Suburbia Music Festival 2014

Mehreen Rizvi May 16th, 2014 - 8:58 AM

About a year ago, the city of Plano teamed up with Live Nation to brainstorm a new festival to hit North Texas. The main objective of this festival was to have a wide demographic, and not a specific niche. It was more about creating a festival that all ages could enjoy, and people from all over the world would want to come to, like Coachella or even ACL. Once the gears were in motion and ideas took form, the Suburbia Music Festival was born. Taking place in the suburbs (get it?) of Plano, TX, Oak Point Park housed this two day festival, which featured three stages – Meadow (the main stage), Prairie (second main stage) and Cedar.

Day One

The first day of Suburbia was warm and sunny– a little hot, but that’s Texas. The festivities began with an inaugural ribbon cutting by the mayor of Plano. Attendees filled the park throughout the day, toting umbrellas and chairs for ultimate relaxation. Besides the stages, there were, of course, food vendors (it looked more like a mini food court) but also tents for local businesses to sell everything from T-shirts to homemade leather purses. Never was there an absence of activity– there was even a bouncy slide and games for kids.

Once guests entered the venue, they were given a schedule of the day and a City of Plano hand fan, which was much appreciated under the bright sun. Overall, the day started off slow, but as the day progressed more and more people filled up the park and the festival was in full swing by the afternoon. As evening (and headliners) arrived things really began to heat up. All the performances where phenomenal, even considering the heat. The staging and lighting was top notch for all. The only downfall was the large distance between the two main stages, but you can’t win them all.

Artist for Day One included: Yung Nation, A.DD+, The O’s, The Rocketboys, Ume, Basic Vacation, Echosmith, Alpha Rev, Surfer Blood, Meg Myers, Delta Rae, SoMo, Midlake, Needtobreathe, Run the Jewels, The Dandy Warhols, Third Eye Blind, YelaWolf, Reverend Horton Heat, Violent Femmes, Big Gigantic and Alabama Shakes.

A nice set up for the kids.

The O’s – Prairie Stage

Ume – Meadow Stage

Behind the Scenes with Ume

Meg Myers – Prairie Stage

Needtobreathe – Meadow Stage

Needtoberathe – Meadow Stage

Needtobreathe – Meadow Stage

Third Eye Blind – Meadow Stage

Violent Femmes – Meadow Stage

Big Gigantic – Cedar Stage

Alabama Shakes – Meadow Stage

Day Two

Day Two began just like Day One: slowly, but quickly filling up. Again, it was another hot day in Plano, but a breeze did help with the heat. Moreover, Day Two included a water sprinkler and eventually a drinkable water solution. The people of Live Nation were on top of the demands and did the best they could. The organizers even provided free water bottles to people in the crowd who were close to the stage and did not want to leave their spots. The day went on late into the night with a raging dance party, courtesy of David Guetta.

Artist for Day Two – Ishi, Veridia, The American Authors, The Unlikely Candidates, Larry g(EE), Reignwold, NONONO, Smallpools, Sol, The Wild Feathers, Twenty One Pilots, GTA, Shakey Graves, Blue October, Slightly Stoopid, Hayes Carll, J. Cole, Tegan and Sara and David Guetta. Hoodie Allen was supposed to perform, but unfortunately had laryngitis and did not preform his set.