The 2018 version of Candler Park Music and Food Festival got off to a rainy start on Friday where two of the four bands slated to play had to be cancelled because of the weather. On the festival’s second and final day though, attendees were greeted with a sunny, hot summer day and a 6 band lineup starting in the burning sun at 12:45 pm.
The Candler Park Fest basically started as a free neighborhood festival 10 years ago, a perfect setting in the neighborhood park in Atlanta’s Little Five Points. Every year the festival has grown, as they have continued to add bigger name acts to their lineups, while still involving local talent and keeping the neighborhood festival vibe. For the 2018 festival, a general admission weekend pass was $40 (and much cheaper if you bought the ticket before the week of the festival); still a cheap price for a solid small music and food festival. VIP tickets were $80, still cheaper than general admission tickets to most festivals. What did the VIP get you? Bathrooms, Fontis bottled water, private bars and drink prices, and a Terrapin Happy Hour. Most importantly the VIP viewing area actually took over half of the available viewing area directly in front of the stage back to the sound stage. So the fans who paid general admission prices had less space to work up to the front, but it was free reign back behind the sound stage, which still wasn’t a bad spot. It’s an interesting approach that seems to work well for this festival to keep ticket prices low.
The other parts of the festival included the artist’s market as you walked into the fest with plenty of goodies to keep your attention. Then of course there was the food. There were plenty of food trucks set up with all kinds of good food, from Sweet Auburn BBQ to King of Pops. But I knew walking into the festival that lunch for me would be with the Bento Bus, which immediately hit the spot!
Saturday’s music kicked off at 12:45pm with Candler Park’s own Webster performing their yearly (10th consecutive) set at the Candler Park Music and Food Festival. The second band to perform was Montreal’s Busty and The Bass, a nine piece ensemble who got the crowd going early with their eclectic mix of everything from hip hop to jazz to synth pop including a nasty horn solo towards the end of their set that blew away the crowd. Busty and The Bass proved to be a fun, soulful funk band that brings the party.
The next artist up was Vermont-based rock band Twiddle. The band had fans grooving along in sync with the band’s funk-reggae-meets jam band, rock and roll. The fans that made it out earlier sang along with the band lost in their melodies, a great early afternoon set to enjoy the sunny day.
At 5:15pm came our favorites, SUSTO, out of Charleston, SC. Fresh off the success of their 2017 sophomore album, & I’m Fine Today, the band has already built a solid following locally here in Atlanta making this a highly anticipated set. With the crowd packing in nicely up front and a hazy ray of sun falling over the stage onto the band members, the ACID BOYS were in full effect. SUSTO started out their set with “Gay In The South”, a passionate, slow building rager that perfectly announced what this band is all about for those that didn’t already know them. Other highlights included a slightly folkier version of “Hard Drugs” and the sing along to “Cosmic Cowboy”.
The real treat from SUSTO’s set was when the band played two new, unreleased songs. The second new song showed SUSTO veering slightly into The War On Drugs type territory with some 80’s heartland rock influences. While SUSTO’s signature sound is built around Justin Osborne’s vocals and unique songwriting, their sophomore album showed that you can’t pin this band into one specific genre. They are still evolving as a band and testing new boundaries while still being true to their roots. I’m certainly excited to see where SUSTO goes with the next release whenever that will be and if those two songs were a preview of what’s too come, fans have plenty to be excited about.
The last band to take the stage before the headliner was New Albany, Indiana’s Houndmouth. With the success of their first two albums, and even previously playing the 2017 Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, this was one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend. Houndmouth play their own version of Americana/Folk meets indie guitar and synth rock that has already left an impact on fans around the nation. Houndmouth have currently released two new singles from their upcoming third album, Golden Age, which is set to be released August 3rd. The upbeat “This Party”, a party song about not wanting to be at a party, got the crowd dancing along.
With Houndmouth, even though they are still a young band, songs like “Sedona” were instant classics that everyone wants to hear live. When the band finally unveiled that song during their set at Candler Park, it became a big singalong throughout the crowd with the attendees finally fully invested in the music on stage. “My Cousin Greg” was another highlight from Houndmouth’s set that day, another one that had us all singing along.
As the sun finally set, Gov’t Mule hit the stage in time for Candler Park Fest to show off a killer lights show over Warren Haynes and the boys’ rock ‘n’ roll jams. Highlights included Haynes taking on The Allman Brothers’ “Soulshine” into “Tupelo Honey” and back to “Soulshine”. The band ended their main set with some guitar lessons via Haynes on the solos. Naturally, Atlanta wasn’t ready for Gov’t Mule to be done, so some folks started the ole Tomahawk Chop chant of the Atlanta Braves, hoping this would be motivation enough for the band to come back onstage. Luckily, it worked!
Haynes came back on stage and talked openly about his affinity for Georgia as a whole before announcing that in the spirit of Gov’t Mule and Georgia, they were going to bring Georgia friends Benji Shanks and Tommy Talton on stage to sit in. After a huge applause, Haynes went on to say “this is the experimental portion” before breaking into The Allman Brothers’ “Melissa”, which had the whole festival slow dancing in the moment. Gov’t Mule and their guests then closed down the festival with a jammed out version of “Mountain Jam” that left a feather in the cap of the 2018 Candler Park Music and Food Festival.
Check out the photo gallery below from the second day of the 2018 Candler Park Music and Food Festival, all photos by Mike Gerry:
