As we plunge deeper into Memorial Day weekend, Local Spins recaps festivals and concerts that gave music lovers a taste of the (warmer) summer ahead. Browse the photos.
Reveling in Detroit: Movement kicked off Saturday on Hart Plaza. (Photo/Michael Mastre)
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For many music lovers, it meant bundling up as spring held its grip on Michigan over Memorial Day weekend.
But outdoor performances — from Detroit’s Movement Electronic Music Festival to Trufant’s Buses by the Beach Bus Benefit to Earthwork Farm’s Hollypalooza — unfurled nevertheless, heating up stages and devoted fans in the unofficial launch of summer’s concert flurry.
At the Smiling Acres festival site outside Trufant, Volkswagen bus owners and other festivalgoers reveled in performances by several regional acts over the first two days of the annual celebrationn and fundraiser for the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors.
Nicholas James Thomasma — of Nicholas James & The Bandwagon, which performed Friday night — wrapped it up this way:
Bus Benefit: Another celebration in Trufant. (Photo/Nicholas Thomasma)
“It was a chilly start to the weekend, but the music was hot and we had plenty of activities and the warmth of the community at Buses by the Beach to keep spirits high, toes tapping and engines running. Friday night featured sets from Dunegrass and Nicholas James & The Bandwagon. Saturday started off at the Wood Stage with Adam Marth (featuring Dutcher Snedeker) followed by Caitlin Cusack, Elijah Russ, Loren J Clarke and Friends and an unforgettable kids open-mic.”
After Saturday night sets by Sweet Dee & The Wild Honeys, The Local Commuters, The American Hotel System and Debutants, the Bus Benefit closes out tonight (Sunday) with The Temperances, Stanley & Quiggle, The Wild Honey Collective and Roosevelt Diggs.
Meanwhile, 170 miles to the east, Detroit’s Hart Plaza came alive on Saturday with the opening salvo of the Movement Electronic Music Festival, marking 20 years of techno music splendor with updated designs for both the Movement main stage and the Stargate stage.
Movement attendees, many adorned in ponchos, braved the drizzle and rain that broke in the evening. Detroit native son Stacey Pullen never missed a beat while pulling the crowd out of the rain, leading into a blistering b2b between Chicago’s Cajmere and Detroit’s Carl Craig.
Sara Landry’s main stage set closed out Day 1, igniting fist-pumping energy from the crowd.
Day 2 looks to be a bit better weather-wise, with the high-BPM energy of Carl Cox and Eli Brown shaping up as the defining attribute in the skies above Hart Plaza. (View the Local Spins preview here.)
Outdoor celebrations took an intimate turn as well. At Earthwork Farm outside Lake City — which for years had hosted September’s much-beloved Earthwork Harvest Gathering — a small but enthusiastic band of music lovers gathered for Hollypalooza: A Concert Celebrating the Life of Holly T. Bird.
The Saturday mini-fest, held in honor of the environmental and anti-racism activist, lawyer, tribal judge and music lover who passed away in April, featured performances by a host of Michigan artists, including Jordan Hamilton, Joe Reilly, Seth Bernard, Molly, Hannah Laine, Samantha Cooper and others.
All of it came just a few days after alt-rock’s Anberlin made a Grand Rapids tour stop at The Big Room, in a show hosted by The Pyramid Scheme. Also on the indoor front: The Incantations and Daniel Staggs & The Critters got the outdoor garden season at Old Dog Tavern in Kalamazoo started on Saturday night. (Recap by Nicholas James Thomasma, Todd Ernst, John Sinkevics)
Browse all of the photos below.
PHOTO GALLERY: Movement on Detroit’s Hart Plaza (Day 1)
Photos by Michael Mastre
PHOTO GALLERY: Buses by the Beach Bus Benefit in Trufant
Photos by Nicholas James Thomasma and Tori Kooienga
PHOTO GALLERY: Hollypalooza at Earthwork Farm
Photos by Anna Sink
