UTOPiAfest Proves To Be A True Destination Festival In 2015 (FESTIVAL REVIEW/PHOTOS)

If music festivals were gauged strictly on the quality of the community they create and the attention to creating an ideal experience for all, UTOPiAfest would be the most successful by a longshot. Plenty of festivals claim to focus on giving attendees a truly special experience when in fact they are using the event as a means of taking the most amount of money from every attendee while sticking as many products in front of them as possible. Atop a breezy clearing on a ranch deep in the Texas Hill Country, UTOPiAfest is a world away from the corporate, narcissistic music festival machines taking place everywhere now.

In its seventh year this intimate festival once again lived up to its name. For Labor Day weekend a crowd of roughly 2,000 people of all types made their way to the Four Sisters Ranch in the tiny town of Utopia, Texas. With no fences or noticeable security, festival-goers were able to roam freely between the campsites and stage area, imbibing as they pleased and enjoying a sense of freedom that is a mere illusion at big corporate fests. After all, the fest is completely BYOB and the musical sets do not overlap; the absence of overpriced beer and overlapping sets makes it a worry-free environment. This was also the first UTOPiAfest since 2011 that wasn’t inundated with torrential rain. Sure, it was hot, but that was of little bother to those who had spent previous years trudging through mud.

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And then there was the music. The organizers of the festival made a point to book a genre-spanning variety of acts both local and national with equal emphasis put on well-known and up-and-coming acts. UTOPiAfest has always been a festival to take chances and discover new bands, which the open-minded crowd was happy to do. Saturday was led by bigger acts like the dance-y Of Montreal, the bucolic bluegrass ramblings of Leftover Salmon (who invited the massively talented Austin fiddler Ruby Jane to sit in), and the atmospheric instrumental soundscapes of Explosions In The Sky, the latter of which was complimented by literal explosions with a well-timed fireworks display directly above the stage. The momentum for those sets was helped earlier in the day by Austin band Hard Proof and their Afro-beat groove party and the freshly modern soul of Houston group The Suffers, among others.

On Sunday, hungover revelers were treated to the boisterous funk of Bay Area group Monophonics, who led the sweaty gyrations of the masses with a funkified cover of the Talking Heads classic “Psycho Killer”. Austin’s Calliope Musicals gained at least a few new fans with their brand of psychedelic throwback rock meets folk tunes. Clearly following in the footsteps of the Flaming Lips, the group won over the crowd their confetti cannons, dancing robots and animals, signs passed out to all, and a vibrantly colored display of daytime fireworks. Valerie June was the ideal act for a late afternoon chill-out with her enchanting voice and downhome songs of Southern life. When darkness fell RJD2 took the stage for an impressive display of vinyl maneuvering that is a rare sight in the laptop-centric world of DJ music these days. But it was the eagle of soul himself, Mr. Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires, who received the biggest applause of the weekend. For UTOPiAfest vets, the appearance of Bradley was significant because it was a grand return after he played to an adoring yet mud-covered crowd during a rainstorm in 2012, making for one of the most notable moments in this festival’s history. This time around Bradley and his band wowed even more as the singer bared his heart to all and sang each song like he was delivering a message from the heavens, not to mention giving first-timers a taste of real soul music is all about. Emotions only ran higher when Bradley’s set was also climaxed with another display of fireworks.

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Even as UTOPiAfest has grown (although at a comfortable pace) in its seven years, it still feels like a magical secret that only those who attend are in on. It is the rare festival that has managed to create a dedicated bond with its audience. Each person you talk to seems to feel a personal ownership over their Utopia, but not in a selfish way. Stages are not covered in corporate schlock and spotty cell phone service encourages people to put down their phones to live in the moment. UTOPiAfest may still be mostly a regional festival, but as the secret continues to grow it seems only natural that it will one day be a destination event for lovers of authentically good times all over.

Photos by Arthur VanRooy and Mike Holp. 

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