Aubfest VIII was filled with music, laughs, and heart throughout. The festival took place over March 20th and 21st at Boggin’ on the Plains. Aubfest is a twice-yearly music festival featuring local and regional artists.
The lead up to Aubfest VIII full of excitement and energy from the Aubfest team, which hosted several events in the semester prior to the festival. There was a battle of the bands and a poster contest leading up to the event itself.
Battle of the bands featured six bands competing to perform at Aubfest. The top 3 voted bands were featured at the festival. The poster contest was hosted over the week prior to Aubfest and encouraged community participation. The top three designs of the contest were sold at the Aubfest merch table.
The dates for this semester’s Aubfest were announced on February 6, only six weeks before the festival itself. While this was enough time for attendees to prepare in advance, that’s very limited time to build awareness or interest in the public. For those of us who follow Aubfest’s Instagram page and other social media, there was notice and enthusiasm, but there were few attempts to build awareness of the event.
The first day of the festival ran very smoothly. People were rapidly being funneled through the check-in and being given guidance on where to go for day-parking and camping. There was special care to tell attendees to be cautious driving due to dogs and people milling around.
Both stages looked absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed the size and slightly different location of The Grove stage, allowing for more guests to view the performances that took place there. Everything was located centrally in regard to the stages, with food trucks, bathrooms, and vendors between them. The stages were placed in such a way to not interfere with the other’s audio, allowing listeners to focus on the specific show they were viewing instead of having to filter out simultaneous sounds.
It was especially enjoyable seeing familiar faces like Sandpipers and Mayweather again. Sandpiper’s indie rock energy paired with awesome crowd work made for a set that had everyone moving. Mayweather x Greenish Pools made for a lovely duo. Their set was full of interesting and unique sound, plus they perfectly mirrored the crowd’s energy with their performance. There were also fresh faces like The Band Honey with their Pentatonic Rock. They had a great mixture of fun and fresh original songs and some fantastic covers of well-known music. They truly kept everyone on their feet and excited to be there.
Unfortunately, there are some concerns regarding accesibility. There was excessive distance between the main camping areas and the only restrooms provided at the festival. In addition, the terrain makes the festival inherently inaccessible to those with physical difficulties, especially those who require movement aids. The large ditches in the ground make it difficult to traverse, aggravated by the little to no lighting going towards the campground. More lighting and smoother alternate routes up at least the major hills could greatly improve the experience for everyone, but especially those who may not be able to enjoy the festivities otherwise. These concerns only grow as the festival itself does, and make for an event that is not viable at a larger scale.
Saturday was filled with so many interesting performances. I was glad to see well-known local names like Carmine Sun, with their alt rock sound and emotion filled vocals. You could tell just how much the crowd values this band and truly appreciate what they bring to the area.
There was so much happening all day with more than just music on stage. You could see a local drag performance on the main stage, a reptile show put on by Kreher Nature Preserve, and even several comedy acts. I was very thankful for the amount of food I could find when I got hungry.
I saw several bands for the first time with standout names like Thwack that had some amazing shows. Thwack’s crowd work was some of the best I saw at the entire event (nothing beats watching someone run from a clown with a comically large hammer), and it was backed up with a fantastic funk sound that felt really unique within the festival. I always love seeing saxophones on stage, and they had two of them!
I was reminded of what I loved so much about Aubfest last semester, the people. There was crowd interaction at every show I saw. People everywhere laughing, talking, and generally enjoying each other's company. Anytime there was anything wrong, be it someone falling in a mosh pit or getting injured at camp, there was immediate response to help. The community surrounding Aubfest is truly special and something to be nurtured. I’ve truly come to value this festival and cannot wait to see where it goes in the future.
