Fest 24: Day 1 in Gainesville, FL

Kick-Off!

October is a personal favorite time of year for me. Hoodie weather is kicking in, the leaves are changing to pretty bright colors, my house that is full of spooky things is a bit more normal to its surroundings, and of course we also have another Fest to look forward to! Fest 24 is here, and I’m excited to be making it out to Gainesville and doing my best to cover it all once again.

I’m making the trek out solo again. While I’ll miss the help and guidance (and fun times of course) with Kendra through it all, I think I’ve really started to get my bearings of everything going into my third year here. I even started planning out a bit earlier than my early planning time, in the excitement of it all.

I managed to find a nice little AirBnB not too far from the main area, and just blocks away from Bo Diddley Plaza. I was planning on reuniting with my buddy Rich, and actually attending the kick-off party this year! It all came together and happened because both of us got in too late last year and were sad to be missing it after hearing Direct Hit! and Motion City playing off in the distance. We both managed to fly in early, reconnect, and catch up a bit before heading out to the music.

It was a lot of fun to not only catch some great music with Fest people and friends, but also pretty nice to not have to worry about my camera and snapping photos for a little while. I joked a bit about it, but I literally didn’t know what to do with my hands while talking and listening without my camera. It had been a minute where I actually enjoyed an entire night of music without carrying some gear around. Overall it was a really great seeing some less familiar bands to myself, like Camping in Alaska and Planet Smashers, while also getting to see the chaotic pits and jams of A Wilhelm Scream, leading into The Linda Lindas once again killing it and playing some new favorites from their recent album (GOTTA GET OUT) that came out a few months ago. Good times were had, but I was also up since 4am because of travel, and ready to get into a bed to prep for what was to come.

Day 1

It was officially time to Fest it up! I had trouble not sleeping in, as I usually do with travel and times like this. I eventually got ready and met up with Rich to grab some coffee and breakfast. We began to plan out the day between registration, when our other buddy Ricky arrived, and what bands we were going to try and fit in to see into a busy day of lineups. To pass some time, we explored around the streets of the city a bit. It was still pretty eerily calm and quiet, but I also knew how much of that was about to change in a few hours when the venues would kick off and music started. Eventually Ricky made it in, and we headed out to registration.

There were a new/different location this year for getting credentials, at First Magnitude Brewing Company. We began the walk there from Rich and Ricky’s hotel. We passed the old familiar location of Boxcar on the way, and did a bit of sightseeing around the park. On our way through, we went by what I believe was called “Big Gator Pond” where coincidentally I also saw probably the biggest gator I have ever seen in public, just chilling out in the sun. I’m not used to seeing those outside of zoos, so it had me excited to finally catch one already while down in Florida.

We finally made it to First Magnitude, and the setup for everything was really nice and super organized. I didn’t see as many familiar faces as last year while I waited in the media line, but I did see a whole lot of excited people reuniting in excitement. So many hugs, high fives, and just overall joyful shouts as people reunited for possibly the first time since Fest 23. It did not take long for me to get through to my credentials, and immediately after that came my first offer of a shot of Malört. I ignored everything I was taught growing up about accepting things I wasn’t sure of, and eagerly signaled them to give me the Malört shot from a squirt gun through a chain-linked fence they were on the other side of. Kept it really classy, and also did not think it through that my mouth was about to taste like melted plastic the rest of the time there.

Once we were all credentialed and wrist-banded up, we made our way back to the main streets of Gainesville to relax and prep up for the rest of the weekend. I tend to overdo it with trying to catch too many bands all at once at most festivals, and I wanted to be better about that this time. Both to enjoy some more time with friends, more of the sets from bands, and also not kill my feet like I always tend to do. We made our way to Loosey’s and grabbed some food and drinks, and I already made things interesting by accidentally ordering a Long Island (not a Long Drink I thought I was pointing at). From there we kicked off the marathon of bands for the rest of the evening!

First off for this year was catching a unfamiliar group, The Cherry Bombs, at Loosey’s. We had met them briefly while grabbing food earlier, as well as hung out with the parents Dina and Tony, and other friends/family there along with the band. Rich was friends with them all and was highly recommending being at this set, and I can see why. They kicked our Day 1 off right with tons of energy and excitement. Loosey’s was absolutely packed! What was even more exciting was hearing they were the youngest band to ever play the festival, which was a cool part of Fest history to be capturing. To add even more energy to the mix, Jen Pop was there and joined them on stage to perform “CA in July”!

After that I made my way to Bo Diddly for a handful of back-to-back favorites about to kick everything off on the main stage. Catbite was up next to an already packed crowd, ready for another amazing ska experience in the plaza. They were so great a few months ago touring with RX Bandits, and I couldn’t wait to see them again out here for another full set. Rich, Ricky, and I grabbed a drink after they played through another amazing show, and I snagged my first Nah Dog of the weekend while we waited for Home Front to come on next. I cannot express enough how I am still thinking about that Home Front set to this day.

Graeme McKinnon and the band came out swinging. It was anthemic and full of high kicking, with the crowd climbing atop each-other and along the rail to sing long with them. It absolutely ripped, and I loved the fast and aggressive guitars and ’80s synth. Carrying that high energy into the next set was one of my all-time personal favorites, The Flatliners. I sadly didn’t get to stay too long for this set, but the few songs I got to hear from those dudes really made it count with a mix of favorites off the bat like “Eulogy” and “Monumental,” as well as a one of their new ragers “Good, You?” I then had to make my first trek over to Heartwood to catch a few new and old favorites before the end of the night quickly crept up.

I feel like one of my least favorite parts of Fest I’ve grown to worry about more each year is the journey that is getting over to Heartwood. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not terrible, but when you’re covering the festival with lots of running around and heavy gear on your back, it adds up quickly. The first evening is always the easiest, but I feel like each day we progress into the weekend it gets harder to motivate my feet to make that walk multiple times in a day. Especially when there are so many great sets there every year!

Anyways, I made it out to finally see New Junk City. I have been wanting to catch them since Fest 22, but every time I had the chance it was met with what seemed like so many conflicts. This was the year to finally catch them, and it was so great. I also ran into a handful of Michigan friends who I caught up with them a bit during the set. Despite the conflicts of night one, Heartwood was packed and people were singing along. My next set planned was Playboy Manbaby, who was conveniently also playing at Heartwood. As friends headed off to their next sets and the crowd cleared, I found a nice spot front and center for another new and unfamiliar group I was recommended.

I’ve listened to a bit of Playboy Manbaby leading up to this, especially recommendations my friend Evil Dennis (who has been relentlessly sharing with me telling me I had to see them live). Even with listening to a few of their main songs, and watching a few videos, I was still not prepared for what I was about to be in the middle of; it did not disappoint at all. As they came out onto the stage, we had now entered into a motivational team building seminar, full of high-energy team-building. They took all the things I’ve grown to hate and criticize with working past corporate jobs, and gave it such a fun and satirical spin to it all. One of my first photos of their set had blurry light streaks across the screen from them jumping around, and I couldn’t think of any better way to introduce what it was like to see them for the first time. At one point before they played their song “Criminal,: we had the crowd split in half and be ready for the special word to commence some moshing, so that we could all come together and form better synergy to contribute to the shareholders value. That special word was “criminal” so it did not take long, and the final Q4 review exceeded expectations.

By this point I was starting to feel some of the exhaustion and soreness already. I still had a handful of bands planned, closing out the night at Vivid Music Hall, but before that I made a quick stop through back to Loosey’s to catch my buddy Micki and Time Thieves! It is always great to catch up after snapping Riot Fest together a month prior, and awesome to get to watch them play some jams again at Fest this year! About halfway through their set I made my way to Vivid to kick the final stretch off with Toys That Kill. Unfortunately I just couldn’t keep myself going, and decided to call it a night to catch up on the lack of sleep I had been having so far on the trip. I snagged a late-night cuban from Pop-A-Top while they were still thankfully open, and made my way back to the AirBnB. I uploaded my photos of the day to sort through a bit, scarfed down my food, then called it a night on Day 1.

Check out the Day 1 photos below!