Yesterday, the finest jam-band music festival that Memorial Day weekend has to offer commenced—Summer Camp Music Festival. Located in central Illinois, the festival ushers in summertime in a glorious fashion. This year, Summer Camp has brought yet another amazing lineup to the music fans who travel from across the country to attend. Although the Thursday pre-party doesn’t hold music on the festival’s two main stages, yesterday, there was plenty of music to keep everyone happy and make sure the party started off properly.
Twiddle was one of the bands that graced the festival on this opening night. Demonstrating their genre-spanning prowess, they went from reggae to metal to straight rock in their hour set. “Lost in the Cold” featured a piercing piano solo by keyboardist Ryan Dempsey. They played a new song as announced by guitarist Mihali Savoulidis. It rocked and was well received by the crowd. Favorite “Jamflowman” showed up in their set as well. Another band to rock the opening night was Spafford. After a lineup change, this was one of the first times the band played with new drummer Cameron Laforest. The man behind the kit stood his ground and definitely flowed with the other members. That was really good to see. Some of the highlights of their set included an opening “The Postman” that was exploratory and a mid-set “The Remedy” that was really fun.
The last main act of the night featured Nahko and Medicine for the People. Spreading his positive words of social justice issues, Nahko Bear entertained the crowd throughout the entirety of his set. At one point between songs, he noticed someone in the crowd who he thought needed security assistance. However, it was a bunch of fans going crazy because a man had just successfully proposed to his girlfriend. When Nahko realized what was going on, he gave a big laugh, confirmed she said yes, and gave the new couple a nice shout-out. It was a great festival moment. The band continued with their eclectic sounds, with band members extending songs with trumpet solos, violin solos, and the drummer rapping. It was a fun set.
Last night’s pre-party was absolutely a success. Across the night, fans were also treated to performances by Aqueous, Keller Williams’ Kwahtro, Manic Focus, Dumpstaphunk, Tauking McGee, The Marcus King Band, and more. If this line-up only marks the pre-party, then you know that Summer Camp has a lot in store for the next three nights. You can check out photos from Summer Camp’s Thursday pre-party below, courtesy of Phierce Photo.
