Flood City Music Festival

Great line up, great weather and great venue. Don't spread the word too much. This festival is just the right size.

So much fun!! Able to get up close and personal to the artists. Samantha Fish and Tab Benoits jam session was amazing!!!

I was there for a few days a few years, discovered some great, new-to-me bands, and had a great time. This year, I made the mistake of camping on site, but sleeping past 5 am was impossible due ot railway and road noise, and should have brought a sun awning in addition to a tent. This year it seemed more like a head-banging hard rock fest - power trio acts were way too loud and lacked subtlety and tone, by and large. Charles Bradley would have added some great soul and texture to the event, but unfortunately he had to cancel his headliner performance, so I split Saturday a.m. after another sleepless night. I love Chris Smither but the sound was too low and venue was wrong for him. I also love Pittsburghs great bluesy singer, Billy Price, but didn t hang around for the closing act Sunday night. The Revivalists, who closed the show Friday, are mostly talented (great pedal steel player, weak drummer!, whiteboy singer with no soul) were interesting but overly amped on cheezy effects and light shows. Biggest disappointment: Grace Potter and her new band. I saw her with her old band, the Nocturnals, three times in the last ten years and have raved about them ever since, but this time it appeared they re she s into playing loud power rock, way to amped up with jumping around on stage, cheezey light shows, and being cheap 70 s style rock stars. Grace, ditch this stuff, and get back to more textured roots and blues. You re great at it. Bright spots of note: Tab Benoit and Samantha Fish. Both are great guitar players, but it would have been nice to see them slow down the tempo now and then. Most insufferable: London Souls. Yeah, you guys can play, stop the screeching, high decibel crap. I lasted two minutes inside your tent before you blew my patience and eardrums. Yeah, I guess I m now and old fart, but I ve been going to see great Rock and Roll, roots, and jazz acts for 40 years, and I particularly like journeyman bands, small venues and lesser music when it s close to home. Note to the acts I saw Friday and Saturday at Flood City mix it up, bring the crowd up and down on a magic ride, etc. If you want to do it right and blow the house down, see the Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy tour this summer to get some tips from some real showmen and great instrumentalists. Mike Martin, Poolesville, MD

She was amazing but our seats were terrible. We were promised great seats but did not get what we box ghat.

the venue is great and the staff is friendly and helpful. since they are mostly volunteers, they may not know the answer but will always direct you to the person who does. the Grace Potter event appears to have been partially funded by a local business who used most of the Peoples Natural Gas proper facilities for a concurrent outing. The only problem I have with that is that I purchased and Oilhouse pass for access to the whole festival grounds and the bar (I don't drink beer, the only other available option Thursday night). In addition, 3/4 of the seats for Grace Potter, including all the front and center seats, were reserved for this companies employees and guests. If that brings a name act to this festival, so be it, but before I plop down my $40 for a ticket I expect to be told the specific limitations that will be placed on me. There was no mention of any of these details in the promotional website, which I believe is misleading by it's omission. The camping, as billed, is very basic. Most of us were surprised by the loud train that comes by frequently day and night. This should be mentioned in the info page. Had it been, I would have brought some noise suppression ear plugs or such. More unfortunate, despite having 24 hour security, was the behavior of at least one set of campers. Unlike most campsites, which have limits on arrival times and set "quiet times", their appear to be no such rules here. I'm assuming they couldn't conceive of the selfish and boorish behavior some people are capable of. I felt sorry for one camper whose next door "neighbor" arrived drunk at 2 am to set up camp. Their loud and profane exclamations about how ill prepared they were, not being able to find this and that piece of their equipment and at one point whining about their relationship with their dad (?), was bad enough but then they proceeded to talk until dawn. It only awoke me when the one loudest drunken fool raised his voice, but I can imagine how the camper next to them felt. He actually left the next morning and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because of his selfish "neighbors". Yes it's a music venue and people are there to have a good time, but the music ends at 12:30 at he latest and people who are there the whole 4 days and with children need their sleep. A no arrival after midnight and quiet time after 2 am, enforced by security, would be entirely reasonable. Again, I believe the only fault of they venue is that they are naively goodhearted. The sad reality is that a minority are terminally self-centered and inconsiderate. It is to protect us from them that rules have to be made.

This was a well-supported community event run mostly by friendly and helpful volunteers. The stages were well-designed and there were enough seats at most performances. Some of the performers were quite good, but many played hard-pounding rock or blues. The music volume for most performances was so loud you had to stuff your ears with tissue, sit in the back. Our heads were still ringing an hour or more after we left the venue each night.