Fest 23: Day 3 in Gainesville, FL

What felt like the blink of an eye, here we were at the final day of Fest 23. What started as “I cannot believe we have three full days of all of this” quickly turned into “I cannot believe we only have one day and I’m back to reality soon!”

I once again woke up at the crack of dawn, because my body will not let me sleep in for some reason regardless of going to bed at 2am once again. I sorted through some of my photos from the past few days, then made my way down to the hotel lobby to get a quick cup of coffee. I regretted that lazy coffee, but still did what I could to get some already needed caffeine in me for the long day.

Once Rich was up, we made our way out for some breakfast (and better coffee). We stopped at The Paper Bag, which led to me asking myself how the hell I didn’t know or hear of this place sooner. Lots of great looking sandwiches, but just went with the “Mamma Mia” breakfast wrap and a large coffee. We sat outside and people-watched while planning out or final day of music.

My day kicked off at 1pm with Descartes A Kant at Bo Diddley. The night before when I was on my way back to call it, I ran into Maria again. She was with Memo, the bassist of the band, and they were heading to Bo Diddley. We caught up a bit on how great Fest has been going, then as we parted ways I was encouraged by both to be there for their set. Here I was for it, and it was so much fun! It was so hard to describe, but so vibrant, energetic, and a mix of genres with this retro punk futuristic vibe making this the most unique experience I’ve had here so far. The volunteers/security at the rail were already grooving and hyping the crowd up, and you could see many of the other bands (like Jeff Rosenstock!) out in the crowd excitedly enjoying their set kicking off the day.

After that bright and vibrant set of energy, doom and gloom tried to take over. Minutes before Rebuilder took to the stage and began sound checking it started raining. Pouring way harder than it needed to be for day three. The entire plaza square in front of the stage cleared at first, all but a few random people playing in the rain, and a guy in a giant pickle suit patiently waiting for the band. However when Rebuilder started playing everyone showed up and gathered in! As the music went on, more and more of the crowd came in from under the tree cover and gathered around the stage. “Rain is temporary, Fest is forever” popped up in my notifications from the app, and it felt like that rally cry to push through and keep having an amazing time.

I got a little paranoid of my camera gear getting exposed too much to the rain, so I made my way indoors for a bit to ride out the weather. Stopped by Baby J’s Bar to Maxwell Stern‘s set, then made my way to University Club for Rust Ring and The Hammerbombs after that. 5:20 was my most conflicted schedule of the weekend where I had 3 different bands/artists I enjoyed and wanted to see all playing at once! Jon Snodgrass, The Hammerbombs, and Sam Russo were all fairly close, but it was short sets for all of them and I had to try and make it work!

The Hammerbombs crew are great people, and I’ve gotten to know some of them well over the last few Fests. I think Matt and Ilya are some of the very first people I met attending last year on top of that. Always a great time to talk and hang with, and I loved their most recent album, F for Effort, a lot so had to make it out for this one first! Get your band a drummer like Matt who watches your every move while photographing them the entire time they are honed in playing! After ripping through a fun set, I booked it over to The Bull for Sam Russo!

I made it to Sam’s stage in time to catch a few great songs, and also get that closeup shot he mentioned he’d be keeping an eye out for the previous day. I’ve been enjoying his new album, Hold You Hard, on repeat since it came out in August, and even got to hear some of that from his set. I still somewhat remember it was something like 11 years ago when I first saw him open for Lawrence Arms and The Copyrights, in a random night club with a mechanical bull in the middle back area of the room. Been so much fun to follow his music and work after all these years and how much it has grown. We caught up a bit more after, while he was greeting other fans by the merch booth, and then I made my way off to see AJJ next.

As night began, and more rain started to come in, it was hitting me that Fest 23 was already almost over. It’s one of those things where I thought I’d have more time to check other bands, food, and places but it was also Sunday night with many things closed down early, and a lot of the areas outside of the venue began to clear out and go quiet. Luckily there were still some fun bands, and of course some wrestling, to still check out!

I made my way through the rainy streets to Boca’s backyard. Lightweight was about to go on, and I was excited to see them again after how much fun they were last year. They were actually the first band Kendra and I saw last year, so it was great to almost close the entire festival out with them this time. The rain had the front of the stage cleared, but again as soon as the music started ripping, the people made their way out and danced in the rain. After their set I made my was back to Bo Diddley one last time to catch a little bit more of Jeff Rosenstock‘s second night, because I will always make time to see Jeff play.

My final two sets of the nights were going to be great, and it was feeling like a mini music reunion from earlier this summer. I was pumped, and heading to an unfamiliar newer (I think?) venue not too far from the hotel called Depot Village, where Chad Price Peace Coalition and Greg Norton + Buddies were officially closing out Fest 23 for me. It was a little Buddies Fest reunion and this cool little hotel/bar/venue place. I stopped to take a photo of some neon signs outside the entrance when I heard behind me “Hey man, I like your Buddies shirt!” I turned around to realize it was Greg Norton himself! I had on my Buddies shirt I got from back in July when covering their first official festival for Bad Copy. We caught up briefly and talked about what a great time that was and how we cannot wait to do it all over again next year, then he made his way to catch some of Mikey Erg’s set, and I made my way in to see more Buddies and Chad Price play. While enjoying a mix of his newer and older music, and hearing Death of the Life of the Party I ran into David Jarnstrom (Rad Owl and drumming for Norton and Snodgrass + Buddies) and got to catch up with him a bit again.

After Chad Price’s set ended David, Greg and Jon started setting up for their Norton + Buddies show. Rich made his way out from catching Sunliner and we grabbed a spot near the front of the stage. There were a lot of fun guest appearances planned to come up and sing HÜSKER DÜ songs throughout the set. Quite a few familiar faces of this years lineup popped in to sing and jam along. It really did feel like a great way to end the night with a bunch of Buddies, especially considering that was one of my first festivals to kick off earlier this year. I had no more festivals planned until next summer, and maybe a limited handful of shows planned for the winter while I go back into hibernation mode and recharge my battery after a another busy year.

Rich and I eventually made our way to Fest Wrestling to officially close out this year. While there we also ran into Jodyy, and it really feels like it needs to be a tradition to close out every Fest with wrestling from now on, as this was exactly what Rich, Jodyy, Ricky and I did last year at the end!

If you read this far, I just want to say thank you. I am not a writer, and dread when I have to write about things in general, but will always give it a shot for fun times with friends and amazing experiences like this. A really huge shoutout to Tony, the Fest crew, all the volunteers, amazing bands, and so many different groups and things that make this festival happen.

In a world that feels way too overwhelmingly chaotic and scary lately, having a space like this is a true gift. Getting to spend so many moments over the weekend with such a great and welcoming community really means something, and helps remind us what we have out there when some of us may be stuck in the doom and gloom too much. It’s almost like a “Punk Rock Summer/Sleep-away Camp” type of feeling that I now get excited and look forward to every year. It was only my second year of finally attending, but cheers to many more to come of this amazing festival of bands and people.