Lots of high-quality day-long festivals on the horizon – from locally-grown affairs to traveling fest tours. Here's a breakdown of three ones noteworthy enough for your fall fest-planning convenience.
Organizers of Guavaween 2012 have finally given me reason to return to the Ybor City-wide Halloween fest after more than a decade of writing it off as a complete and utter shitshow. Ybor City Chamber of Commerce teamed up with Brokenmold Entertainment to re-vamp Guavaween, making it more alluring to those of us who quit going long ago while appealing to a whole new audience of people who've avoided the fest due to its chaotic balls-out environment, general lack of good music, and overall bad reputation.
The fences will be gone along with the wet-zoning permits and the parade, which means the streets are opened up to traffic and closed to costumed drunkards. The annual Costume Contest will continue as planned ($1,000 prize for first place, $500 for second and $250 for third). And seven venues (The Ritz Ybor, Orpheum, Czar, Crowbar, Market on 7th, New World Brewery and Centro Ybor) present live music by more than 20 bands repping national, regional and local talent — and what a lineup of talent it is: uber popular bar-anthemic indie rock darlings The Hold Steady (pictured); multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer of funky badass-blaxploitation psych soul grooves, Adrian Younge; Brooklyn-based indie jamtronic outfit Rubblebucket; and ripe young Americana singer-songwriter Jessica Lea Mayfield (whose debut album, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, was produced by Dan Auerbach). Other confirmed performers: Tortured Soul, Nervous Turkey, Sounduo, Have Gun Will Travel, King Tuff, The Intelligence, Old Man Markley, Auto!Automatic!! , Sunbears!, Florida Night Heat, The Same, Vasti, Hank & Cupcakes, Steven A. Clark, Michael Parallax, Kendra Morris, and Fake Problems.
Guavaween 2012 takes place from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Sat., Oct. 27. Armbands are available in advance for $20 ($30 day of show). Click here to purchase advance tickets.
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The annual alternative rock blowout hosted by 97X, Next Big Thing, returns for its 12th year and moves to a newer, easier-to-navigate and more scenic venue – Vinoy Park. There are some familiar faces performing at the all-ages event along with a few newbs. Among the highlights: Bush, the UK post-grungy rock foursome led by Gavin Rossdale; Chicago's melodic hardcore/punk outfit, Rise Against; shoegaze LA rockers Silversun Pickups; and driving Welsh alt rock outfit The Joy Formidable (pictured). Other acts filling out the bill: Fun., Grouplove, Flogging Molly, Of Monsters & Men, Paper Tongues, and Twenty-One Pilots.
One local act gets the chance to open the festivities as decided in the station's popular Local Band Search. Entries submitted between now and Oct. 19 will be narrowed down to eight finalists featured at 97Xonline.com throughout the competition with band bios, photos, links to music and more. Listeners vote for their favorites at the live play-offs, with two band's performing each night on Sat., Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24, at Jonny Reno's. The band that earns the most votes wins the NBT 12 spot. Khora took home the honor last year; get more info about how to enter your band here and win it this year.
Next Big Thing occurs Sat., Dec. 1. Gates open at 10 a.m. and runs until 10 p.m. Tickets are currently $45 in advance (available at all Ticketmaster outlets) or $60 at the gate. Click here for further details.
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And finally, Florida is the sole setting for the first-ever Sunshine Blues Festival, a traveling fest in miniature with a mere three stops this January – Ft. Myers (Jan. 18), Boca Raton (Jan. 19), and right here in St. Petersburg (Jan. 20). Blues, roots and rock purveyors Tedeschi Trucks Band headlines the festivities, and the lineup — spread over two stages at Vinoy Park — is rounded out by Dr. John, Walter Trout, Sonny Landreth, Joe Louis Walker, Jaimoe Jassz Band, Matt Schofield, The Wood Brothers, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Sean Chambers Band and Bobby Lee Rodgers. Tickets are $49.50. Click here to secure yours.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2012.