Getting there:
I left town with two local friends in two cars. We were to meet up with an entire crew of folks who we all had met on an online forum. It is not uncommon to meet people online in the music world and we make many friends online before we meet them at events. It makes for some very interesting and awesome experiences. Summercamp was a 7 hour drive from my home town in MI. My crew left around midnight and arrived to meet our new friends around 7 am. The part we did not plan for was the rain. It rained every moment of the drive. It was treacherous and I will not do it again. Some friends who we met up with arrived a day early and slept great in a hotel the night before. This is a great idea if you are driving a distance to get to a festival.
The Festival:
As soon as camp was setup I immediately set out to get my bearing and see what the entire festival grounds had to offer. I immediately fell in love with the layout of this festival. The main stage is great and is on a nice hill. Offering great sound and a good view to just about anyone. It is the stage that Moe. performed on each night, a long with most other higher tier line-up acts.
Second main stage is located in heart of the festival grounds. People literally camp on all sides of this stage and it is visible to many campers. This stage featured Umphreys McGee each night.
After locating the 2 other smaller stages in the venue, I then set out to get a feel of where everyone was camping. I walked into the woods to escape the heat only to realize that this was the place to be. The woods offered a beautiful environment to camp in and seemed to be the place for shakedown. It's really part of what sets Summercamp apart from many other music festivals. The close proximity to the stages aligned with the awesome area really make this a great festival venue. It really helped me understand why Summercamp has been around since 2001 and has only grown over the years. This years turnout was said to be the highest ever by far!
The Music:
Summercamp really had the most stellar lineup this year. Seeing all the music was tough but I managed to see almost everything I wanted to. To highlight a few:
The Headliners:
moe. - I personally had never seen moe. before. I was blown away by the quality of their music and how well it was played. They have been around since 1989, and are one of the best Jambands on the scene today. Summercamp is their HOME FESTIVAL and they know how to put on a great event. They played 3 main sets over the weekend. They have some of the most crazy lights and lazers using interesting techniques to create crazy visuals. Rainbow colored smoke anyone?
Umphreys McGee - Umphreys over the past few years has blown up in popularity. I am a newer fan personally, and I really got to take in all that they had to offer at Summercamp. They also played 3 sets at Summercamp not including another set with Huey Lewis! They have some of the most beautifully colorful lights I have ever seen. Almost creating a picture in front of you at times. Their music is great and has some of the hardest rock influences of any popular jamband on the festival circuit. If you go to festivals, you know Umphreys!
The Rest:
Euforquestra was really an awesome first for me at Summercamp 2011. Originally from Iowa, but coming all the way to Summercamp from Colorado, I was really excited going only having heard them online. I wondered what kind of crowd and vibe they would have live. Well I can say now they are an awesome group with great music that people of all ages can get down to. Check out some soup and other videos on our Youtube channel.
The Macpodz from MI are a PunLive favorite. I love their energy at shows and how much love they portray in their music. For a band that does not have a guitar player, they really know how to put on a great show. They now feature their keyboard player axing it out on the Keytar now in some songs to make up for it. They have a new EP out very soon and check out their new 3d video on their website www.macpodz.com
Bassnectar - I had no idea what I was walking into going to Bassnectar at Summercamp 2011. The whole electronic thing is new to me but is growing in popularity very fast. A few years ago Bassnectar was playing on the smallest stages at festivals. Now he features immense crowds with some of the most energy you will ever see at a show. My videos don't even do it justice. Whether you like the electronic stuff or not, you have to check out Bassnectar the next chance you get.
Slightly Stoopid - I have been a fan of these guys since they first spun up randomly on my Pandora radio a few years back. This was my second time seeing them live and it went awesome because I got to meet Kyle from the band before the show. They mix all sorts of music together and overall have grown into a very well known band with a very wide array of musical influences.
Pun's Synopsis:
I had a great time experiencing tons of new music at Summercamp music festival 2011. I met some of the coolest festival goers on the planet, got to experience an entirely new festival grounds, and saw some of the most amazing music you could possibly pack into 4 days. Summercamp is a must from now on :) Here is a few more PunLive videos to give you a better idea how much fun we had!
I left town with two local friends in two cars. We were to meet up with an entire crew of folks who we all had met on an online forum. It is not uncommon to meet people online in the music world and we make many friends online before we meet them at events. It makes for some very interesting and awesome experiences. Summercamp was a 7 hour drive from my home town in MI. My crew left around midnight and arrived to meet our new friends around 7 am. The part we did not plan for was the rain. It rained every moment of the drive. It was treacherous and I will not do it again. Some friends who we met up with arrived a day early and slept great in a hotel the night before. This is a great idea if you are driving a distance to get to a festival.
Once arriving safely in Chillicothe, we met our new "festival family" members and set off to enter the festival grounds with plenty of time to get in early and get set up. What we were not ready for was about a 4-5 hour delay in letting people in due to the rain delaying the set-up of the festival grounds. This gave us some of time to get to know each other better before getting in and setting up camp.
Summercamp is not a "camp by your car" style camping festival. You have to bring everything from your car and haul it a long distance in order to set up camp. Luckily we had about 20 or so "family members" with us and between everyone bringing something important, we really did quite well finding a good spot out of the mud without having to make many trips back to our cars.
The Festival:
As soon as camp was setup I immediately set out to get my bearing and see what the entire festival grounds had to offer. I immediately fell in love with the layout of this festival. The main stage is great and is on a nice hill. Offering great sound and a good view to just about anyone. It is the stage that Moe. performed on each night, a long with most other higher tier line-up acts.
Second main stage is located in heart of the festival grounds. People literally camp on all sides of this stage and it is visible to many campers. This stage featured Umphreys McGee each night.
After locating the 2 other smaller stages in the venue, I then set out to get a feel of where everyone was camping. I walked into the woods to escape the heat only to realize that this was the place to be. The woods offered a beautiful environment to camp in and seemed to be the place for shakedown. It's really part of what sets Summercamp apart from many other music festivals. The close proximity to the stages aligned with the awesome area really make this a great festival venue. It really helped me understand why Summercamp has been around since 2001 and has only grown over the years. This years turnout was said to be the highest ever by far!
With every festival comes your various crazy experiences. For me Summercamp was the first festival where rain really dampened some of the experience. Luckily it wasn't bad enough to miss any music, but really made getting from one end of the festival ground to the other kinda tricky. Even the golf carts were getting stuck. It was really good that everyone was camped so close to the stages. Other festivals where the walk is much further would have made this a disaster. Luckily, I roll with some of the most hard core festies and we didn't let the rain dampen our fun at all. We had a blast!
Summercamp really had the most stellar lineup this year. Seeing all the music was tough but I managed to see almost everything I wanted to. To highlight a few:
The Headliners:
moe. - I personally had never seen moe. before. I was blown away by the quality of their music and how well it was played. They have been around since 1989, and are one of the best Jambands on the scene today. Summercamp is their HOME FESTIVAL and they know how to put on a great event. They played 3 main sets over the weekend. They have some of the most crazy lights and lazers using interesting techniques to create crazy visuals. Rainbow colored smoke anyone?
Umphreys McGee - Umphreys over the past few years has blown up in popularity. I am a newer fan personally, and I really got to take in all that they had to offer at Summercamp. They also played 3 sets at Summercamp not including another set with Huey Lewis! They have some of the most beautifully colorful lights I have ever seen. Almost creating a picture in front of you at times. Their music is great and has some of the hardest rock influences of any popular jamband on the festival circuit. If you go to festivals, you know Umphreys!
The Rest:
Euforquestra was really an awesome first for me at Summercamp 2011. Originally from Iowa, but coming all the way to Summercamp from Colorado, I was really excited going only having heard them online. I wondered what kind of crowd and vibe they would have live. Well I can say now they are an awesome group with great music that people of all ages can get down to. Check out some soup and other videos on our Youtube channel.
The Macpodz from MI are a PunLive favorite. I love their energy at shows and how much love they portray in their music. For a band that does not have a guitar player, they really know how to put on a great show. They now feature their keyboard player axing it out on the Keytar now in some songs to make up for it. They have a new EP out very soon and check out their new 3d video on their website www.macpodz.com
Bassnectar - I had no idea what I was walking into going to Bassnectar at Summercamp 2011. The whole electronic thing is new to me but is growing in popularity very fast. A few years ago Bassnectar was playing on the smallest stages at festivals. Now he features immense crowds with some of the most energy you will ever see at a show. My videos don't even do it justice. Whether you like the electronic stuff or not, you have to check out Bassnectar the next chance you get.
Pun's Synopsis:
I had a great time experiencing tons of new music at Summercamp music festival 2011. I met some of the coolest festival goers on the planet, got to experience an entirely new festival grounds, and saw some of the most amazing music you could possibly pack into 4 days. Summercamp is a must from now on :) Here is a few more PunLive videos to give you a better idea how much fun we had!
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