Attention Music Fans: Festival Season Underway
Caleb Burger
Staff Writer
For most people, summertime means times of relaxation and maybe a small vacation. For the avid concert-goers and music-lovers, summer means something completely different. It consists of festival season, starting in late spring and extended on into fall. With major festivals all over the US, people have a variety to pick from and a summer that could easily be fully booked up.
Music festivals capitalize on the idea of summer fun. Concert and music fans consider these festivals as staples to any great summer plans. What state they end up in depends on which festival brings the best lineup. With yearly advertising, planning and dedicating websites working to keep everyone up-to-date on festival and concert news, any person can find their taste of music and concerts blown-up into a festival of massive or even small proportions, depending on their preference.
Arkansas showcases a variety of music festivals, large and small, through the festival season. Honestly, too many to list in a single article, but some of the main ones can be mentioned. Also, major festivals reside in some neighboring states, which may entice a road trip for some.
Edgefest VII stands right around the corner on April 23 in Little Rock at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds. This one-day hard rock festival showcases 12 bands throughout the day. Avenge Sevenfold tops the bill followed by acts such as Stone Sour, Sevendust, Skillet, Theory Of A Deadman, Seether and Three Days Grace. The cost for this head-bangers’ paradise reaches a maximum $40 at the gate with a $5 cost for parking. The festival gets started when the parking lot opens at 8 a.m. The gates open at 12 p.m. and then music gets cranked out by 1 p.m. The Edge radio station started Edgefest seven years ago and still pulls together great bands for anyone interested in the hard rock to metal genres.
Beale Street Music Festival comes up next on the calendar scheduled for April 29 - May 1 at Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tenn. This festival brings roughly 60 bands to this three-day event, including many local bands that display the blues genre that resonates throughout Memphis. The headlining bands include Stone Temple Pilots, The Flaming Lips, John Mellencamp, Ziggy Marley, Betty LaVette and Sublime with Rome. Some of the lower tier bands consists of the many blues artist local to Memphis, MGMT, Godsmack, Ludacris, Saving Abel, Cee Lo Green, Mumford and Sons, Devon Allman’s Honeytribe, Cage the Elephant and Lotus. Beale Street Music Festival contributes only a portion of the weeklong event Memphis in May International Festival. The cost to join the festivities of Beale Street Music Festival runs $77 for the entire weekend and $36 for individual day passes. Attendees become responsible for their own lodging arrangements though. This festival boasts the World Championship BBQ cook-off and many other activities. People can witness many street performers and entertainment in between the concerts they choose to see.
Riverfest, located in Little Rock at the Riverfest Amphitheatre, will take place May 27 - 29. Interested people can purchase tickets at participating Walgreens stores for half price of $15 or at the gate for $30 or $20 for Sunday only. Walgreens in Monticello located at 640 W. Gaines participates in the selling of half-priced tickets. With a paying adult, children under six can enter for free. If a person cannot make it to a Walgreens they can resort to the Internet to purchase their ticket. The festival hours run 6 - 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. Saturday, and 1 - 11 p.m. on Sunday. The Riverfest festival remains very committed to donating to the Little Rock and North Little Rock for improvements for the riverfront parks. This festival includes a 5k run or walk marathon presented by Arkansas BlueCross BlueShield for interested people on Saturday, May 28. The bands that headline this Arkansas staple festival consists of Widespread Panic, Reo Speedwagon, Papa Roach, Blue October, Poison and Charlie Daniels Band. There are many other local bands that play each day and also a stage dedicated to the family environment or for the children.
The Eureka Springs Blues Weekend put on by the Basin Park Hotel occurs June 2-5 in Eureka Springs. Weekend passes and VIP weekend passes are available. The regular passes run $80 for the entire weekend and VIP costs $155 for the whole weekend including fees. These pass provide a ticket to all the shows and other special features for the VIP. Some of the acts taking the stage at this festival include Coco Montoya, Elvin Bishop, Lionel Young, Tinsley Ellis, Rosie Ledet, Little Joe McLerran and the Ariels.
Wakarusa happens the same weekend as the Eureka Springs Blues Weekend, June 2-5. Wakarusa moved from Lawrence, Kan., two years ago to its new home in Ozark. For the third year in Arkansas, Wakarusa hosts a variety of bands from many different genres. Their activities include a silent disco, costume contest, carnival, on-site fishing and hiking trails, morning yoga, disc golf, float trips and kayaking and something known as the Chompdown where festival goers cook breakfast for their fellow festival attendance. They rock more than 100 bands from national acts down to local bands. To enter the festival a person must possess either a full event pass at $169 plus fees, a weekender pass $119 plus fees, or a Saturday pass at $69 plus fees. People with these passes must also purchase a camping pass varying from $29-99 depending on location. People interested in going VIP can purchase those tickets as well at $595 plus fees. Most of the options for Wakarusa have already been purchased from anticipating people. Out of all of these festivals listed so far, Wakarusa remains the only one where the people who attend actually camp on the festival grounds. People are there for a maximum of four to five days if they choose to stay. Bands lighting up the stages at Wakarusa this year, starting with headliners, consist of My Morning Jacket, Theivory Corporation, Ben Harper and Relentless 7, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Bassnectar, Umphrey’s Mcghee, Ghostland Observatory, Buckethead, Shpongle, Lotus, Galatic, Skrillex, Dark Star Orchestra, Big Gigantic, Perpetual Groove and many more.
Festivals take place year around, but when it comes to the festival season an overload of them pop up allowing anyone interested to keep their summer booked. Other festivals that may interest people include Mulberry Mountain Harvest Festival happening in October, Bonnaroo, which is located in Tennessee and happens in June, and The Hangout Festival located in Alabama in May. No matter what genre of music people are interested in, if they do the research I’m sure they can find a festival in Arkansas or close by that meets their standards.
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