As the late American author Jim Harrison once put it, “You can’t be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river.”
Pair that with a wide array of musical offerings from some of the industry’s top talent, and you have yourself quite the festival weekend.
Enter Float Fest, which in its fifth year is bringing to San Marcos, Texas its most spectacular lineup yet. In previous years, this two-day festival brought some exciting alternative, electronic and hip-hop acts to its two main stages, but its 2018 run brings some of the most influential and clamored-for artists from every respective genre to the table.
Tame Impala, the alt-psychedelic touring rarity helmed by Kevin Parker, headlines here, accented by the equally riveting Gasparilla Music Festival alumn Modest Mouse. The EDM headliner and lone heavy-bass pick of the weekend is Bassnectar, who this past Tuesday was announced as a headliner for this fall’s EDC Orlando.
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These two headliners alone would make any festival a hard-to-miss event, but the lineup takes it a step further by adding some of the best in the hip-hop arena as well. Run the Jewels — the oddball, Bernie Sanders-endorsed duo of Killer Mike and El-P — are set to enthrall as a high-powered undercard act to go along with genre legends Lil' Wayne and Snoop Dogg, who we just saw lead the annual PoWow! set at Okeechobee Music Festival in March.
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While few could argue the star-studded uniqueness of the lineup, it’s Float Fest itself that provides perhaps the biggest draw. The festival — just an hour outside of Austin — provides attendees the opportunity to spend the majority of the day cooling off in the San Marcos River via rentable inner tubes. The festival provides shuttles that drop you off a river launch points, where you can jump in, rent rafts, and cool off amidst the Texas summer heat as you float your way back to the campsites. At 2 p.m. each day the music stages open up, just in time for floatees to leave the comfort of the river to enjoy rides and dozens of exciting acts from around the world on the festival's main stages.
Last week, the festival suffered a minor setback in losing talented undercard act Glass Animals (drummer Joe Seaward suffered injuries in a freak accident) yet it managed to bring in Long Beach alt-rockers Cold War Kids as a solid replacement.
While the music festival industry has fluctuated with the introduction of dozens of new destination festivals each year, this small Texas fest has found a way to flourish by its one-of-a-kind offering, as evidenced by its biggest lineup to-date.
Look for our review next week after we’re done floating our way through yet another fantastic summer festival.
Float Fest, July 21-22. $159 & up. Cool River Ranch, 601 Duppy Ranch Rd., Martindale, Texas. More info: floatfest.net.
