River's Edge Music Festival In-Review


We had the opportunity to cover the inaugural River's Edge Music Festival here in St. Paul last weekend.  I have to say, it is great to have a festival back at Harriett Island on the banks of the Mississippi with the St. Paul skyline in the background.  
RFID enabled wristbands
I was impressed with how efficiently the entry/exit gates moved.  This was mostly due to the new RFID wristbands that got you in and out the door.  Just walk through the gate, scan your wristband, and you can come and go as you please.

We like to include the whole family as often as possible, so Saturday we took the kids with us for a few hours.  It was hot and there were a gazillion people there, but it was a great time.  With Motion City Soundtrack, Brand New, Sublime with Rome and Tool all on the docket, there was no shortage of music. There was plenty of snacks to keep the kiddos happy, and my little girl came home with a hot pink stripe in her hair thanks to one of the vendors.

Sunday we went back, this time without the rug-rats. We missed most of Poliça, unfortunately, as they are easily one of my favorite local bands.  As they ended, it was a mad rush over to the main (Bishop) stage as Puscifer was playing literally seconds after Poliça ended.  Headed up by Tool front-man Maynard James Keenan, Puscifer put on a great show.  Let's just say I was glad we left the kids home, or I would have to explain to my 8-Year old son what Vagina Airlines meant.

We were then headed back over to the "Chipotle" stage, where The Flaming Lips were taking the stage.  It was sweltering and no amount of beer could quench your thirst.  We wondered over to the snack shacks and found ourselves a fruit smoothie to take the edge off...  



As we returned to our spot for The Flaming Lips, giant balloons filled with confetti were bouncing through the crowd.  Shortly after all the baloons popped a giant clear ball appeared on stage.  What I initially thought was another balloon was actually a plastic ball and Wayne Conye was inside rolling around on top of the audience.  It was like he was crowd surfing, in a giant hamster ball...  check it out...


About half way through The Flaming Lips the crowd started to thin and people were already claiming their spots for Dave Matthew's Band.  We chose not to fight our way up to the stage and rather found a spot to sit in the grass and just enjoy the music.  Well, that lasted about an hour.  Dave seemed to be in a down-tempo mood.  Everything he was playing was making us sleepy after a full day in the sun...  To combat the lethargy we took a walk over to Raspberry Island to take in the tail end of the Festival at the electronic stage where Diplo was just walking up to the booth.  We definitely made the right call.  Diplo put on a great show and had the entire island dancing.  


I hope this is the first in a long line of festivals to be held at this venue.  The team that put together the River's Edge Music Festival have set the bar pretty high. We are looking forward to what they have in store for us next year...

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