This weekend marked the sixth annual Hopscotch Music Festival, bringing more than 140 bands from all over the state, nation and globe to downtown Raleigh. Not only does the three-day festival consist of live performances, but it also includes a design festival, day parties and art exhibitions as well.
The festival included a range of music genres such as rock/pop, hip-hop, punk/garage, folk/country, experimental, electronic and more. The venues also varied, including bars, pubs, theaters and museums.
“The beauty of Hopscotch, to me, is how so many diverse bands are all here together,” said Phillip Ayers, an NC State post-grad studying literature. “It allows you try out new bands and genres, and experience new music that you probably wouldn’t see or hear otherwise. It also lets you bounce around from genre to genre without a problem. For example, on Friday night I saw Natalie Prass, a folk singer, I went straight from there to see Pusha T, a hip-hop artist, and then ended the night by seeing Pile, who is an aggressive punk-rock band—three radically different artists all within about an hour. You can’t find opportunities to do something like that very often.”
This year at Hopscotch there were 12 walkable venues throughout downtown Raleigh, which is more than there’s been in the years before. Neptunes Parlour, a bar and music venue on the basement level of King’s Barcade, made it to Hopscotch’s schedule this year.
“We’ve never actually used the downstairs venue, Neptunes, before,” said Greg Lowenhagen, founder of Hopscotch Music Festival. “We [used it] this year and I think it’s a lot of fun because the DJs we booked and some of the Electronica stuff that didn’t really have a home previously. It’s really good in that space I think.”
There’s an intimate and tight-knit energy the club and bar venues bring to Hopscotch, Lowenhagen said. Mark Brown, a junior studying mechanical engineering, felt this energy at Hopscotch as well.
“I’ve been to a few other music festivals before, but I really liked Hopscotch,” Brown said. “It felt more intimate than other music festivals. Like at other ones, there are so many people, and you’re like hundreds of feet back from the actual stage, but I felt like [at Hopscotch] any concert you wanted to get close to, you could. All the concerts I wanted to see I was basically in the second row for every single one of them.”
Brown also said he liked how the artists were more involved and could be seen throughout the festival. He said he attended at least two acts where artists he had previously seen were enjoying the sets with the audience.
“After the Chaz French concert, he just came down in the crowd for the next show.” Brown said. “So I was just two feet away from him enjoying the next show and that was really cool.”
Some of the most popular headliners of Hopscotch were Godspeed You! Black Emperor, TV on the Radio, Tycho and Dwight Yoakam, who performed each night at City Plaza. Other popular acts included Bully, Pusha T, Battles and Goldlink. Local bands including Boulevards, SMLH, Zach Mexico, Dad & Dad and Hanz were also a heavy emphasis.
Alex Johnson, a sophomore studying business administration, said the best part about Hopscotch is how consistently good the lineups are each year. Both Johnson and Brown were unable to choose a favorite performance from the festival.
“Pusha T—that was a lot of fun, Goldlink was good, I liked Wildhoney a lot too, oh, and TV on the Radio, I don’t know! There’s so many,” Brown said. “That’s tough.”
However, Brown said Pusha T was a great show to see not only based on his performance, but on the audience’s energy as well.
“So I was really close—probably second or third row—and everyone was really into it,” Brown said. “It was all his fans, and whenever a new song would play everyone would get really into it and was moshing and jumping around. There was just tons of energy, which is good because my enjoyment of a concert is really influenced by how much everyone around me is enjoying and the energy level of the crowd. I thought the energy level at Pusha T was really high.”
Hopscotch is not just about the diverse music, the exciting lineups and the day parties, but the crowd’s reaction and enjoyment of the festival as well.
“There’s always this pretty incredible energy downtown I feel during Hopscotch and that’s really the testament to the attendees,” Lowenhagen said. “I mean the whole identity of the festival is really built on the people who come, who pay the money, who buy a wristband and run around downtown Raleigh whether it’s one night or three nights.”
Thousands of people attended the music festival, ranging from students, artists, locals, volunteers and people from out of state. Johnson was a volunteer during the festival, which allowed him to have a three-day pass. Brown volunteered Saturday night at Pour House.
“I volunteered for part of Saturday night and then got to see the rest of the festival,” Brown said. “It was pretty cool working with Hopscotch and all the attendees. I checked their wristbands as they came in. It was crazy all night at Pour House where Birds of Avalon, Zack Mexico and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard played. There was a line from 10 o’clock until Gizzard came off.”
Based on the local and popular acts, the intimacy of the festival, the diversity of music and the location of Hopscotch, Ayers, Brown and Johnson each said they plan to go to Hopscotch again next year.
“I feel very strongly that anyone who lives in the Triangle and has the slightest inclination towards good music, or has ever listened to 88.1 or who goes to local shows should go to Hopscotch every year,” Ayers said. “There is no excuse for missing something this incredible that is happening so close by. I cannot stress that enough.”
The band Tycho plays a collection of smooth electronica on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. Tycho was one of 140 bands to play downtown as part of Hopscotch, which took place form September 10th to 12th.
