Hulaween Review 2018 – Always a Festival Masterpiece

Photos Courtesy of Hulaween

Hulaween Review – Oh Hulaween how you keep enchanting like a funky, booty shakin, fairy insomniac!! This was my 3rd straight Hula and I’m still floating in the Stratosphere from it! My only regret is not being there for the first 3 incarnations.  Suwannee is one of the most special musical venues out there and Hulaween is it’s never disappointing crown jewel.  Hula brings in a reputable and wide musical spectrum, with a thankful emphasis on melodious fuuuuuunk. This year you could really feel and see the amount of effort and time they invested into amplifying the art and immersive experiences.

So why is Hulaween so prolific? I rate festivals based on 4 major facets: Music, Energy, Venue & Convenience and Hula thrives in all 4!

Music – Most festivals are very genre specific, EDC is all about electronic music, other fests are all jam, all dub, all bluegrass…. The BEST fests are the ones that cover the entire music spectrum. While Hulaween is very Jam focused they do a marvelous job booking various other stellar performers. From main stream headliners, to hip hop, funk and a tons of slots for less known local Florida performers who are terrific as well. The biggest issue is that there are too many fantastic acts to see, forcing you to have to pick between your faves on a daily basis!

Energy – Hula has some of the best people I have met at fests. I believe their focus on Jam music helps bring out the most awesome of people: gorgeous souls that are fun, down to earth, astute and benevolent. Other fests I have been to, you run into some real bad juju, but NEVER at Hula. It is all smiles, laughter and euphoric glee bursting from everyone’s seams!

Venue – The Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL. is literally awe inspiring and Breathtaking! The dazzling art, intricate attentions to details, sprawling Spanish Moss tress, trippy AF Spirit Lake and endless visions to gawk at and get lost in. Spirit Lake came back on steroids with more installations than ever, an addition of a casino and they plastered the forest with more art than ever before.

Convenience – Some fests can be ridiculously annoying, too many people, everything is too far, $7 dollar waters!! Hula though has found the perfect equilibrium. They cap the fest at around 20K attendees and volunteers, so you are still tripping over magical souls without actually tripping over magic souls. The park can handle this number quite well. No stage is too far from another nor too close where you can hear both stages at the same time confusing your ears.

All stages are connected in a continuous circle for patron ease. Camping also can be super close to entrances and is never more than a 15 minute walk away even if you are camped in the Suburbs/Air strip! They also get you into the fest fast. no annoying scanning out, no metal detectors, not pat downs or other annoying and unnecessary holdups like at other fests. At other less enlightened festivals sometimes waits can be 20 minutes – 2 hours long just to get inside!!! Hula has mastered this and deserves a profound amount of credit for making our entrances easy so we can get in and dance our asses off!

This Hula was beyond sensational and here are my Top musical highlights in chronological order-

Thursday-

Sts9 is an extraordinary 5-piece collective of electronic musicians from Santa Cruz CA that whisks your soul away and magical musical journeys. They even graced us with an acoustic set at this year’s Hula. There was something extra magical about their second set on Thursday though.

Lettuce’s night set was probably my fave of the whole fest! To be soooooooo good at playing for and hour and fifteen minutes with (virtually) no lyrics still astounds me! Lettuce just gets it. Smooth, captivating and funky!! I have never seen a set that was not prolific from them. Even though Hula is Cheese’s fest, I feel like Lettuce has partial ownership as well for magnificently rocking us out for their 4th straight year. I finally was able to toss lettuce at the crowd in reverence of the musical genius this band so prolifically exudes. I can not even picture a Hula without these magnificent bastards. If you do not have patience for the entire set we posted above, just give this song a chance and become hooked on greens for life!!!

Friday- 

This might count as double dipping at the salad bar, but Break Science popped into my faves since pretty much all of Lettuce was up there with them. The phenomenal horns added such a beautiful layer of depth to their sound that had me and my crew getting down for almost the entire set.

When Emancipator plays with a band, he adds Ensemble to his name and they are delightful. Ensemble provided a beautiful, melodious and chilled out set for us to rejuvenate and relax for a bit.

Hula attendees were in for a tantalizing treat Friday night as Odesza returned to rock Wanee. I have seen Odesza a bunch of times by now so I am use to the marching band, fantasy inducing melodies and climactic fireworks, but I was impressed by their evolution the most. Odesza has over a dozen superb songs and musicians get bored playing their hits over and over. Odesza played a bunch of their hits, but they remixed them and they were still good. Not as good as the originals, but to be able to remix your best songs and still have them turn out wonderful is a magnificent musical feat! Kudos Odesza!!

Saturday

Even though I am not a HUGE Cheese fan (I do enjoy them, but am not in love) their annual Incident is always a Hulaween highlight for me. This Saturday night set is a compilation of cover songs played around a theme that changes every year. Last years Love set (2017 Hulaween Review) was one of the best cover sets I ever witnessed!  This year it was a much deserved tribute to Women of the Galaxy and a galactic theme that stole the fest! The tribute to our beloved women featured a guest female vocalist on every track.  They opened with famed Rolling Stone’s classic “Gimme Shelter,” featuring Lisa Fischer, who also came back out later to dazzle with “Killing Me Softly.” They also brought up Jennifer Hartswick to enrapture us with some Aretha Franklin and Ann Wilson of Heart was included in this fem dedication.

For the Galaxy theme Cheese simultaneously captivated and shredded it with songs from Star Wars, Star Trek &  Close Encounters of Third Kind with over 50 inflatable Aliens body-surfing across the crowd, a ginormous inflatable UFO to the left of the stage and a hilarious and nostalgic “This is your brains on drugs” fried eggs. My mouth is still dragging across the floor from this brilliant production. Thank you Cheeeeeese!

Sunday- Sunday was a slower music day as Hula decided to end a bit early compared to previous years. There were 2 performances that left super lasting memories though. Kasbo is brilliant music mad scientist! He took us on Odesza like journey that seamlessly mixes astonishing tracks. This was my 3rd time seeing him and although it was my least fave set it was still magical AF.

Turkuaz always impresses! This nine member funktroinc behemoth from Brooklyn, NY always makes you smile and dance. Each member dresses as a different color and they line up like a radiant groove inducing rainbow. They were the perfect group to close Hula out on the proper funky note.

Hulaween is a essentially festival Masterpiece. Do your ears and souls a favor and shake your asses in Suwannee with us next year in glorious costumes!