Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival - Day One

It's been a good chunk of time since I last went out of town for a multi-day festival. It used to be an annual occurrence but with kids and careers and other things getting in the way, it was long overdue. Luckily there is a three day festival just a couple of hours from Kansas City and it consistently books tons of bands that I love. The festival is Roots N Blues N BBQ and this year was it's 12th in Columbia, Missouri.

Let me just start off by saying our experience at the festival was almost perfect and we had so much fun that we're going to try and make it an annual event. I honestly don't know how I've never considered going to this in the past but somehow it was never on my radar. That won't be a problem again.

First off the grounds of the festival are nearly perfect. Lots of room, good amounts of shade, plenty of bathrooms and super friendly staff & volunteers. The ONLY complaint we had of the entire weekend was having to wait an hour for a shuttle bus before realizing we should just walk the 20 minutes from downtown to Stephen's Lake Park.

Friday was the weakest of the three days lineup in my opinion. At least Friday for me had the least  amount of "must see" acts where as Saturday and Sunday were packed with them and provided some difficult decisions to make on who to see.

We spent most of our time on Friday bouncing between stages, sampling food/drinks and taking in the atmosphere until The Avett Brothers closed the night down on the main stage.

This was my third time seeing The Avett Brothers and they seriously don't disappoint. They're a well oiled machine live and put on a fantastic show. I haven't loved their last two albums as much as their previous output, but they can still put on one of the most fun shows you'll see.

Stay tuned for the Day 2 review!

-Matt