Category: Festival Coverage

Previews, reviews and coverage from music festivals like Hopscotch and Moogfest

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Festival Coverage Local Music

That Shakori Hills Time of Year

One of my favorite events of last fall was Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, located in Pittsboro, N.C. Camping out with your friends, seeing incredible live music, and living off campfire food and veggie things for the weekend is a cure for anything that’s been getting you down. And it’s back again for its 10th spring installment, April 19-22.

This spring’s lineup is exciting: Leftover Salmon, Donna the Buffalo, Blitz the Ambassador, The Red Clay Ramblers, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Rubblebucket, Suénalo, Preston Frank, The Sim Redmond Band, Elephant Revival, David Wax Museum, Driftwood, and Lydia Loveless…

Local acts like Diali Cissokho & Kairaba, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Bombadil, The Beast, Mandolin Orange, Dark Water Rising, Justin Robinson & The Mary Annettes, Greg Humphreys & The Hobex All Stars, Lizzy Ross Band, Music Maker Revue, Midtown Dickens, Rey Norteño, Big Fat Gap, Randy Dean Whitt, New Town Drunks, Sarah Shook & The Devil, Shirlette & The Dynamite Brothers, Apple Chill Cloggers, Onyx Club Boys, Deep Chatham, Curtis Eller, Jeanne Jolly, The Ayr Mountaineers, and Justin Johnson…

And other bands, such as Revelation Mizik, Equanimous Minds, Richie Stearns & Rosie Newton, Jim Avett, Raffa & Rainer, Dirty Bourbon River Show, Harper & Midwest Kind, Old Man Luedecke, The South Carolina Broadcasters, Dutch Bucket System, Galactic Cowboy Orchestra, Farmer Jason, Mad Tea, Bareknuckle Betties, Roxanna & The Rusty Bucket Band, Elkland Art Center Puppets, Town Hall, Kin Ship, and more.

WKNC will be helping you and your friends go this year, with day-passes to giveaway on the Local Lunch, Americana,  Blues & Company, The Church of Bluegrass and the Truer Sounds, Both Kinds Radio and our Facebook page. If you impress the DJ, you may even get the newest Bombadil CD All the Rain Promises as part of your prize! Make sure to tune in and have your phones ready so when the DJ asks for it, you’ll be all set to win!

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Festival Coverage

The Road To Moog

On Oct. 28, Moogfest 2011 will officially begin in beautiful Asheville, N.C. The festival, now in its second year, brings together artists from across the electronic and experimental music spectrum to celebrate the legacy of synth pioneer and music technology visionary Bob Moog. From musical legends such as Suicide, Tangerine Dream, and Terry Riley to up-and-comers CANT, Oneohtrix Point Never, and araabMUZIK to Amon Tobin’s elaborate and visually stunning ISAM show, the three-day festival truly provides something for every ear. In the days leading up to, during, and after the festival check back regularly to the WKNC Blog for various Road To Moog features, including interviews with artists playing the festival and reviews and photos from the festival.

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Festival Coverage

Shakori Hills Fall 2011

“Shakori Hills Community Arts Center’s mission is to provide an environment for community building through arts and education.”

The weather could not have been better for a four day weekend of communal music and dance at the Shakori Hills Grassroots festival.  A diverse group of people gathered together all with one goal:  to climb festival mountain.  Festival mountain has many trail heads that all lead to the top.  Some may choose to go the dancing route, and find themselves encountering the “whitest dance” around town: clogging.  That’s right, ladies and gentleman, a clogging workshop was led by The Green Grass Cloggers on Sunday morning at the festival.  Shuffle steps, Indians, and chugs were some of the many individual dances taught. Along with the clogging workshop, a zydeco dance workshop, as well as, a country two-step workshop were put on at the festival.

Another primary trailhead was the wonderful trail of music. From Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones to Locos Por Juana; the festival provided a very eclectic group of music that was sure to soothe even the savage beast.  Dancing, singing along, hula hooping, and going into hippie freak-outs were some of the many activities that went on during the outdoor concerts.

After climbing through the mountain for some time, a festival-goer may find themselves a bit famished.  You would be in luck, because the festival offered some finger-licking, slap-your-mama meals that were affordable and satiable.  One meal to highlight was “The Veggie Thing”.  This was a piece of art in itself.  A sandwich served on a white flour tortilla filled to the top with a variety of veggies and sauces, that was sure to leave your belly full, and your mind happy.  Thirsty? Hand squeezed lemonade and frozen cherry limeade were some of the many drinks served at the festival. The sweet, tart lemonade was shaken not stirred and served in Mason jars.  This drink option was sure to quench a festival goers thirst in the warm, afternoon sun.

When people think about festivals, they often think art, music, dance, and culture.  What is not often thought about is the function of the festival.  Is this an event that is just for pleasure and entertainment, or does it get deeper than that, and provide some sort of escape from reality? While camping in middle earth (the name of our camp site), it occurred to me that the sense of community was very shire-like.  Everyone getting along, enjoying ales and sing-alongs, lending a hand whenever a neighbor was in need…we were in hobbit world!  I even think I saw Gandalf several times, or maybe that was just a hippie…not sure. Regardless of what your background was, the festival did provide an escape from everyday life—which was nice.  If nothing else, the festival gave one a relaxing environment to be a part of something big.  It’s not everyday that you get to climb festival mountain…

With the festival closing, a feeling of reality crept back, and we began to descend off festival mountain.  Thankfully the mountain will open back up next spring for another four-day escape.  Hopefully we can use the philosophy of the Shakori Hills festival in our everyday life.  Meaning, I hope we can strive to be hobbit-like, regularly.  Let’s build communities through arts and education, y’all!

Peace, Love and Swirl!

– Andrew, “The Cosmic Cowboy”

Nicole Kligerman, Sarah Hager and Kate Rafferty talk to attendees of the fall 2011 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival.

 

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Festival Coverage

Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival

WKNC DJs were on the scene for Shakori Hills Music Festival, a rollicking four days of music, art, and family-filled fun on the euphoric hills of Chatham County.

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Festival Coverage

A Safe Haven with Arbor Ridge Studios, Shuffle Magazine, and WKNC

Arbor Ridge Studios of Chapel Hill has put together a day party for Hopscotch – but this isn’t any day party.  Titled “Saved Haven” and presented in conjunction with Shuffle Magazine and WKNC, the party will present local bands at Tir Na NOg on Friday, September 9 from 12-5 p.m.  Oh, and the bands will be paired together on stage.

That’s right, instead of a set of just Mandolin Orange, it’ll be a set of Mandolin Orange and Josh Moore.  Not just Luego, but Luego and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores.

The live collaborations are (in reverse order of appearance):

Sounds amazing, right?  Can it get any better?  Yes.  While all of this magic is going on, Arbor Ridge is giving listeners a sneak peak into what’s been recorded recently at their studio.

It’s a 2-in-1 day party – collaborations + listening party – and it is a must for Hopscotch.

Local Bands (together), Local Studio, Local Magazine, Local Station, Local Pub

12-5pm, Tir Na nOg, September 9. It will be beautiful.

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Festival Coverage

Get Forked

Just John and I had the pleasure of attending the sixth annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s Union Park on the weekend of July 14-16. It was hot. Really hot. The crowds came, though, and were treated to great performance after great performance. Every show I saw over the weekend was top-notch. The festival’s treatment of its fans was also top-notch. Thousands of bottles of water were passed out to the crowds to keep them hydrated (no thanks to the goons who just threw water everywhere instead of drinking it). Security were friendly throughout the entire weekend. Two air-conditioned city buses were brought in to help cool down festival-goers. What follows is a list of superlatives of some of the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the festival. Enjoy.

Best light show: The giant glowing crystals at Animal Collective

Biggest asshole: Ariel Pink, throwing another temper-tantrum and walking off stage halfway through his set

Most “f**k"s per minute: Odd Future

Highest number of gray-hairs in the crowd: Guided By Voices

Coolest stage wear: Nika Danilova of Zola Jesus’ very modern dress

Best mosh pit: No Age (which I stayed in for about five minutes too long, causing a short bout of heat sickness)

Best dance moves: Cold Cave’s Dominick Fernow, whose stomp-n-spin move was endlessly entertaining

Biggest dance party: Cut Copy, who got an entire field of thousands of people to dance

Most frequent weed clouds: Curren$y, unsurprisingly

Worst scheduling decision: Two-way tie between scheduling Odd Future and Shabazz Palaces, two of the festival’s five hip-hop acts, on at the same time and putting DJ Shadow on when the sun was still out, making his projector-using ”Shadowsphere“ completely useless (though, to the festival’s credit, they really couldn’t have put him anywhere else)

Best facial hair: Ian Williams of Battles, whose handlebar-stache perfectly matched his swanky get-up

People who should have passed out from heat stroke but, miraculously, didn’t: Yuck’s Daniel Blumberg, who wore jeans and a long-sleeve, denim button-down and Cold Cave’s Wesley Eisold and Dominick Fernow, both in black jeans, black shirts, and black leather jackets.

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Festival Coverage

Hopscotch Announces 2011 Ed McKay Artists and Author Series

This year’s Hopscotch Music Festival is set up to be another amazing event coming to the area. The icing on top of the cake comes with all of the accompanying day parties and various other events held that highlight talent in music. One of these is the Ed McKay Artist and Author Series. Similar to last year’s event, this year’s event will bring several members of some of the larger acts including The Flaming Lip’s Wayne Coyne and Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers.

The Series is three days long and corresponds with the afternoons before the main activities of the night take place. Each event takes place at the Raleigh City Museum from 3-5 p.m.  The first of these programs is titled Present the Past: Honoring and Outstripping Influences City Museum. The second is titled Simple Words: The Power of Narrative Songs. The final of the three is The Bubble: The Limits of Pop Music.

For more information about who will be participating in these events read up on the event at Hopscotchmusicfest.com

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Festival Coverage

deja Mi Releases deja Fest Schedule

The mini-festival, which will hit Raleigh July 22 and 23, will be bringing some huge names in both Local and nationwide artists to the area. Working alongside the fine people at Hopscotch Music Festival,  the free two-day event will bring the likes of Hooray for Earth, Free Energy, Wye Oak, Surfer Blood, and much more.

 

The events kick off on Friday starting at 6pm with acts playing venues including Kings, The Pour House, Tir Na Nog, Slim’s, and Neptunes. Saturday acts play from 1pm to 11pm with outside of Lincoln Theatre with the after party taking place inside the venue.

 

 

For more information visit hopscotchmusicfest.com

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Festival Coverage

Hopscotch Schedule is HERE

After seeing the amazing lineup for Hopscotch, you have probably been trying to figure out how in the heck you will be able to see all the bands you want. Luckily, this festival takes place in downtown Raleigh, so all show are but a walk, a rickshaw, an R-line away.
They have released 14 new bands to the schedule and have added 3 new venues –White Collar Crime, The Union and Fletcher Opera Theater in Progress Energy Center. The show I am most excited about will be taking place in Fletcher Opera Theatre, featuring The Prayers and Tears, Bombadil, and Lost in the Trees. After checking out the schedule here, what show are you most excited about?

There are only a few 3 day passes left!

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Festival Coverage

Shakori Hills Grassroots Spring Festival

Gettin’ my SWIRL on…

The ninth Shakori Hills Spring Grass Roots festival brought music, art, rain, hippies, families, and so much more together in a culture-filled, weekend extravaganza.  Early Thursday morning, I arrived to the festival grounds, checked in, loaded my gear out of my car, and hitched a ride on a tractor to the camping area.  I found a nice, little spot to pitch my tent in the camping area coined “Middle Earth.”  Although we weren’t actually in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world, the attire and facial hair of many-a-folk begged to differ.

Being that it was my first Shakori Hills Grassroots festival, exploration of the festival grounds was essential in order to orient myself throughout the weekend. While meandering about, the sounds of music diffused through the air and entered my ear balls resulting with my “festival switch” being turned on. Everyone has a festival switch, even the most uptight Philistine; although more often than not when the switch of the Philistine is turned on, it results in his/her head exploding.  Anyways, my “festival switch”…oh, yes.  When the switch is fired on all stress is forgotten, and you are left carefree in a world surrounded by some of the friendliest people you can possibly imagine.

After orienting myself around the 72-acres of meadow and forest, I decided to truck it back to “Middle Earth” to get some banjo-time in before I head into the music.  Before I could touch my finger to a string, two strangers, in the distance were magnetized to the wood and skin of my banjo.  These weren’t any two strangers, but rather a man in drag and a woman with tons of tattoos and piercings.  They also carried with them some dancing utensils including: one set of fluffy orange balls and a set of iron triangles.  So, I sat there and played my banjo while these festifreaks (not in a derogatory way) danced about—a good way to start the music!

Now, it’s somewhat difficult to paint a picture of what this large event was all about, but I will try and hit the major events through the photo album.  One thing the photo album doesn’t illustrate is the weather and slop.  Thursday and Friday brought some severe rains to the area, resulting with the festival grounds turning into a bog.  In a nutshell it was NASTY…

The festival hosted many workshops including a blues workshop with Captain Luke, Whistling Britches, and Ironing Board Sam, as well as a Cajun music workshop with Eunice, Louisiana’s Pine Leaf Boys. Educational workshops such as sustainability workshop and square dance workshops were some of the others.

Festival goers gotta eat…Many food vendors set up trucks and stands for the festival attendees’ pleasure.  There was barbeque, Mexican, crepes, and even breakfast.  My personal favorite food item was a sandwich entitled “The Veggie Thing.”  This sandwich was loaded with salad greens, onions, salsa, and a little slice of love (the secret ingredient).  After stuffing your face with the festival food, it may be necessary to wash it down with a tasty beverage.  For this very reason, a North Carolina native posted his soda truck in the food village.  Bob Muse of Indian Trail, NC is the co-owner of Hillbilly Bob’s Soda Company, and executive soda-maker.  This soda was the best damn soda I had ever had, and the best part was it was served in recycled Bush’s baked beans’ cans.

Although mother nature decided to make it rain, festival goers were not phased at all.  The spring festival was a good vacate from sanity, and thankfully, the fall festival will open up the door and welcome us festifreaks, soon enough!

So with that…Peace, Love and Swirl (the symbol for Festival as coined by Griff Blakewood of Lafayette, La)!