I had a great weekend down at the second annual Bunbury Music Festival. I did not make last year’s festival as I was out-of-town, but everyone I talked to had such positive things to say about it, that I went ahead and bought tickets for this year before a lineup was even announced. I would have preferred to have a few more acts on the bill that I was already familiar with, but I found some new acts that I really enjoyed. Plus the festival was very family friendly and in a great downtown setting. I feel it is worthy of buying again for next year before any bands are announced.

New bands that I discovered and really enjoyed include American Authors, Delta Rae, Empires, The Mowgli’s, Twenty One Pilots, A Silent Film, and Black Joe Lewis. I was also very surprised and impressed by Robert DeLong, who’s electronic style does not normally fit my tastes. However the amount of energy and ingenuity with instruments that he displayed was top-notch. Plus he had everyone in the large crowd up and dancing along, many of who I assume also do not typically listen to his style of music either.

The food and beer were not outrageously priced. In fact most of the food trucks and vendors that I saw inside the festival gates were charging the same amount as they normally would in other scenarios. All beers were $6 for what I think was a 16 ounce cup, excluding the craft beer village which was a $1 more per cup. Even though I prefer craft beer, I would have paid the extra money just to not have to wait in longer lines for domestic beer.

The policies in place for the festival are wonderful. You can come and go as you please, which allowed our kids to take a break from the festival for a few hours and still come back later in the evening. Also kids 10 and under are free with a paying adult, which is a very nice touch. They truly have created one of the best festival settings I have been to.

My one complaint that I hope can somehow be addressed would have to be large crowds at the main stage as the evening goes on. I know that large crowds are going to happen, so it seems that there needs to be a larger space for the crowds to grow. Each night the crowd would spill out onto the sidewalk next to the stage, making it very hard to get back and forth from stage to stage. There is a much larger lawn where they had the Bud Light stage setup this year, and I think that could be a much better solution for future years, even if it means not using the built-in stage and orienting the main stage in a different direction. I really think it could work and would alleviate some of the congestion issues. Other than that, I was definitely impressed and I will absolutely be back for more next year.