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.
Category: Festival Coverage
Previews, reviews and coverage from music festivals like Hopscotch and Moogfest
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):
- Mandolin Orange/Josh Moore
- Birds and Arrows/Skylar Gudasz and the Ugly Girls
- Jeff Crawford/Brett Harris
- The Tomahawks/Schooner
- Luego/Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores
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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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.
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
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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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!
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)!
This Thursday is truly going to be something special! WKNC and Tir Na nOg are more than happy to have Hopscotch Music Festival and Vitamin Water Uncapped present a very special Local Beer Local Band Hopscotch Announcement Party featuring The Rosebuds, Heads on Sticks, and DJ SPCL GST spinning throughout the evening and a fashion show hosted by Revolver Consignment.
Come early – this show will be packed!! Might as well get a cheeseburger (they’re mad cheap at the pub on Thursdays) and down some beers with friends before the fashion show starts at 10 p.m. Following that will be all the live jams.
The Rosebuds are releasing their new album Loud Planes Fly Low on June 7, and I have a feeling you might get to hear a little sneak peak of it at the show… well at least I hope so.
Heads on Sticks has been my favorite local live act since the first time I saw them. This is music that I like.
There is hardly any other time you’re going to get all of the awesomeness for the price of FREE so I don’t understand why anyone would not come. I’m guessing there will be a few Hopscotch wristband giveaways at the show too.
Hopscotch, the Independent Weekly’s annual music festival in downtown Raleigh will be releasing the lineup for their September 3-day festival on Wednesday, April 20th. Greg Lowenhagen of Independent Weekly will be on-air with our very own Chuck from 11-noon to talk about the show and this year’s line up.
Last year hosted names like Panda Bear, Public Enemy, The Rosebuds, Sharon Van Etten, Megafaun, Best Coast and more than 100 other bands. This year is sure to be even better; full of national acts as well as great local talent. Tune in to find out who!
Tickets will go on sale as the lineup is released on April 20th. Free 3-day wristbands were given out at local record stores for Record Store Day April 16. Stay tuned to WKNC and keep reading Independent Weekly to find out ways you can win tickets.
For more musical fun, Hopscotch is hosting a few free local shows throughout Raleigh on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (4/21-4/23) in celebration of their lineup release!
Press release from Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance:
9th Annual Spring Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance
Silk Hope, NC – The Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance will hold its annual spring festival from Thursday, April 21 to Sunday, April 24, 2011. The festival will feature more than 50 bands and performers on two big outdoor stages, a large Dance Tent, and an intimate Cabaret Tent. Located on 72 beautiful farmland acres at 1439 Henderson Tanyard Road in Silk Hope, North Carolina, just down the road from Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, Burlington, and Greensboro. The festival also features local crafts, delicious food, various children’s activities, environmental sustainability workshops, and much more in a family-friendly environment.
Featured acts include: The Travelin’ McCourys, Arrested Development, The Lee Boys, Donna the Buffalo, Tift Merritt, Umalali, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Langhorne Slim, Scythian, Preston Frank & His Zydeco Family Band, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Orquesta GarDel, and Joy Kills Sorrow.
Other local favorites include: The Beast, Diali Cissokho & Kairaba!, Midtown Dickens, Greg Humphreys, Birds & Arrows, Lizzy Ross Band, John Howie Jr. & The Sweethearts, Mount Moriah, Cool John Ferguson, Gray Young, Kooley High, Big Fat Gap, Jack Maverick & His Wild Rebels, Penny Prophets, The Music Maker Revue, Bluegrass Experience, Dark Water Rising, Big Al Hall & Marching Rams, Skeedaddle, Sarah Shook & The Devil, Paperhand Puppet Intervention, Trilogy, Apple Chill Cloggers, HoopDrum, and Elikem African Dance
Other great acts on the bill: Pura Fe, Keith Secola & His Wild Band of Indians, Taj Weekes, Thousands of One, The Deer Clan Singers, Ayurveda, Hudost, Old Man Luedecke, Jason Ringenberg, Do It to Julia, Big Daddy Love, Nikki Talley, Farmer Jason, Spirit Family Reunion, Louise Omoto Kessel, Aaron Burdett, Old Sledge, Double E, Michael Jacobs, Daygot Leeyos, Stuart McNair, Possum Creek, and more.
Festival tickets are on sale now. Four day passes are $90 in advance and $100 at the gate. Kids 12 and under are FREE! Day passes are $25 (Thurs), $35 (Fri), $45 (Sat), and $25 (Sun). Youth prices (13-15) are $12, $17, $20, and $12. Tent camping is $10 per tent and vehicle camping is $50 in advance and $60 at the gate.
Stay tuned to WKNC for ticket giveaways and more updates!