Harmony Festival Review

Last weekend I ventured out of the fog and headed to Santa Rosa for the Harmony Festival. I've always been used to travelling some epic journey to get to a festival. This event however, is only an hour away. That fact alone should make you get out there next year. That, and a killer line-up of electronica and live music.

The festival is divided into 2 main stages with music going from 10AM to 10PM. Acts like, Umphrey's McGee, Ganga Giri, New Monsoon, Blue Turtle Seduction and The Roots played all day long. One cool aspect of the artist management was that some of the bands got really long time slots. A lot of times bands only play for 45 minutes and if you're into that band, you barely get to see them. The line up was kind of all over the place, but it all seemed to work. Would I normally go see Brian Wilson and Eryka Badu, probably not, but it was great to throw them into the mix of acts I liked. That's what's so great about festivals, for the artists and the fans.

At first I was annoyed with the amount of vending as we walked around. I felt like I was in the Montgomery Flea Market, just like a mini-mall. Once I started roaming though, there were actually some really interesting booths. There was a Healing expo too, so if you love chakra's and chanting, you'd have dug this area a lot. That area aside, there were a lot of mainstream products talking about ways they are reducing their impact on the environment which I was into. We were so inspired in fact, we put together a piece, posting soon, about the eco-friendly companies at the festival.

The late night shows were not "late night", they all ended at about 2AM. Saturday nights line-up of Ganga Giri, Stanton Warrioirs, Rabbit in the Moon, and Shpongle was worth it at any time of the day. As a side note, every DJ should have Lucent Dossier performing in the background. Who doesn't like sexy fire dancers? I don't want to know you if you don't. And the Grace Pavillion was like a stadium, so there were thousands of people at the show too. Friday night was my festival highlight, a high energy moe set. They can tear it up when they want to.

Finally, MetroWize TV will be cranking out content from the show for the next few weeks. We talked to many bands, djs, speakers, sponsors and party goers. Prepare to be entertained as we were entertained and next year, head to Harmony Festival to get it first hand. In the meantime, we have collected a handful of images from some of the 1000's of images we found from local photographers on Flickr. Check out the colors, the people, and the good times and see you there next year!

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