There are two types of folks in this world: those that love to dance in the rain and those that miss out because they don’t wanna get wet. As Saturday got off to a misty start with a set from Phillip-Michael Scales, it was very clear which category the fans fell into. After a brief hold for lightning, we opened the main stage for The 502s as a horde of folks went running across the green to grab a spot for the show. Lead singer Ed Isola exclaimed, “A little rain can’t kill our good time!” and launched into a full-blown rambunctious, folksy hoedown with his Florida-based band of merry gentlemen.
Sets from Los Colognes and *repeat repeat kept the party going. An impromptu dance sing-along broke out when Amber Woodhouse covered Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” As day turned to evening, Ruby Amanfu, who just released a whopping three new albums simultaneously, nurtured the crowd with a slew of powerful new music reminding us to all love ourselves and that everything will be ok – a well-timed message indeed. And then it was time for Cautious Clay who demonstrated his immense talent with turns playing the saxophone, guitarand the flute.
But the most raucous set of the day occurred when Santigold took the stage, dressed as a high priestess in all white and flanked by two backup dancers. She had not returned to Middle Tennessee since 2012 when she nearly got booted from Bonnaroo after fans swarmed the stage with dance fever. Her bass-heavy, high energy set sent the crowd into overdrive proving that Live On The Green has the chops to showcase music of all genres in the same day. If you missed it, you might have missed one of the all-time best sets of the festival in our opinion.
And the celebration continues tonight! The music kicks off at 4pm CT with Taylor Bickett, Strung Like a Horse, Tayls, Stephen Day, Nordista Freeze, Devon Gilfillian, The Criticals and COIN. The full schedule + VIP ticket upgrades are available online at LiveOnTheGreen.com. See you there!
Written By: Heather Byrd