SunFest in West Palm Beach

Lenny Kravitz is one of the headliners

The downtown waterfront area of West Palm Beach hosts the 33^rd annual SunFest April 29-May 3.

The eclectic musical roster includes Fall Out Boy, Pixies, Lenny Kravitz, Paramore, Hozier, Kaskade, BOSTON, Sammy Hagar and the Circle, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Wilco, 311, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, SOJA, Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington, AWOLNATION, Lindsey Stirling, Matisyahu, Iration, Milky Chance, ScHoolboy Q, Eddie Money, John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, Letts, The Shadowboxers, Bo Ningen, Lizzo, Copeland, Knox Hamilton, Hundred Waters, Kehlani, Bea Miller, Zeale, Dreamers, Spazmatics, Elliot Root, Johnnyswim, SomeKindaWonderful, The Hip Abduction,The Rico Monaco Band, Dear Tatiana, Dew Pendleton Band, FELICITY, Jonnie Morgan Band, JS THE BEST, Jumbo Shrimp, Kasson Leaving Haven, Morning Fatty, Sidereal, The Inverted, The McNaughstys, Trial by Stone, and YARDIJ. 

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

This is a huge (100,000-plus crowd) street festival, not a camping festival, so you will have to arrange lodging. It runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29 and Thursday, May 1, then from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, May 1, and kicks off at noon on Saturday May 2 and Sunday May 3. The fest closes out with a fireworks show at 9 p.m. on Sunday.

Kids 5 and under are free, and kids aged 6-12 are $10 a day advanced and $12 a day at the gate. There are lots of multi-day ticket bundles for kids and adults. A 5-day adult pass, for example, is $70 advanced and $80 at the gate. Check out the options here.

You can use the Sunrail trains, and you can also reserve parking spots ahead of time here.

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

Sweet Farm To Family Fest This Week!

For many years, a small community of music lovers has been gathering for regular family-friendly and dog-friendly weekend camp outs in the countryside around Gainesville, Florida.

These inexpensive Farm to Family festivals has a small but dedicated crowd, a single stage, and a few food and arts & crafts vendors. Bring your cooler and chair, set up at the stage, and you're done.

It is so laid back and fun. Farm to Family took some time off while looking for a new venue, and this weekend, it's BACK, and it is timed or us to enjoy Saturday night's full moon!

Farm To Family happens Thursday  through Sunday at Ellie Ray's RV Resort along the Santa Fe River, near Branford, Fla. (outside High Springs, just north of Gainesville.) Latest details are on the fest's Facebook page.

The fun and talented bluegrass band, Applebutter Express plays, along with String Kings, Thomas and Hannah Winn, De Lions of Jah reggae band, Quartermoon, and assorted regional acts. You can see the lineup here.

Tickets are $45 advanced through March 31, and $55 at the gate.

This is a great fest to take kids to. (Kids under 13 are free.) You can bring dogs, but you have to register them,

It's going to be a beautiful weekend along the river with kind folks and cool tunes, and remember:

Fests Bustin' Out All Over, Here Are This Week's Offerings

Well, there is a boatload of  talent for our listening pleasure in Florida right now. Here is a look at three fests happening this weekend, one in Southwest Florida, one in the center of the state, and one just north of Jacksonville.

Safety Harbor Songfest happens in the Tampa area this weekend, March 28-29. It's $45 for a weekend pass and $25 for a single-day ticket. 

The Americana lineup is fine, indeed: 

The great percussionist Joe Craven plays Safety Harbor Songfest

STEEP CANYON RANGERS • SHAWN MULLINS • JOE CRAVEN • JIM LAUDERDALE 

WILLIE SUGARCAPPS  • MEIKO • SETH WALKER • CAROLINE KOLE • CALLAGHAN
RANDALL BRAMBLETT • DAVID JACOBS-STRAIN • KAWEHI • JOSEPH ARTHUR
DAPHNE WILLIS • CHRIS GELBUDA • GARETH ASHER • EMILY KOPP
SHANNON WHITWORTH • RYAN MONTBLEAU • THE VESPERS

This happens in the Safety Harbor Waterfront Park by the Safety Harbor Resport and Spa. This is not a camping festival, so you will have to find a place  to stay, check out the fest’s lodging, RV and primitive camping links.

Kids 12 and under are free

Railroad Earth headlines Slide Into Spring Festival

The Slide Into Spring Music and Craft Beer Festival  happens  in Northeast Florida's Fernandina Beach. (Friday March 27th 2015 from 6pm – 9pm; Saturday March 28th 2015 from 12pm – 10pm;Sunday March 29th 2015 from 1pm – 8pm)

Railroad Earth headlines, with Matisyahu, The Wailers, The Fritz, The Corbitt Brothers, Post Pluto, and amazing New York funk band Turkuaz paying, among others. 

Weekend tickets are $75, Saturday only tickets are $40 and Sunday tickets are $35. You can get a primitive camping site for $100 for up to four people  at an offsite location with a shuttle to and from the fest site  (shuttle ride is $1 and benefits local council on aging.) This is a family friendly event, also accommodates late-nighters with  after parties at local watering holes and a silent disco. 

Toubab Krewe plays Little Econ Love Fest

The Little Econ Love Fest  happens outside Lakeland (March-26-29.) This is a primitive camping festival (with showers and potties available) at Maddox Ranch. RVs are welcome but there are no hookups. 

Four-day admission is $65, single day options also available. North Carolina world-beat wonders Toubab Krewe headline the event that also features The Mud Flappers, Holey Miss Moley, S.P.O.R.E., Displace, Lucky Costello and many more local and regional acts. You can get the latest info at the event's Facebook page.This is a family friendly event with kids activities.

Here's the lineup:
Toubab Krewe
The Mud Flappers
Holey Miss Moley
S.P.O.R.E.
Leisure Chief
Displace
Ajeva
Deaf Poets
Evan Taylor Jones
Fat Night
Ancient Sun
The Groove Orient
Bellows
Dem Lil Econ Boyz
Lucky Costello
Bath Salt Zombies Band
The Getbye
Adi Raja
Endless Flow
Flat Land
The Welzeins
Christian Ryan Music's Solquarian Revue
Legacy Orchestra Collective
Frank Asaurus Fresh
Bear With Me
The Woolly Bushmen
Post Pluto
Sonic Graffiti
ButterQueen
The Happy Campers
The Psychedelic Monks
The Real Clash
Shotgun Betty
We're All Gonna Die
Fuzzhound
Bengali 600
The Filthy Deniro's
Twigs
Law Abiding
Chronic Kids
VSN QST
Apache Resistance
Sleazy Cheese
The Luna Bellum
Phoenix Tweak's Sunshine Family Band
SRA Beats
RAS dig-ITAL

Now Age Six, Aura Music & Arts Festival Hits Its Stride

Chuck Jones from Dopapod Jason Koerner photo.

The Aura Music & Arts Festival delivered in a big way for its sixth year. Over a beautiful weekend March 6-8, headliners moe. and The Disco Biscuits brought sophisticated, extended-play sets and mind-blowing light shows.

The setting for the main stage – Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park’s mystical moss-draped ampitheater – is one of the most beautiful venues in its own right; adding futuristic lasers and Papadosio’s crazy video screens was just about over the top.

 Jason Koerner photo.

Jason Koerner photo.

Fest organizers Daryl Wolff and Cameron Ferguson picked a nice musical roster this year with a mix of funk, jam, live electronica, and even a little bluegrass and roots music for good measure.

Aura had a really sweet vibe, with musicians mixing in the crowd, Yoga and art everywhere, hoopers and twirlers and pretty lights.

Awwww! festgrrl photo.

With about 5,000 people in the large venue, it never felt crowded – except (thankfully) on the dance floor.

Lucky us -- the Thursday night pre-party got moved out of the indoor Music Hall into the ampitheater and  featured Ghost Owl (which has members of Perpetual Groove,) Colorado funk masters The Motet, and electronic prog-rockers Dopapod.

The Motet. festgrrl photo.

moe. delivered two fine sets Friday night, heavy on the groove. They didn’t exactly break out the untz, but they did spin out some very cool dancey-trancey lines. You can check out this excellent video of an extended Bearsong-Meat jam here. (Thank you Cheesehead Productions!) The highlight of the night was a two-man extended vibe solo (check it out on the video, it starts about 24 minutes in) with guest Matt Dillon on stage.

Meet-and-greet with moe. Owleyesonyou photo.

The moe. set list Jeffrey Dupuis photo.

moe. festgrrl photo.

moe. festgrrl photo.

The Heavy Pets, Jimkata, Fusik, The Mantras, Juke, Brother Bean, Spontaneous Underground, the McLovins, Turbo Suit, Papadosio and Dopapod also played Friday night. I personally loved the “Funkin Grateful”  band made up of members of The Heavy Pets and other Florida jam bands, with excellent string player Billy Gilmore holding down lead. They presided over a nice dance party and jam in the Music Hall that had everybody smiling.

festgrrl photo.

festgrrl photo.

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong pulled out the twangy jam-funk (see some of it here)  at a late night show that started at 2 a.m. in the Music Hall. After that, the dancers headed to the Silent Disco, which went until 5 a.m.

festgrrl photo.

Saturday afternoon came pretty fast, with Consider the Source kicking things off, followed by sets from Ghost Owl, Ketchy Shuby, The Motet, Lucky Costello, The Main Squeeze, Lather Up!, and The Fritz.

festgrrl photo.

Papadosio delivered an ethereal early-evening show in the ampitheater, then the crowd was off to catch Raq and the Mike Dillon Band. I caught a band I’d never heard before, a South Florida jam band called Stinky Pockets (check them out here,)  and they absolutely killed it with trumpeter/singer Emily Carroll sitting in. (Carroll had her own ensemble Sunday evening, which I heard good things about.)

festgrrl photo.

The Disco Biscuits turned in a balls-to-the-wall dance show that had the packed ampitheater boogieing from 10:30 to almost 2 a.m., just when you thought you couldn't dance anymore, well, they wouldn't let you sit down.

festgrrl photo.

So many people came to see buzzed-about New York fusion band Tauk in the Music Hall that there was a line out the door, and new people could only go in when other people left. This instrumental improvisational quartet is something to see, and Tauk drummer Isaac Teel is simply a force of nature.

Isaac Teel of Tauk. festgrrl photo.

American Babies took the Music Hall stage at 2 a.m. for those who still had steam after the Biscuits finished.

Sadly, festgrrl had to bug out early Sunday due to Real Life Concerns after a great bluegrass set by Uproot Hootenanny. Tauk, Fat Mannequin, and McLovins played through the Sunday afternoon. Killer funk band Kung Fu played early Sunday evening and the Break Science Live Band, a supergroup with members of Pretty Lights and Lettuce: featuring Jesus Coomes, Adam Smirnoff, Ryan Zoidis, and Eric Bloom, Borahm Lee and drummer Adam Deitch closed out the wonderful weekend.

festgrrl photo.

The talk later was all about The Main Squeeze’s Michael Jackson cover set Sunday afternoon - you can see one of the songs here, Aura Music & Arts Festival liked it so much they made an official video. Warning: It will make you wish you were back there right now!

Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, David Grisman, Del McCoury Play Upcoming Suwannee Springfest

Lucinda Williams plays Saturday night

It's countdown time toward Suwannee Springfest, happening March 19-22 at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in  Live Oak, Fl.

This year's Americana lineup has some newcomer bands, as well as longtime heavy hitters Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Del McCoury and David Grisman, among others. Catch Keller Williams, the Wood Brothers, Shovels and Rope, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Hot Rize, and Larry Keel over the talent-packed weekend. One of the best songwriters in America, Verlon Thompson, plays afternoon sets on Saturday and Sunday. Also highly recommended: Shinyribs, a band started by Kevin Russell of  the late great Texas band, The Gourds. Shinyribs plays Thursday and Friday. festgrrl always stays for Sunday night's love-filled closing dance-athon with Cajun jammers Donna the Buffalo and friends.

If you buy an advanced four-day ticket, it works out to a little less than $44 a day, and that includes primitive camping right by your vehicle, people!

David Grisman plays Thursday with Del McCoury

The fest starts on Thursday, March 19. It's a lovely, low-key gathering beneath the spring blossoms with a  family-friendly vibe (kids under 12 are free) and the late-night/early morning campground picking is legendary. 

I always like to get there a day or so early so I've got time to catch some campground jams without missing the stage acts. And I always use the occasion to have my first dip of the year in the Suwannee River.

The Music Park's Suwannee River Beach

Here's a look at the lineup, and you can check out the schedule here. I've laid out the ticket prices and logistical info below the lineup for your planning pleasure.

I'll just say this now: If you're on the fence, jump over it and go. It's a gorgeous time of year, and great lineup, and remember that your only job for a couple days is to listen. 

Suwannee Springfest 2015 Lineup
Lucinda Williams
John Hiatt
Del McCoury & David Grisman
Wood Brothers
Shovels and Rope
Hot Rize with Red Knuckles and The Trailblazers
Keller Williams and The Travelin’ McCourys
The Infamous Stringdusters
Jeff Austin
Blind Boys of Alabama
Donna The Buffalo
Larry Keel Experience
Cabinet
Jim Lauderdale
The Duhks
Verlon Thompson
The Seth Walker Band
Fruition
Town Mountain
Joe Craven
Dread Clampitt
Pgrass
Shinyribs
Jon Stickley Trio
The Shook Twins

Jim White VS. The Packway Handle Band
Taylor Martin’s Acoustic Band
Ralph Roddenbery Band
Grandpa’s Cough Medicine
Virginia Dare Devils
Whetherman
Flagship Romance
The Applebutter Express
Sloppy Joe
Nikki Talley
Big Cosmo
Canary in the Coalmine
Grits & Soul
Quartermoon
The Josh Daniel/Mark Schimick Project
Steve Pruett's Back from the Brink
Oak Hay
Short Straw Pickers
Sarah Mac Band
Acoustic Ensemble

Four-day tickets, which include primitive camping, are $175 advanced, $200 at the gate.

Saturday-Sunday only tickets are $130 at the gate.

Single day ticket options are also available.

Go getcha some.

Groove At Aura Music & Arts Festival This Week

Time to dance! For Aura weekend coverage (as long as the wifi holds out) visit festgrrl on Facebook and Instagram #festgrrl

The Disco Biscuits , moe. , and Papadosio headline the  Aura Music & Arts Festival  this coming week, which starts Thursday evening at  Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. The music goes on through Sunday evening, ending with a special after-fest show by Roosevelt Collier and guests.

Camping by the lake at Spirit of the Suwannee

Aura has a super-sweet vibe and a vibrant Yoga and Healing Arts program. Expect lots of hoopers and arty young folk. Three-day tickets, which include primitive camping,  are $175 advanced and $205 at the gate; Four-day tickets are $185 advanced and $215 at the gate. There are single-day options as well (they don't include camping, however)

moe,

This is the sixth year for Aura, and you can get the latest info at the festival's Facebook page. and at Twitter & Instagram: @AURAMusicFest (#AURAfest)

The Break Science Live Band will debut this year, with electronic duo Borahm Lee and Adam Deitch  joined by Lettuce’s Jesus Coomes on bass, Adam Smirnoff on guitar, Ryan Zoidis on sax and Eric Bloom on trumpet. 

The Disco Biscuits

Here's a look at the entire lineup, and you can see the schedule here:

The Disco Biscuits (two sets)
moe. (two sets)
Papadosio (two nights)
Break Science Live Band (ft. Jesus Coomes, Adam Smirnoff, Ryan Zoidis and Eric Bloom)
Kung Fu
Dopapod
The Heavy Pets
RAQ
Jimkata
Consider the Source
TAUK
The Main Squeeze x2 including a Tribute to Michael Jackson
American Babies
The Mike Dillon Band
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
The Mantras
The Fritz
McLovins
Ghost Owl
Cosby Sweater
Brother Bean
Fusik
Ketchy Shuby
Uproot Hootenanny
Funkin’ Grateful
Lather Up!
Fat Mannequin
Stinky Pockets
Artists at large: The Shady Horns