South By So What?! is a yearly festival held in the spring at the QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie, TX. The festival continuously keeps on growing from year to year, currently it is going 7 years strong. Overall, there is a broad mixture of bands that come to this festival from rock to pop and even metalcore. The venue itself has three stages, two main stages and a smaller side stage, all three are well set up and give the concert goers a lot of room to move around and doesn’t let the sound of each band over power the other. This year they changed the set up and made the festival from one day to three, with over 150 bands. This includes a mix of local bands, up and coming artists and, of course, headliners to end the day with a bang.
Day 1
Each day was special in its own way. Excited concert goers had been in line for about two hours before the gates opened at noon. VIP ticket holders did have the opportunity to enter the venue before general admission. The weather on Friday was wonderful; the sun was out and there was a cool breeze. People were pumped and ready for the day to begin.
Day One bands –
Tillys Stage: Under Dog House, Bleach Blonde, Dear You, Avion Roe, Bryce Gilbertson, Mike Mains & The Branches, From Indian Lakes, Fever Dreamer, He is Legend, I See Stars, Chiodos, Taking Back Sunday and The Used.
AP Stage: AfterZoo, Hollowealth, Through Sleeping Sight, Emily Gray, With Shaking Hands, Ice Nine Kills, Thy Art is Murder, Volumes, Emmure, We Came as Romans, August Burns Red, Asking Alexandria.
Printed Threads Stage: Everybody Run, The Boys After, Sleepwalker, A Sudden Revive, Coronet, You Past my Present, Santa Muerte, Sylar, Atlas Moth, Silver Snakes, Sworn In, Gideon, Scale the Summit and The Ocean.
Fever Dreamer
Fever Dreamer
Chiodos
Chiodos
Avion Roe
Avion Roe
August Burns Red
August Burns Red
With Shaking Hands
With Shaking Hands
I See Stars
Hollowealth
Hollowealth
He is Legend
He is Legend
Asking Alexandria
Taking Back Sunday
Day 2
There was a prediction of rain for the evening (welcome to Texas). But this did not put a damper on anyone’s sprits; the crowd was ready for festivities to take off. The stages had taken some precautions and covered the electrical equipment as best they could. There was light rain through out the day, but it could not damper the notable positive energy and the show went on. The rain did start to get worse and plastic bags, ponchos and umbrellas were seen everywhere.
Most of the audience took protection in the venue’s covered section, which is a baseball field, and that space quickly became over crowded. Bodies were compressed into the small covered space and moods began to waver. Unfortunately, with the rain came thunder and lightning. This caused the management to pause the show and see if the rain would pass. Like the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute.
But that night, the saying did not apply. The rain and thunder continued and the pause lasted two hours. After two hours of waiting, it was announced that the show was cancelled. The thunder was going to cause too much of a risk for the artists, so none of the headliners got a chance to perform. Many people had mixed opinions about this. Some agreed with the decision, but some were very upset. Third String Production, who put on this festival, was very generous to the ticket holders who has purchased only day two tickets and let them use that ticket to get into day three for free. Some people were happy with this, but of course not everyone.
Day Two bands-
Tillys Stage: Unity, Azurah, Fear and Wonder, Yesterday as Today, Myka Relocate, Cursed Sails, InDirections, Fit for a King, Likes Moths to Flames, Letlive, Issues, Born of Osiris, Crown the Empire (Atilla, For Today, Of Mice and Men, Bring me the Horizon).
AP Stage: Storylines, Lightflight, Set the Sun, The Defiled, The Bunny The Bear, The Killing Lights, We Butter the Bread with Butter, Get Scared, Alesana, Even the Dead Love a Parade, (Smile Empty Soul, Psycostick, Hed Pe, Mindless Self Indulgence, Motionless in White)
Printed Threads Stage: In Exile, Laguna Sunrise, Osage Hills, Light the Way, Virosa, Fire from the Gods, Soundings, Goodmorning Gorgeous, Megosh, My My Misfire, Honor Crest, Hearts & Hands, Lions Lions, Famous Last Words, Close to Home, Thick as Blood, Erra, Within the Ruins, Oceano.
Set the Sun
Cursed Sails
InDirections
InDirections
Myka Relocate
Myka Relocate
Fit for a King
Letlive
Crown the Empire
Day 3
Thank the festival Gods for hot chocolate, because day three was bitter cold.
The temperature of day three lingered around freezing and, with the wind chill, probably below that. But all the artists performed to the fullest despite the cold and their fans kept the energy up. Everyone huddled close, screamed their lungs out, crowd surfed and moshed. So, despite the extreme weather and a few other hiccups the festival was great and production went really well. Again, another successful year for South By So What?!
Day Three bands-
Tillys Stage: Chon, Polyphia, Reflections, 68′, For the Fallen Dreams, Sleeping Giant, I Killed the Prom Queen, After the Burial, Veil of Maya, Animals as Leaders, Periphery, The Ghost Inside, Between the Buried & Me, The Devil Wears Prada.
AP Stage: Misconceptions, Third Coast, Danger Kids, Light Years, Knuckle Puck, Coma Prevail, A Lot Like Birds, Barrier, Counterparts, Being as an Ocean, Hunderdth, Neck Deep, Comeback Kid, The Story so Far.
Printed Threads Stage: Estonia 1944, Lizard Professor, Idlehands, Modern Pain, To the Wind, My Iron Lung, Vulger Display, The Greenery, Betrayal, Downpresser, , Kublai Khan, Alpha & Omega, Xibalba, Expire, Backtrack, Cruel Hand.
Polyphia
Counterparts
I Killed the Prom Queen
Being as an Ocean
Being as an Ocean
Between the Buried & Me
The Story so Far
The Devil Wears Prada
Written and Photographed by Mehreen Rizvi.
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