Rites of Spring

Last year’s Rites of Spring was kind of a disaster and poorly managed, but that being said, they still have really amazing artists that come every year and you can’t do better than $ 30 – 55 to be up close to these really entertaining performances. (Think artists among the top 10 artists of the year). Also, do expect lots and lots of drunk frat boys and complete chaos… just saying.

Never. Again.
I take pride in the fact that I never say never but in this case, I truly can’t go there again. I am a huge supporter of community events with a pretty extensive background in event production and have never felt this compelled to voice my disdain about the horrible execution of an event. Many of my fellow Unilocalers can also vouch that I am very fair in my reviews and rarely give out the 1 star reviews as well but Rites of Spring was a complete waste of my money, time, and just an all around disappointment.
I can totally understand that with a 2 day outside music festival that weather is always a risk especially with the temperamental aspects of nature that we have been «enjoying» in the last few months. However, if the weather forecast has announced days ahead that there is a good chance of severe storms, rain, and chill… you would think that an event that has been around since 1971 would have a Plan B to accommodate their audience and performers or at the absolute bare minimum, have an organized and concise system in place to communicate to the masses about the updates in schedule, etc.
Evidently, I gave them too much credit as none of the basics were done. Friday’s weather wrecked havoc on the schedule. Gates were originally scheduled to open at 4pm with a total of 6 shows that included local Nashville based talent such as The Futurebirds and ending with Public Enemy and one of my favorite bands, The National. (who were the primary reason that I invested in 2 weekend passes for $ 125) The weather was shi-​tay so the first 3 shows were canceled but all ROS did was leave vague updates on their Twitter page that basically just stated that the due to the thunderstorms that they were putting the audiences safety first and to standby. The updates were inconsistent and didn’t outline what would happen if and when the storms subsided and didn’t offer anyone answers on if they were going to make up the shows or offer people access to the next day’s shows if they missed out on Friday’s, etc.
To make things even more mind boggling, hours and hours later, a tweet went out that they were finally opening the gates at 10:20 for Sara Barielles to go on at 10:40? That doesn’t allow people (who may still be interested in going) time to get on the premises and how did they think that they were going to wrangle a crowd in just 20 minutes before a show starts?
I had already thrown in the towel for the evening but heard that there were very few people in attendance for that show which is also a disservice to the performer. My friend who did finally get in, stated that The National went on around 12:30am.
Still. I kept an open mind. My friend and I were determined to go on Saturday to check out headliners Matt & Kim, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and Kid Cudi. The weather was dismal again during the day so we skipped the 3 earlier shows. We arrived with our cooler, blankets, and were genuinely stoked about the upcoming evening.
Not for long…
We joined a line, only to find out that we were in the non-​alcohol check-​in line after we had already waited 20 minutes. We were informed by a student and not staff as there were not any volunteers or staff anywhere?
No worries. Let’s go hop in the correct line which was a bit longer but completely manageable. I expected to wait 30 minutes or so… WRONG.
2 hours later, we were within reach of the gates but had already missed Matt & Kim, and Edward Sharpe. Why? I believe that part of the reason is because there was not any staff or volunteers around to manage the line as drunken sorority girls and obnoxious fellas were line-​cutting left and right. Why wouldn’t they station staff to help the lines stay organized?
Although, we were 10 feet away from getting in, we were both so over the whole experience and just left. $ 125 down the drain as I was unable to use my weekend passes at all.
There was nothing «Rite» about this mess of a music festival.
(cheesy pun, but I had to!)