Oh.
My.
Floydfest.
I can probably classify this weekend up there with the Dave Matthews concert weekend I went to last year...and it can be described in one word; life changing (shoot, I guess that's two. Can I hyphenate that?)
There was incredible music,
there was dancing
there was yoga in front of the main stage,
there was camping,
there was good beer,
there was yiradaki (digeridoo) making
there was hiking through the Blue Ridge Mountains
...aaaand, there was an engagement! Yep, Brandon asked me to marry him while we were there!!
This was the tenth anniversary of Floydfest and they really made it a wonderful event. The only band that I actually knew was Railroad Earth, but we saw a ton of other artists and absolutely had a blast exploring new music. Railroad Earth had been playing Floydfest for nine out of the last ten years, which I think is just amazing
At the beer tent(s) you bought a stainless steel cup and beer tickets and you could just use your cup over and over. The woman at the ticket counter said it cut down on a ridiculous amount of trash. I loved how environmentally friendly the whole festival was. They even had water fill-up stations that you could bring you water bottle too, none of the vendors actually sold bottled water.
One of the coolest things (in my opinion) about Floydfest, was their "Under the Radar" series. There were probably 25 different artists that were new to Floydfest, you could vote for your favorite and the group who won won a main stage performance next year, some recording sessions, money for a new microphone and all kinds of great stuff. Those performances were some of my favorite ones, especially Bryan Elijah Smith and the Wild Hearts, the Boatmen, and Big Something. For the record, I voted for Bryan Elijah Smith...we won all of their albums in a dance contest during their set.
If you're looking for some all-encompassing awesomess in a music festival, then Floydfest is it. It's definitely an event that we are going to continue going to.
Love. Floydfest.
