Review- Big Guava Music Festival 2015

We decided to attend Big Guava Music Festival this past weekend in Tampa, Florida. The festival is its second year having featured big acts like Violent Femmes, Vampire Weekend, Haim last year. It’s by the same promoters as Coral Skies Music Festival in West Palm Beach, which we also attended last year and was quite fun.

Because all festies have a Ferris Wheel, Guava had a whole Midway!

We couldn’t resist the stellar line-up, the ease of being able to go for one day and well it’s only a 3 hour drive from where we live, so easy peasy. It provided a nice little warm-up to the start of festival season as we’ll be attending Bonnaroo in about a month this June.  We attended on Saturday because we really wanted to see TV on the Radio, as a bonus we also got to see Action Bronson, A Silent Film, Run The Jewels, Death from Above 1979, Cold War Kids, James Blake, Hozier, The Pixie and The Strokes. The festival offered a great mix of music with very little scheduling conflicts on our end, we were able to go from performance to performance without missing who we were there to see.

James Blake

The venue was quite amazing as well offering a huge area for revelers to experience the vendors, food and sounds. The festival wasn’t very packed, that made it easy to use the restrooms and get to the front for performances in most of the stages except for the Big Guava stage since that section was assigned seating in the front. None the less we were able to score pretty good seats for The Strokes getting there about 30 minutes before they performed. The air conditioned indoor “Nectar” stage provided a nice refuge from the heat also offering bathrooms, drinks and food. The beer selection was good I wouldn’t say great, but the special Funky Buddha Guava brew was amazing! Food options were good with basic festival type food, as well as food trucks, we enjoyed a Cuban sandwich, which was on point (I can tell you this with confidence since I’m Cuban).

We started the day off by taking a walk around to check out the vendors and went straight to the Chill Zone, a floating bar.  A very cool place to get away from the sun and providing cool hammock type chairs to chill on, they were all full. It was quiet early, we didn’t go back but I’m guessing it got pretty busy there later in the evening. I wonder is there is a weight capacity at that place, hmmm.

A Silent Film

Action Bronson was first on our list, we walked in the “Nectar” to see him, all the bleachers were full and there was a good sized crowd by the stage. He didn’t dissappoint in his performance, asking people to light up as usual, the smell was in the air for sure. Next we saw “A Silent Film” at the outdoor “Grove” stage. They were awesome playing hits, the lead singer is quite charismatic but it was hot as hell so we couldn’t finish seeing them. We went back to the “Nectar” for Run the Jewels! This was one of the highlights of the day. They played most of their songs from “Run the Jewels 2” including Lie, Cheat, Steal, Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) [not feat. Zack De La Rocha] and Love Again (Akinyele Back) without Gangsta Boo unfortunately no special guests like at Coachella. It’s not a major festival and it’s Tampa so we weren’t expecting it. Maybe they’ll feature special guests at Bonnaroo, although we won’t really be able to see them with our 12 year old in tow.

Run The Jewels

We took a much needed food and sitting break at this time at the Big Guava stage while Cold War Kids played.  Next up was TV on the Radio! We were able to get pretty close to the front to see them play an exceptional set. They played a nice mix of older and newer tunes- Happy Idiot, Trouble, Careful You and people went crazy for Wolf Like Me, of course. The energy was infectious but I think the crowd was a bit lame, maybe it was the heat or they weren’t big fans or it was the little kid spraying everyone with a water rifle. Yes there was a small child with parent doing this! People were not happy about it but I didn’t let it ruin my experience. Lighten it up people, it’s just water! TV’s performance was too short for me but they rocked the whole time.

TV on the Radio

Next was James Blake’s hypnotic sounds. The lighting for the show was subtle yet amazing, his voice soothing and haunting. We didn’t stay for the whole set and as we exited the Pixies were on. We caught a bit of them, the stage was packed right now all the way to back to where people were sitting. We’re not big Pixies fans, go figure since they’re from our generation. So we went to get a good seat for the Strokes by now we were a bit tired from drinking beer all day and the heat. The Strokes came on with bang playing mostly hits and shouting out to the crowd “You’ve go a pretty nice little festival here!”  We left shortly before they were done and very happy to have been able to see so many talented bands, so easily, for such a great price and at such an awesome venue. It was a great little festival for sure and we’ll be back next year providing the line-up is as good. Thanks Tampa, thanks Guava!

The Strokes