Sweetwater 420 (SW420) Festival 2022 (Atlanta, GA) – April 28-May 1
Finally! I attended all four days of the festival. I’ll post separate entries about the music for each day of the festival but here are some general comments.
In summary, this was a terrific festival, with perfect weather and great music and it was well organized and executed by the promoters, the stagehands, the soundboard operators, the support staff, the vendors, etc. The main hiccup I noticed during the festival was the frequent failure of the vendor payment system via the wristbands – I had to switch to a credit card several times.
The promoters did have to scramble multiple times to adjust the line-up for Thursday (see the daily recap for more details) but amazingly none of the festival bands had to withdraw due to positive COVID tests.
The majority of the fans were there for the music, as opposed to my experience at some other venues (both indoors and outdoors) where too many people spend their time socializing and trying to talk over the music. My opinion is that if you want to talk you should stay in the back of the crowd so the people closer to the front can enjoy the show.
I would say that the only people I know who enjoy this type of music and experience are the people at these festivals, and I don’t know any of those people. But I can enjoy the freedom of attending these festivals by myself, selecting the schedule and the viewing location and having the option to switch stages. I also meet some nice people every time.
Centennial Olympic Park is a bit too “open” for my taste but it’s a trade-off for a festival of this size. I generally prefer the festival parks with more available shade, such as Central Park (Shaky Knees), Candler Park (Candler Park Music Festival), Piedmont Park (Music Midtown), and Grant Park (Summer Shade Festival).
Speaking of Shaky Knees, it was unfortunate that the SW420 and Shaky Knees festivals were scheduled for the same weekend this year. SW420 is usually held around 4/20 and Shaky Knees is usually held around mid-May but for some reason the festivals competed this year. Perhaps that was due to the schedule for the bands and other festivals. I have noticed this spring that many of these performers play festival A in city A on Friday, then festival B in city B on Saturday, and festival C in city C on Sunday.
After the COVID cancellations in 2020 and 2021 I know that the bands that have persevered have to make up for all the lost revenue.
Sometimes these festivals are within driving distance, for example, the Candler Park Festival in Atlanta and the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga.
The most extreme example might be the large number of bands that will be traveling between the Peach Festival in Scranton, PA, and the High Sierra Festival in Quincy, CA during the pre-Independence Day holiday weekend (June 30 – July 3). It might be worthwhile for the festivals to have a daily charter flight between Scranton and Reno (probably the closest major airport to Quincy).
I don’t know if the festivals have changed as much as my musical tastes, but as the years have passed I have shifted from attending Music Midtown to Shaky Knees to SW420. There were some performers I wanted to see at Shaky Knees this year, especially Spoon, Kurt Vile, and Khruangbin. Of course, those acts all played on separate days but there is also the curse of overlapping schedules for any multi-stage festival, for example, if on Saturday Spoon played from 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM on stage A while Kurt Vile played from 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM on stage C. Maybe next year I will get to attend both SW420 and Shaky Knees.
A final plug (pun intended), for Earasers ear plugs. I’ve been using them for several years now and they really make a difference. Using Earasers and standing or sitting between 20 and 50 yards from the stage seems to provide the best experience for me (the ideal distance depends on just how loud the speakers are). I know there is some loss of the full musical spectrum but I also know that I have hearing loss anyway due to older age but also due to the concerts I attended in my younger days. Coming out of those shows with muffled hearing was considered a sign of a great show rather than a precursor of permanent hearing loss, sort of like how my generation would use suntan oil to enhance getting a tan at the pool or the beach instead of a sunscreen lotion to protect against the UVA and UVB rays and skin cancer. Plus the Earasers help to drown out any local conversations while still allowing most of the music to pass through. Recommended.