This past weekend, The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park played host to the second annual Suwannee Hulaween Music Festival. As an attendee of the festival last year, I must say that once again, The String Cheese Incident succeeded in hosting a both musically and artistically eclectic Halloween event that offered something for attendees representing a myriad of different interests. In the heart of the woods just north of Live Oak, FL, Silver Wrapper and Purple Hat Productions came together to produce a magical event that attracted over 8,000 fans and 52 preforming artists and bands.
Everyone knows that one of the hardest parts about attending a music festival often turns out to be picking and choosing what performances you are going to see, since unfortunately none of us have yet figured out how to be in two places at once. Over its two year history Suwannee Hulaween has admirably succeeded in eliminating this well-known struggle by constructing a line up with very few conflicting set times, which was pretty essential to their lineup as many of the artists featured at this year’s Hulaween have dedicated and large fan followings.
Friday night really kicked off when the down-tempo and beautifully ambient beats of Emancipator took over the Amphitheater Stage at 5 o’clock. As the sun began its descent, its light filtering through the Spanish moss laden Oak trees framing the stage, the electronic samples and live violin work of Doug Appling and llya Goldberg were a perfect transition into a night of music from The String Cheese Incident, a DJ set from Simon Posford of Shpongle, Beats Antique and Thievery Corporation.
Staying true to last year’s form, the three days of Suwannee Hulaween featured seven sets of String Cheese. In fact, Cheese seemed to be the general theme of the entire festival, musical and not. Between the abundance of cheesy foods offered by the festival vendors, the cheese head Halloween costumes that so many attendees donned, the cheese themed art, clothing and accessories and the over nine hours that The String Cheese Incident spent on the stage in total, cheese was on everyone’s minds.
It seems obvious but necessary to state that any band who can take the stage for seven different sets, each presenting its own unique musical style and set list, is a band that deserves some serious brownie points. Ranging from the twangy tones of Bluegrass to the melodic melodies of classic rock and roll anthems such as “Stairway to Heaven,” “Break on Through” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” String Cheese kept the large grassy meadow of the main stage filled with dancing ghosts and ghouls all weekend.
Setlist 10/31/14
Set One: Restless Wind > Joyful Sound > Pygmy Pony, Piece Of Mine > Give Me The Love > Valley Of The Jig, Can’t Wait Another Day
Set Two: Sympathy For The Devil, Ghost Busters, Time Will Tell, Live and Let Die, Just Passin Thru, Stairway To Heaven, Don’t Fear The Reaper, Break On Through, Heaven > Live and Let Die (reprise), Thriller
Set Three: Miss Brown’s Teahouse, Hollywood Swingin’, You’ve Got The World, Hotel Window > Rosie > Zombie > Rosie, Way Back Home > Just One Story
Encore: Superstition
[Photos by Josh Timmermans]
Thievery Corporation, Big Gigantic and EOTO all closed out the night on consecutive days on the main stage. Each lent their own twist to the festival. Thievery Corporation added some reggae to the mix, Big Gigantic offered something for those fond of high energy electronic elements, and EOTO, one of the side projects of String Cheese percussionists Jason Hann and Michael Travis, mixed improvised electronic and live instrumentation elements to create the ideal ending for the festival on Sunday night.
The Amphitheater Stage also hosted a great deal of trippy gypsy goodness with Shpongle, Beats Antique, Conspirator, The New Deal, Future Rock and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead making appearances. When Dominic Lalli of Big Gigantic and his sax took the stage to accompany the Conspirator during their set, the women in the crowd breathed a collective sigh of longing.
The music and art of the Spirit Lake stage and surrounding area also more than deserves an honorable mention. Complete with a sound garden reminiscent of the one found at Bonnaroo a few years ago, and a menagerie of multimedia metalwork, paintings, sculptures, light projections and fantastic live performances, the lakeside area was turned into a vivid dream-like space.
My personal favorite to grace the Spirit Lake stage was the early evening set played by Greenhouse Lounge, a three-person band from nearby Jacksonville Florida. Opening up with their booty shaking dance inducing track “Rated-R” Greenhouse Lounge was fun from start to finish. Kung Fu and Van Ghost also played impressive sets lakeside and there were times when it was difficult to know what to pay attention to, the wildly dressed people surrounding you, the music, or the vivid highly interpretable artwork.
The elements of Suwannee Hulaween, its beautiful music, people, surroundings and intentions all came together this weekend to create an environment that it would be almost impossible to not want to return too. Silver Wrapper, Purple Hat and Brotherly Love Productions (in charge of the media presence for this year’s festival) are already looking forward to the 3rd annual Hulaween and so am I. We hope to see you there!
[Above photos by Josh Timmermans]
[Above photos by Chris Monaghan]