Earth Tones Music Festival

On Friday, April 21 I attended the Sixth Annual Earth Tones solar powered music festival. Every year for the past six years the ASU Solar Energy Society has put on this festival on Duck Pond Field where they set up a solar panel to power the PA system being used by the artists as well as to power their amps. Although Vanilla Envelope the band I was most eager to see dropped it was still a very interesting experience. The festival began around 1 p.m. with Earleine and then started to go through the bands from bottom to top as a music lineup typically does. Around 3 p.m. the rain came in and started to spoil the fun however the music continued to be played and people got up to dance in the rain and hula hoop, anything that they had fun doing. The bands that played have name recognition around Boone with a couple of members playing across more than one or even two extra bands. It was a great community event as well with tables set up all around Duck Pond field where people were giving out free gifts for those in attendance. I noticed a couple of things that could be done to improve the experience. The promotion of the festival was a little lack luster and slacked. With increased promotions I think there would have been a greater attendance. Also, they only provided a couple microphones and two small speakers for vocals which was really a problem for larger bands like Evan Button & The Tribe and Vanilla Envelope because they both have horn sections that require more microphones and a more flexible PA system. Overall I enjoyed the experience and am interested and looking forward to next year's festival.