The Black Keys

Due to high-demand, Hangout Music Festival will offer a payment plan for fans looking for a flexible budgeting option. 3-day passes to the Hangout  (May 20-22, 2011) can now be made in 3 easy payments, starting at 10 am EST Friday, February 18th.

Having arrived in Austin on Thursday night with a belly full of kolaches from The Little Czech Stop in West, TX and a car full of gear, I was as well prepared as one might be to tackle the music and sun in the days ahead.  As I approached the festival gates on Friday never having been to Austin City Limits before, I felt a sense

Bonnaroo has always been a festival that invited the greatest lineups and the most fun attractions for their fans to enjoy year after year. I have attended 7 out of the 9 annual events, and although I was not too impressed by this year’s lineup initially, the festival and its organizers did not disappoint.

Florida is a place unto itself, by my estimation. Like the other ‘big states’ of Texas and California, it takes on its own unique identity and presence. These states are so large, they are their own ‘region;’ and again by my estimation, include elements of all that is around them. Florida is neither just southern, nor merely coastal. Florida has elements of east coast culture, due in no small measure to the strong concentration of New York retirees, the so-called ‘snow birds.’ Florida also has significant aspects of Cuban and Mexican culture elements, as well.

Borrowing a thought from another Grateful Web writer, I’d say that you can tell a lot about a festival by how it handles its second year.  No festival is ever perfect, and the first year is definitely the experimental year.  In the second year, you get to see how the festival responds to the demands placed upon it by its patrons.  Do things get better or worse, smoother or more of a hassle?  Last weekend, July 18th and 19th, I boogied on down to the second annual Mile High Music Festival just outside Denver, Colorado.  Having rocked

It’s coming up on that time of year again, my favorite season, the summer outdoor concert season!  And that, among other things, means its festival time.  The floundering economy may have it’s dirty little fingers stuck in pretty much everyone’s pie, forcing more than a few festivals to close up shop this year (Langerado’s off, and Jackson Hole seems like a long shot), but rest assured Denver, the second annual Mile High Music Festival will be going strong right in our own backyards! 

In the beginning of June of every year, most musicians and music lovers know that the greatest festival of all time takes place in that small town in Tennessee called Manchester that has become famous for this unique and prodigious extravaganza. This was my fifth time out of its six year existence that I have made the pilgrimage to this Mecca for music. It is never without struggle, conflict, or a challenge that one achieves complete bliss or fulfillment.