Critics’ Pick for Best New Music Fest: AntiWarpt Music & Arts Festival, downtown St. Petersburg
Brokenmold Entertainment and No Clubs banked on St. Pete’s burgeoning 600 Block popularity with this single-day multi-venue live music event, which featured more than 20 high-caliber local and regional acts, from Orlando soul-blues songstress Kaleigh Baker, to Bradenton’s fire-fueled Americana rockers Have Gun, Will Travel, to St. Pete one-man electro band Holiday. AntiWarpt was held on the evening of Warped Tour, right down the street from the Vinoy Park fest, for cheap, thereby creating an alternative choice for the folks who don’t do Warped at all as well as catching any Warped runoff. The crowds who inevitably showed up were exposed to music they wouldn’t have seen otherwise and will likely return for a second AntiWarpt.
Visit the Best of the Bay homepage to check out the rest of the 2010 winners.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.