shuttles and other transportation options are here. There's a large list of prohbited items you should become familiar with.
Here's the great Buddy Guy, who plays Sunday at 5:
This time next week, folks will start rolling into the Wednesday night pre-party for Bear Creek Music and Art Festival. We are blessed here in the Southeast with many excellent music festivals throughout the year. Even with all that abundance, Bear Creek (Nov. 10-13) rises to the top. Fests don't get much better than Bear Creek – the lineup, the musicianship, the intimate atmosphere, the kind crowd, and the sheer joy of dancing in Florida paradise (Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak.)
Bear Creek’s excellence ties back to the promoters’ main goal: to have more sit-ins than any festival outside the big daddy of fests, New Orleans Jazz fest.
More sit-ins means that musicians are energized all weekend, not rushing back to the tour bus to move on to the next gig. It means fans are constantly surprised and delighted with instant, one-of-a-kind collaborations that you’ve just got to be there to experience: Mofro’s JJ Grey singing lead with Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk on Sly Stone’s Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin; guitar ace Derek Trucks popping on stage unannounced to play with Berklee School of Music funkateer alums Lettuce in the moss-draped, hammock-filled ampitheater; the surprise midnight act Soullive performing a scorching cover of the Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby in a circus tent.
Once you go, you’ll always want to come back. At least that’s how it’s been for me, since the days of Down on the Farm, the precursor festival to Bear Creek, where the (relatively unknown at the time) Avett Brothers played an astonishing show for a tiny crowd of us in a sunny field in Quincy, Florida. This fest has come a long way since then, but it manages to maintain the intimate feel of the early days. Expect a crowd of 4,000 to 5,000 on the spacious Spirit of the Suwannee grounds.
Bear Creek promoters Lyle Williams and Paul Levine are artful in their selections -- last year, James Brown band players Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker roamed the festival as artists-at-large, sitting in – and kicking ass – with band after band. Legendary funky keyboard great Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads) has torn up Bear Creek’s stages. This year we’re going to enjoy a reunion of New Orleans’ greats, the original Funky Meters. Watching young funk players jam with the folks who first laid it down back in the day is something to see.
This year, there’s an emphasis on funky jazz. Trey Anastasio of Phish fame brings his jammy Trey Anastasio Band; Medeski, Martin, Scofield and Wood and Dr. Lonnie Smith, Pee Wee Ellis and others bring the jazz. There is a ton of funk, including Galactic, The aforementioned Funky Meters, Lettuce, Dr. Klaw, The New Mastersounds, Orgone, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Soullive, and smaller acts like horn-heavy Snarky Puppy and the quirky young Rubblebucket. There’s a bunch of electronica acts and a silent disco (headphones) as well. Music’s going to go all night. Here's the full, kick-ass lineup.
Williams and Levine have been known to scout for Bear Creek acts in the late-night scene after NOLA’s Jazzfest, and so you’re always going to get the chance to see something new. I saw Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue for the first time at Bear Creek a couple of years ago before he got all Treme-big-time on us.
Bear Creek is about wandering the woodsy campgrounds and coming up on a horn section wearing high school band uniforms bringing the funk. It’s about groove-man Zach Deputy setting up an impromptu late-night stage on scaffolding above a food vending tent in the campground and instantly drawing a crowd getting down to a Michael Jackson cover. It’s about the magnificent Where the Wild Things Are wooden painted larger-than-life creatures placed around the cypress-lined pond a la The Wild Rumpus. It’s about reunion, new friends, great conversation, wacky costumes, and celebration. It’s about escape.
Ready to escape? Tickets (which include primitive camping) are available online at $175 for 3 days, $225 for 4 days, and $245 for five days. Saturday and Sunday tickets at the gate are $130. Day-only tickets (no camping) are $80 Friday and Saturday and $50 for Sunday.
Definitely plan on taking Monday off work — Sunday night is a funk get-down, including an extended jam session with Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk and a whole mess of ridiculously talented musicians sitting in. (Ivan's dad is New Orleans balladeer Aaron Neville of the Neville Brothers.)
If this video doesn't make you wanna go, well, I don't know:
We love the wonderful venue that is Sertoma Youth Ranch outside Brooksville (less than an hour outside Tampa.) Rolling hills, a little stream, nice campsites, just two stages. There are several lovely fests there during the year, and this weekend is Riverhawk. You can check out the lineup here. This fest is family and pet friendly, and get ready for some wonderful campground picking. There are great food and craft vendors.
Tickets are $110 for three days and $95 for the weekend only, and that includes primitive camping. Electric sites are extra. Kids 13 and under are free. Kids 14-17 are $30 for the whole weekend.
You can't miss with this relaxing venue and kind folk!
Here is the Claire Lynch band, who will be playing Riverhawk:
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