On Saturday, music fans from across the East Coast gathered at Merriweather Post Pavilion for the annual Sweetlife Festival. Only in its second year of existence, Sweetlife brings up-and-coming (or currently popular) bands and hip-hop artists to MD for a day of music. Unlike other musical festivals Sweetlife is known for its green and sustainable platform. The festival features eco-conscious, sustainable and local vendors as well as a variety of educational efforts.The day is long and in recent years hasn't had the best weather, but concert goers still leave satisfied with good food and even better music.
Sweetlife has two stages. The Treehouse Stage, located amidst the Food Forest, featured smaller names like U.S. Royalty and Zola Jesus. With its prime location, though, there was always a crowd surrounding this small stage. Even DJ sets like Ben Browning of Cut Copy fame and Bluebrain garnered similar levels of enthusiasm. Twin Shadow and Delta Spirit performed well-received sets on the smaller stage as well. However, most people were there for the main acts, and as the day progressed the lawn became more crowded and more littered (which I guess is inevitable at a festival, but still disappointing at a sustainable one).
The day began with fun., a band which has enjoyed recent success. The crowd was sparse at 12:30 (it was admittedly early for the Friday night drinking crowd), but there was clearly a contingency of fun. devotees. The other part of the crowd seemed to be highschoolers who had heard the cover of "We Are Young " on Glee. Nonetheless, fun. was enthusiastic and proved that they may have a career ahead of them yet.
I was also repeatedly impressed by the instrument switch-up many of their members could do - props for being able to play four instruments in one set. A$AP Rocky was probably the most disappointing of the day, causing me to wonder why he wasn't over on the Treehouse Stage. The mosh pit was still enthusiastic, but then again they were ready to party at noon when the gates opened to the pit. His set was punctuated by disconcerting gunshot sounds and I found myself wandering to the Treehouse Stage instead of catching the entirety of his set.
Fitz and the Tantrums revived the crowd with a fashionable and soul-infused performance. In a festival that is largely devoted to music of "this generation" (the crowd was very, very young), this group gave an appreciative nod to the 60s. If I were giving out awards for the day, Fitz and the Tantrums would most certainly win the "Haven't Heard of Them Before but Now Want their Album" award. Seriously, look them up.
Explosions in the Sky, a previous Sweetlife performer, kept the day on its upward trajectory. The rock band gave an enthusiastic set that revved up the crowds for the three biggest headliners. At this point, the rain had started but spots weren't opening up on the lawn. The crowd was sticking it out. The Shins hit the stage next, probably the band I was most familiar with due to days of listening to "Young Pilgrim" on repeat in high school.
They played their biggest hits, "Caring is Creepy" and "New Slang" (you know them from Garden State), and a mix of new tracks from Port of Morrow. The younger part of the crowd was a little less enthusiastic but, hey, that's what you get when there's a five-year hiatus between album releases. Their set reminded me of the two sides of the musical festival coin. One side is where you get to go to one place and hear a ton of bands in a short amount of time. And then, there's the part where you see one of your Favorite Bands of All Time but they don't perform your favorite nostalgic jam because, well, it's a music festival.But I like to overlook that aspect of festival going, because then there are the bands who come on and convert non-fans and "I like the hits" fans into the people who will go to their next concerts. And inspiring this love of music is what it's all about.
Kid Cudi did just that. I would even go so far as to say his performance was the highlight of the day. Cudi took the stage and blew through his albums, performing hits like "Man on the Moon," "Soundtrack to my Life" and (obviously) "Pursuit of Happiness." His energy was clear in the three back-to-back songs he played ("No p***ys here!" he yelled). Kid Cudi might have been on repeat a few years ago when Man on the Moon II dropped, but for all Sweetlife goers, his records will be getting some more spin time (or whatever you kids call it these days).The sun had set, the glowsticks were lit, and Cudi had gotten the crowd on its feet.
Around 9:30, Avicii, a 22-year old DJ, took the stage. He played for almost two hours, mixing popular songs with heavy beats. Among the best was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Otherside." When he played "Levels" (the crowd had been anticipating it all night), he mixed it with Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." And it was awesome. The set was long and it started raining again by the middle of it. When Avicii left the stage, the crowd stayed on its feet, anticipating (and hoping) that there might be an encore. There wasn't. But there had been nearly 12 hours of music on that stage.
Sweetlife is new but it already has an identity. Founded to promote sustainability in the DC-Metro area, the festival has already snagged big enough names to sell out the Merriweather Post Pavilion. The day shifted between hip-hop and indie rock before launching into a sort of rave in the rain. But the glowsticks still shone and Avicii still played and it didn't matter at all.
