When is that fest again?

festgrrl photo

Fest friends, it's time to start planning for the upcoming fall season. To help you know what days to ask your boss for time off, I've compiled a handy-dandy guide:

Sept. 10-13: Lock'n festival,  Arrington, Va. This mega-fest features Carlos Santana, Widespread Panic, Jimmy Cliff, bands by members of the Grateful Dead, and a bunch of giant acts. A 4-day pass is $299, and camping and car parking fees also apply.

Sept. 26 & 27: The Landing, on Lake Pontchatrain in New Orleans, hosted by NOLA's Galactic. Cake, Dr. Dog, Grace Potter, North Mississippi All Stars and Anders Osbourne, and lots more. This is not a camping festival, and you can get the details from my previous post here. 

Oct. 1-3 Homegrown Music Network 20th anniversary fest in Melbane, Nc.(between Greensboro and Durham,) with Lotus, Keller Williams, Big Something, Purple Schoolbus, Barefoot Manner, Cornmeal, Dangermuffin, and more. Three-day advanced ticket is $100, two-day is $80. Primitive camping next to your car. BYOB.

Oct. 8-11 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Pittsboro, N.C. (about 40 minutes north of Chapel Hill) This fest is hosted by Americana band Donna the Buffalo, and has a world-beat, roots vibe. You can get all the details on my previous festgrrl Shakori Hills post.

October 15-18:  Magnolia Fest, with Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Avett Brothers, Del McCoury, Keller Williams and a whole lot more bands at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl. Advanced tickets are $200 advanced for the weekend, and that includes primitive camping.  

October 15 -18: LEAF festival, in Black Mountain, NC, (near Asheville) celebrates New Orleans music with Aaron Neville, Dumpstaphunk,  Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Rebirth Brass Band, Rising Appalachia, Jeff Thompson, the Revivalists -- just a kick-ass lineup all the way. Weekend advanced ticket is $168, which includes primitive camping.

Nov. 5-8: Riverhawk with Fred Eaglesmith, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, The Grand Slambovians, Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band, and lots more, happens at the lovely Sertoma Youth Ranch near Brooksville, Fla. (not far from Tampa) Three-day advanced ticket (includes primitive camping) is $106; $74 if you only want to stay two nights. Lots of other ticket options here.  

Oct. 30-Nov. 1: Suwannee Hulaween, the amazing art, costume, and music extravaganza hosted by Colorado jamband, The String Cheese Incident, happens at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Fl. Pretty Lights, Slightly Stoopid, Lettuce, Primus, Sam Bush Band and a whole lot of other bands play in a linuep that's a mashup of funk, bluegrass and electronica. Yeah, it works. Plus there's a psychedelic electric forest and a ferris wheel! Thursday night pre-party with Joe Russo's Almost Dead. Advanced weekend tickets are $245. The pre-party is $65. Trust me, it's worth it.

 

Hulaween art by Bean Spence. festgrrl photo

Free Music at St. Augustine's 450th Anniversary!

Mavis Staples plays for free Sept. 4. Stock photo.

What a present for us -  the lovely St. Augustine, Fla. celebrates its 450th anniversary Sept.4-8 with a big fat free street party, and  they will have a bunch of free music shows and fireworks!

On Friday, Sept. 4, Mavis Staples and Aaron Neville headline. On Saturday, Sept. 5 -- Nicki Bluhm & The Gramblers, Justin Townes Earle, North Florida homeboy JJ Grey and Mofro, and Emylou Harris and Rodney Crowell will perform.  The festival has five stages in all, with the big acts on a stage at the Bridge of Lions along the riverfront. Nice!

Aaron Neville. Stock photo.

All around the cobblestone downtown area, performers will be playing on the smaller stages. You can catch the likes of Sam Pacetti, Gatorbone, salsa, flamenco, Greek dancers, bagpipes, West African drummers,bluegrass bands, choruses, and more. (Favorite title of the smaller stage bands: Lonesome Bert and the Skinny Lizards.)

JJ Grey. festgrrl photo.

Noirmally, this is the part where I tell you how much tickets cost. Nothing!! The schedule of events is here, and you can get your questions answered here.

Reunion Campout Fest At Suwannee This Weekend

Suwannee River beach! festgrrl photo.

The summer vibe will be thumping this weekend at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, at a new jamtronica and electrofunk fest called Reunion Campout.

The intimate fest under the oaks  features the Stratosphere All-Stars, with members of Lotus, Particle, Kung Fu, STS9, and Gramatik. Also on the bill are Greenhouse Lounge, Zoogma, Gravity A from New Orleans (doing a Talking Heads tribute,) and Colorado's Dynohunter.

Since this is August and it is hot as hell, most of the  music will happen in the park's air-conditioned Music Hall, but there will be a Saturday music party at the park's gorgeous Suwannee River beach. A Silent Disco will run pretty much all night.

Weekend tickets (which include primitive camping Friday and Saturday nights) are $69.59  including fees. Or you can get an online-only  $219 package deal for four, which works out to $54.75 each. including fees.

Check out this Video of Gravity A breaking out the Talking Heads "Girlfriend is Better" at Tipitina's in New Orleans;

Fall Fest Planning -- Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

Kick-ass jammer Jeb Puryear of Donna the Buffalo. festgrrl photo

It's hot and lazy at festgrrl's deep-South headquarters this time of year, but oh yes -- we can hear the thump of a bass, the slide of a fiddle bow and stomping feet in our distant memory.

October will be here before you know it, and so will the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance. This is one of the small, lovely fests organized by roots-rockers Donna the Buffalo around the country. These fests feature some really cool world-beat and Americana acts. For this year's extravaganza, I advise you not to miss two acts: the quirky art-band Rubblebucket or Indian brass-band funkateers  Red Baraat.

(Shakori 2014: Kim Hawks photo)

Shakori Hills happens Oct. 8-11 in Pittsboro, North Carolina, which is about 20 minutes south of Chapel Hill. Four-day early bird tickets are just $104 for adults. Kids 12 and under are free, and there's a special Youth Pass for the 13-15-year-old set for $54. Camping costs extra, and you can peruse the various options here.

 

festgrrl photo.

Sooo, besides Donna the Buffalo, who is playing, you ask? Read on, dance partners:

Hot Rize featuring Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers

Rubblebucket

JD McPherson

Kinobe & The Wamu Spirit

Red Baraat

The Black Lillies

Preston Frank

Big Mean Sound Machine

Liz Vice

The Old Ceremony

Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds

Norah Jane Struthers & The Party Line

Blind Boy Paxton

Old Man Luedecke

Kelley & The Cowboys

Big Fat Gap

Brett Harris

The Midatlantic

Ellis Dyson & The Shambles

The Fairlanes

The Cane Creek Cloggers

Lobo Marino

Mason Via

& many more…

Missing Bear Creek?Try This One

Covered stage!

The funktastic Bear Creek was my favorite festival in the Southeast, and  I was crushed when it was cancelled for this fall. Where will I get my funk on??

Then someone told me about a "Bear Creek of the North," a festival called the Catskill Chill. Yes, Southern friends, this is our funk and jam fest from another mother. It has a crowd and a vibe about the same size as our dearly departed Bear Creek.

It happens at a former summer camp called Camp Minglewood September 18-20 in Hancock, NY.

Check out this lineup:

moe., Lotus, Zappa Plays Zappa, Lettuce, Electron, The Motet, Dopapod, Kung Fu,Twiddle,Break Science,Turkuaz,Dopakuaz plays Studio 54, The Werks, Particle & Fam, George Porter Jr.&The Runnin' Pardners and more. 

Weekend tickets, which include primitive camping, are $198 advanced (through July 20.)

Chill Fam

Camp Minglewood looks awesome, with a lake and cabins (sold out, sorry, tent camping only) This is the last year Catskill Chill will be at this lovely location, so if you're inclined for a road trip this fall, check it out! 

A New New Orleans Fest This Fall!!

Galactic. Candace Horgan photo.

New Orleans power-funksters Galactic, along with the legendary club Tipitina's, are joining up to put on a new festival Sept. 26 & 27 just outside New Orleans this fall.

Called "The Landing," the fest will happen about 15 minutes outside the city along Lake Pontchartrain, at a place called South Shore Harbor.

It features a killer lineup with some out-of-town bands who almost NEVER come South (I'm talking to you Cake and Dr. Dog!.

Grace Potter

Here are the announced acts so far, and the promoters promise more to come: Galactic, Grace Potter, Cake, Dr. Dog, Trampled by Turtles, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, the North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne present N.M.O., the Soul Rebels and Rayland Baxter.

Soul Rebels

A two-day pass is $100. Single day and VIP options are also available on the web site. On Thursday, there's a  pre-party at Tipitina's for an extra fee. There will be daily performances from NOLA marching bands and fireworks!

Great Outdoors Jam for Your Holiday Weekend!

Maddox Ranch

The Central Florida jam scene is a beautiful thing, with kind folks and a stable of  creative and diverse musicians who like to get together and rage it.

This weekend (July 3-5,) the Great Outdoors Jam, a campout fest, happens at Maddox Ranch in Lakeland with Cope, Big Something, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, The Fritz, Come Back Alice, Applebutter Express, Savi Fernandez Band, Post Pluto, Jahman Brahman,  Holey Miss Moley, and more. You can see the lineup here.

Tickets (which include primitive camping) are $80 at the gate for the weekend. There's a Thursday pre-party for $20, and you can buy a ticket for that at the gate. Some info: Vendors will be onsite with food and drink. No dogs allowed. RVs and campers are allowed, but there is no onsite electricity so you will need a generator to run your rig.