Commentary and Photography by Judy Won (all rights reserved)

My weekend began at the Bunbury Music Festival at Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove in Cincinnati, Ohio. While Bunbury is a relatively recent festival, only being around for the past few years or so, I would say it’s definitely a festival worth going to. They use many features that  Cincinnati has to offer well throughout the festival;  They help rows and rows of craft beer stations, with many local brews, along with concession stands from local eateries around the area.  The location was beautiful, and although the two farthest stages were a 10 minute walk from each other, you always had something to look at on the way, whether it was the diverse array of fashionista’s strutting their stuff across the festival grounds, to the beautiful scenery of the Ohio River along side the entire venue.

My first day of Bunbury for this year, as well as the first time in my life, was quite the success.  The sun was out and shining, not too unbearable, but I definitely lost a few pounds from sweating all day.  I started my day off by watching Royal Teeth at the River Stage, which I heard is the first year of it’s existence.  I’ve also heard that the area in which the stage was located was under water this past year.  After their performance, I headed over to the main stage to watched X Ambassadors, who was a representation of more pop-punk Imagine Dragons with a dash of Rock.  As soon as X Ambassadors set came to a conclusion, 3 bands took the stage across the venue consisting of Hundred Waters at the River Stage, Panama Wedding at the Warsteiner Stage, and Let It Happen at the Amphitheater Stage.

Next to take the main stage was Nashville based band, Wild Club.  The band had a great, energetic presence, as well as a very strong percussion background.  Keegan DeWitt, the lead singer, made it known that he was a fan of Ohio, Columbus in particular due to the fact that they were the first to play their single “Thunder Clatter”, helping the band get on their feet.

Next to grace the main stage with their balls-off-the-walls energetic presence were Kentucky natives, Cage The Elephant.  Frontman Matt Shultz was “surprised (that) everytime (they) play (Aberdeen) and people (still) know the words”.  They opened with the Pixies-esque “Spiderhead” and filled their hour long set with hits such as, “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” “Come A Little Closer”, and “Black Widow”.  LA’s very own Bad Suns took the River Stage afterwards.  They played a plethora of songs from their recently released album “Language and Perspective”.  Throughout the day, 4 artists were to perform for a small crowd at the VIP tent consisting of Marc Scibilia, X Ambassadors, Royal Teeth, and 500 Miles to Memphis.

The last act to perform on the main stage before headliners Empire of the Sun was neo soul, indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums.  Boy, was Noelle Scaggs’ voice off of the charts; She had such a powerful voice, and had the most precise control over it.  They did a great job keeping the crowd moving, dancing on their feet 24/7.

Last to grace the River Stage was Veruca Salt, consisting of front-woman Louise Post, as well as lead guitarist Nina Gordon.  They surely took me by surprise with how classically rock heavy this band was, and they deserved to closed out the River Stage for the night.  To close out the night, the main stage was over run with crazy props, just as many of the concert goers were dressed to impress.  The Aussie band Empire of the Sun never ceases to amaze, and always keeps the crowd on their feet, doubling as a crazy Cirque Du Soleil act without the trapeze artists.  The stage was buzzing with movement, sporadic lights and colors, and dancers dressed to the T in insane space costumes.  The crowd really seemed to be captivated by the elaborate performance, giving the crowd their money’s worth closing out Friday night.

Side notes: Throughout the day, I survived off of granola bars and almond packs, but eventually gave way to a delicious raspberry-lemonade popsicle from Street Pops.  Later on, I had a couple wonderful vegetarian Chipotle taco’s.  Due to the fact that the location of the Chipotle stand was right before you hit the River Stage, I was constantly walking past it, and noticed one thing every single time.  They were constantly busy with customers; while you can attribute a majority of that line to the wonderful reputation that Chipotle food has, the cherry on top had to have definitely been their workers.  There’s nothing better than being at a festival for hours on end in the blazing sun, and being greeted by the nicest, most energetic group of employees out there.