fests i go to With Spencer Storch @swstorch
Gasparilla Music Festival is a giant waterfront party thrown by Gasparilla Music Foundation the second weekend of every March. GMF is a nonprofit organization that was formed in 2011. Paving the way for the Tampa music scene, this foundation is responsible for enriching and promoting music, food and most importantly: music education and lessons for children. Providing instruments and scholarships for music students in the area is great for the community! The 2020 lineup is filled with talent on a beautiful weekend.
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I arrive to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and Kiley Gardens Park to find the festival already in motionI enter the park on a bright and sunshiny day! Tony Tyler Trance from St. Petersburg is the first music I absorb and wow is it good! Performing Derek & the Dominos and their 1970s rock. As soon as I hear Tony’s guitar, my spirit takes flight on “Little Wing.” He and George Pennington (Displace) tag team the song
with the perfect pace and feel on their guitars. Tony’s squeals and moans for “Layla” filling the park with soul and love. What a great start to the day. The Nude Party is a rock band from Boone, NC. They remind me a little of The Rolling Stones. They play a blues song named “The Only Cure is You” and rock the place out. People are having a great time at this splendid springtime festival. Touching on a few different rock styles, these guys are impressive and fun! From there we scope out St. Lucia’s set, which didn’t go as planned. A few songs into the set and a noticeable hum is in the air. The band gets a bunch of points for playing through, but eventually they have to slow to a crawl to fix the problem. I did however enjoy the jazzy bass-anddrum combo during the switch. The sun begins to set on the first night of Gasparilla 2020 and the temperature dips. Big Freedia is the bonafied “Queen of Bounce.” She is the one-time host of the MTV show Big Freedia Bounces Back. Hailing from New Orleans, she has brought the bounce to the people. A largely underground genre, she exposed its greatness in 2010 with her album ’Big Freedia Hitz Vol. 1.’ I arrive to the set to find her on stage with a DJ rapping and bouncin’ her ass to the beat. Her dancers join her on stage in bright orange spandex while Freedia wears a ‘90s style multicolored jogging suit. The music is so intoxicating that everyone is twerking—even those who shouldn’t. Oh man, what a sight to see! Americans shaking their right to party up and down like there’s no tomorrow. She does a version of Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up,” that sends the crowd into a frenzy. Now these people have their hands on their knees, some even twerking on each other. Oh! That group has three asses doing their best impression of maracas. This glitchy hip-hop is just what I need to have a blast! She also plays her track with Ke$ha called “Chasing Rainbows.” My favorite moment though, may have been when they stopped the music to play Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” I stop by one of the smaller stages to catch Demi Nova. She is a soul and
