HAVE SOME FUN IN THE SUN!!!!!

Now that you've been introduced the the wonderful world of music festivals, the last step is to get out and enjoy yourself. This past weekend, I began my summer a few weeks early in order to catch up with The Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic at the Wanee Music Festival at Live Oak, Florida's Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. The 3 day weekend included over 25 bands, as well as numerous artists, and crafts people showcasing their various talents.

Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, which has become notorious for the Wanee Festival, as well as Magnolia Fest, and Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival, held its largest event with its 6th annual Wanee. With just short of 27,000 in attendance, the festival began with a pre-party on the 14th of April, and the music didn't stop till about 2 am on that Sunday morning. Thursday night was the official start of the event with artists such as Particle and George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic getting the party in full swing.

Friday proved for some fun in the sun, as weather was exceptional, and a lineup of great performances promised for a wonderful day. Beginning the day with a visit to a show including Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead, and ending the evening with famed guitar legend Warren Haynes and his group Gov't Mule keeping the evening going until early Saturday. Saturday, the weather continued to be wonderfully beautiful! Spectacular performances by The Allman Bro's and Derek and Susan Tedeski Trucks wound down a weekend that in the words of a first time festival goer was "an experiance like nothing I've ever done in my life."

Pack The Car and Hit The Road! Surviving your first festival!

It's that time of year again.

Warm Weather, Summer Time, and Festivals!

The festival season is slowly getting into swing, and with events such as Wanee, Amberland, and plenty of others, its time to choose your route, pack your car and get your ass to a summer music festival. Although many are focused on jam band's and blues music, there is a festival for everyone if you can seek it out. However, there is a common thread to every camping music festival. Preparation.

When preparing for my own festival experience, I usually plan ahead for a few different things:

1. Beer is cheap: buy ahead of time and avoid high prices

2. Weather is unpredictable: be ready for anything

3. All in all, the more you bring....the better off you are.

Most festivals allow you to bring everything you need to your campsite not necessarily to the stages, so be prepared to spend a few dollars, but there is always a way to avoid costs additional to the weekend ticket purchased for anywhere from 40-$500 (VIP access can be in the thousands!). Food and Drink are your 2 largest cost's if you are totally unprepared, since many food vendors although delicious...can add up throughout the weekend. Coolers full of food and drinks are your #1 priority. Many festival goers are very friendly and when asked, most will gladly let you use their stove or grill if you don't have one to cook on.

Weather, although somewhat trackable, can always throw you a curve. Plan on having at minimum 1 poncho, and an air mattress can be helpful if for not only comfort, a raised platform in a flooded tent. All though many tents claim to be "waterproof" any air mattress prove as a defense against the puddle that happens to show up after a good down-pour.

Finally, if finances are not an issue. Bring extra. Not only does it create an opportunity to sell a case of beer and make a few bucks on your ticket back, but it assures that nothing that you need will diminish too quickly. Long story short, most festivals allow you to show up and spend as much money as you want, allowing you to be as unprepared as possible, however, for the conscious festival goer, purchasing camping equipment, and supplies allows for the best experience at the lowest cost! So no matter what your excuse, don't let money be a reason to not go to a summer music festival!

I would venture to say my blog would best fit in a magazine such as Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone Magazine is a great magazine that people interested in music would read. That being said, I think my topics would be usefull to a music lover who is exploring options on how they go and see live music.

Duck Season? Rabbit Season? Festival Season!

As the weather gets warmer and warmer, getting outside and taking in some much-needed fresh air becomes something almost everyone wants to do. A great way to spend some time in the sun (or sometimes even the rain) is to pack the car and hit the road and spend some time at one of the various music and arts festivals located all across the country. No we’re not talking the run of the mill one-day event like a Warped Tour, or Ozzfest where the music dies at nightfall. We’re talking an all out rage fest, where the music doesn’t stop until the end of the weekend, and making friends is as simple as sharing a hot dog with a hungry neighbor.

Following in the style of Woodstock, Music Festivals such as Bonnaroo, Coachella and Wanee offer festival goers the opportunity to mix a camping vacation with some of their favorite artists (as well as some artists who end up becoming a favorite) to create an experience that most in attendance would agree is unlike any other. Festivals such as these typically range from 3-4 days in duration, and a full ticket typically includes an area to camp nearby your car.

Bonnaroo, being the largest running annual festival each summer on the east coast, typically occurs in early June in Manchester, Tennessee. In 2009 reaching an attendance of just shy of over 100,000 through the course of the weekend, Bonnaroo has become a festival that encompasses the largest array of music. Bonnaroo 2010, marks the festivals 8^th year, and hopes to be its largest with artists such as The Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder, Jay Z, and The Flaming Lips filling up headlining spots. It addition to the nearly 100+ music acts involved in putting on the festival, Bonnaroo has become known for its comedy and cinema tents, that allow individuals to have a change of pace during their weekend. Coachella, in its 11 year, offers a similar experience however takes place at eh Empire Polo Fields complex in Indio, California.

More locally, Florida residents are fortunate to have a number of festivals at their fingertips. One of the most popular Florida festivals, is the Wanee Festival, held at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL, Wanee is typically headlined by local favorites The Allman Brothers Band. Miami offers its yearly Ultra Music festival however, gears its line up to attract internationally popular acts from the electronic genre.

Music festivals allow attendants to experience an event where everyone is dedicated to the music. Camping out, and getting to know fellow music lovers is a great way to enjoy some time off from work or school, so check out some of the MANY music festivals available to music lovers across the country in a wide array of genres spanning full across the musical spectrum.

The Evolution of Touring

The year 2000 marked a turning point in the entire music industry. No matter what type of music an individual was interested in, a startup called Napster changed the way the entire world listened to music. Until this point, if a person wanted music, they either paid for it, or had to deal with low-grade recordings from the radio or from a friends purchased album. Single handedly, Napster made it easy for any person to be able to get the majority of recorded music for free. This seemed like an extremely good thing to the consumer, however this poses obvious problems to the artists who rely on album sales to put food on their plate.

Ten years later, the change in the industry is obvious. Although there has been an attempt to control illegal online music sharing, it would be faulty to assume that it does not still happen regularly. Regardless of legality, the rise in online music buying is evident with the growing popularity of online music stores and web radios such as iTunes, or rhapsody. Sites like these make it easy to purchase music legally, however bringing the price of music down due to its easy availability. This downturn in the amount of money in the purchasing of music lead to a need for artists to come up with a way to increase their revenue in a world where the majority of people were listening to more and more music but paying for it, less and less.

Quickly it became an easy option for artists trying to compensate for the income they were losing in record sales by increasing the amount of touring they did. Typically, it had been common for a band to go on tour to help promote a new album or when a significant event had occurred with the band (single, reunion, ect.). However, a change began to occur. Bands began touring so much that they found themselves returning to cities hundreds of miles from their hometowns, multiple times a year. In addition, the popularity of single day, as well as multi-day music popular music festivals such as Bonnaroo, and Coachella have made it possible for artists to put on live events without dealing with companies like ticket master or live nation who take a portion of the ticket price for their services.

This increase in live events, has caused bands to go out of their way to assure fans that they will see a different show, rather than just playing the same set lists over and over again. This change in structure of the standard concert event has generated a good amount of interest in fans that want to stay on the road with their favorite artists, finding that spending their money on concerts is even more worthwhile then the albums themselves. Seeing is believing, and nothing beats believing that your favorite artists are catering their live events to the fans that keep up with them the most.