Music Midtown returned to Peidmont Park  two weeks ago and what a memorable weekend it was. Don’t get me wrong, the acts that they had booked were amazing, well most were, but I’m not here to just talk about the acts. I’m here to tell you about the festival and I’ve got a lot to say, so let’s get started shall we?

Will Call

You’re going to Music Midtown and you make the decision to pick up your wristband at will call.  How could this go wrong, it almost seems like the best choice since you’re not responsible for your wristband until you get there. So you show up, expecting to get your wristband, that’s already activated, and then just walk into the festival.

Unfortunately this isn’t what happened for some of the attendees. Speaking to one attendee, she told me that she showed up to the will call tent and ended up waiting an hour and half for her wristband. I don’t know if this was everyone’s experience with the will call line, hopefully it wasn’t, but it’s definitely something Music Midtown needs to work on.

Staff

Right off the back, I would like to say that every staff member I came into contact with were nothing but courteous and polite, but they also seemed quite a bit frazzled. Almost every vendor at the festival seemed to be understaffed and many lines were held up due to the fact that staff working the “register”, so to speak, also had to restock everything. This may be a common thing with other festivals, but when I attended Shaky Knees last year, most of the vendors were able to keep business flowing.

Now, as I’ve said before, every staff member I came in contact with was polite and courteous, this wasn’t the case for all patrons, unfortunately. After the festival was over, I took to different social media sites to see what people had to say about the festival and I was alarmed by how people said they were assaulted by the security at the festival. What was even more alarming were the videos that were posted to accompany these claims. There were many videos circulating Twitter of patrons being assaulted by security, and from what I could see, the patrons weren’t doing anything to merit such harsh repercussions. Hopefully Music Midtown will be more cautious of who they choose for security next year.

I think the one thing certain staff members did that ruffled a couple of feather was telling certain attendees that the festival was cancelled once the rain began. If you didn’t hear, the festival was delayed and evacuated due to the rain, much to the surprise of some guests. While many attendees were leaving, they asked if the festival was going to continue. To this, some staff members answered with “the festival is cancelled, the bands have left.”

See the problem? Whether it was a problem of miscommunication or something else, some people were under the pretense that the festival was cancelled and that’s simply not good.

Performances 

Despite the hindrances that occurred during the weekend, that didn’t stop the performances from being phenomenal. Each one I was able to see did a phenomenal job of conveying great energy throughout the crowd and sounded great live. My personal highlights of the weekend were Band of Horses, Zella Day, Melanie Martinez and City and Colour. I unfortunately wasn’t able to see any of the headliners both days, but I heard nothing but great things, especially for twenty one pilots and The Killers.

Well, that’s what I have for you all this week. While Music Midtown was an interesting experience, and a festival I’ve wanted to attend for quite some time, I think this might have been a one time deal for me. I personally enjoyed Shaky Knees more and will continue to make that the music festival I attend every year.

I will say that this is a festival everyone should experience so they can have their own prerogative when it comes to it. What might not be the festival for me, might be the festival for you.

I’ll see you all next week.

Song Recommendation: Sun by Cub Sport