Guide to the Philly Festival You Need to Attend
It’s that time of year again. School is back in session. Sweatshirt and hoodie weather teases us as summer lingers. And, the Fall festival season is here. More importantly, it’s time once again for the Philly Music Fest.
Like music? Like food? Like Beer and cocktails? Like supporting local artists and charities? If you answered yes to any of those four questions, then you need to mark your calendar for next week’s Philly Music Fest, which takes place over four days (9/25-9/28) around town and culminating with two jam-packed nights at World Cafe Live.
Here’s the skinny and why this festival is at the top of our Philly Festival Power Ranking. First of all, it’s all Philly-based or Philly-connected musical acts. Second, they only pour local brews and the cocktails will include locally distilled spirits during the festival. Third, all the food at the festival is by local chefs. Lastly, it’s a non-profit that pays all the performers equally and the Festival has donated the remaining proceeds, over $40,000, to local music organizations.
In the past year, the following groups have received donations from Philly Music Fest: Settlement Music School, Rock to the Future, Live Connections, Musicopia, Play on Philly, Jazz House Kids, and Girls Rock Philly.
Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this great festival—THE MUSIC.
The Festival kicks off Wednesday night at Milkboy (Chestnut Street). Thursday night’s events take place at Johnny Brenda’s. Friday and Saturday, the festival moves to World Cafe Live.
It’s a talented lineup and it can be a bit daunting so we’ll highlight our faves for each night.
Wednesday night for us is all about Sixteen Jackies. They’re rock. They’re pop. They’re unlike anything else in town. I often think I’m watching a Quentin Tarantino or David Lynch film when I hear their music.
Thursday night at Johnny Brenda’s features one of our absolute favorites local acts, Sammus. Catch her while you can because she’s gonna blow up. You’ll be wishing you saw her at the friendly confines of Johnny Brenda’s instead of the larger venues that she’s heading for.
The Friday and Saturday shows at World Cafe Live take place on both floors. Friday night kicks off at 6:00 p.m and has Vacationer headlining. As with every night, all the bands are good. That being said, make sure you check out Arnetta Johnson and Restorations on Friday.
Arnetta Johnson might be the coolest person playing the trumpet in town. I don’t care what you say, you haven’t seen enough trumpet this year and Arnetta Johnson is the perfect fix for that. Arnetta has performed on Grammy Award-winning albums and at the Super Bowl with Beyonce.
Restorations do not play around town enough. You have to see then when you can and that’s Friday 9/27. Great rock band with a unique sound. Europe loves them and so should you.
Saturday kicks off a little earlier at 5:30. Man Man headlines this night. You can’t go wrong with seeing any of the acts on the bill, but we’re keen to two of the acts in particular. Foxtrot and the Get Down is a fun guitar-driven band that we featured on the Jawnville podcast a couple of years back.
The band we are most excited about is easily ill Faited Natives. We could try to describe them, but they do it better than we could with “Philadelphia earth music power trio.” Check this out:
There! Now, you have no reason not to get out around town, support your local music scene, and raise money for charities and music organizations to spawn a new generation of artists. You can grab tickets and passes HERE.
[Update: we hear tickets are getting scarce so don’t snooze on this]