Inaugural Mother Earth Music & Arts Festival Set for Mt. Dora
The last year has seen remarkable changes on the festival landscape: several favorites have fallen by the wayside, lineups and schedules are routinely released much earlier than previously, and new festivals have been popping up everywhere. And nowhere is that more true than in Florida, with the second year of Hulaween and inaugural events such as Fool’s Paradise, Little Manatee Jam Fest, Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival, and now Mother Earth Music and Arts Festival.
This brand spanking new fest debuts at a new location. Mother Earth Music and Arts Festival (April 22-24) is aligned with Earth Day, with three days of music, art, camping and celebrating Mother Earth. Located in the beautiful fields of Renninger’s in Mt. Dora and presented by David Oliver Willis and Magic Hat, this promises to be a spectacular weekend.
The location will also be home for Great Outdoors Jam 2016, and it is likely that many more events will land there. Expansive property and great infrastructure make this an ideal location.
So how about the music at Mother Earth?
Many of the performers are regulars on the Florida circuit of concerts, clubs and festivals. Hosts Holey Miss Moley have elevated their funk game to high art. Funky jazz and jazzy funk come to you courtesy of Serotonic and Leisure Chief, and you can pick up a copy of LC’s outstanding new album King of Nothing while there.
There is more funk in your future thanks to the Eugene Snowden Band; Snowden is the vocalist extraordinaire for the Legendary JCs. Cosmic Groove Ensemble labels their music “cosmically soulful funkadelia,” and the Psychedelic Monks are ready to blast you into deep funk outer space.
Copious Jones brings their brilliant Atlanta rock to the party, and the Evan Taylor Jones Band and Endless Flow will be on hand for the festivities. And jamtronic heaven awaits you via Future Vintage. There is more great rock music with amazing twists from shoeless soul, Wild Root Music and Row Jomah. And festival sponsor David Oliver Willis will be performing with a full band.
Singer-songwriters are in abundance as well. At the top of the list are Beth McKee & the Swamp Sistas. To this list add Nate McManus, John Martin Davis and the wonderful Este Loves. Better throw Hazardous Folk in there as well.
And then we have a category all unto itself: great people making music fun. Legacy does that all on his own as a looper. Then, he recruits “the best of the best of the best” to join him in his Legacy Orchestra Collective. Meanwhile, Little Econ Love Fest organizer Trey Miller and his cronies perform as the uplifting Harmonica Man and the Sawgrass Band. If you aren’t smiling when these boys are done, you were asleep, for real.
Kudos to sponsor Magic Hat, Holey Miss Moley and all those involved in putting on this first-time project. It certainly won’t be the last. Check the official website and official Facebook page for much more information.