Charlotteans of the Year 2024: Lovin’ Life Music Fest

The first downtown music festival in two decades didn’t get everything right. But it was enough for Charlotte to shout: More, please

Music festivals can have different philosophies. Ultra Music Festival in Miami specializes in electronic dance music. Big Ears in Knoxville caters to fans of avant-garde sounds. Bonnaroo is for people who love jam bands and patchouli. The initiation Lovin’ Life Music Festin downtown Charlotte on the first weekend of May, had a vibe that, depending on your mood, could be characterized as “casual” or “eclectic” or “we booked anyone whose tour bus drove into a Waffle House.”

The headlines were Post Malone, Stevie Nicksand Noah Kahan. Support acts were everywhere, including pop EDM Chain smokersindie rock band Mt. Joyand the acoustic-emo Dashboard Confessional. Both Beach Boys and Fray appeared without their most iconic members. The overall effect was like an entire weekend of listening to a friend’s roommate’s iPod on shuffle.

But here’s the good news: There was a music festival in Charlotte. Considering this city punches way below its weight in booking touring acts, it felt like a minor miracle and a chance to catch a bunch of acts on a blowout weekend. Here’s the better news: The festival was very well run.

The location of First Ward was convenient and easy to get to via light rail. Drinks weren’t cheap per se, but they weren’t expensive enough to be insulting. The place had plenty of portable toilets and they were remarkably clean. The lines for food were long, but it was no trouble to leave the festival, grab a quick bite nearby and then return.

At its best, a music festival can be a field of dreams where you see five of your favorite bands in one day, have your mind blown by four other acts you’ve never heard of before, flirt with the redhead next to you, while you’re ‘waiting for a platinum hip-hop act to hit the stage and meet a guy who quit his job on Friday morning because his high school friend offered him a free ticket to the show. Lovin’ Life isn’t quite there yet, but the people who participated were clearly trying to manifest that state of mind into reality. The crowd was remarkably cool, even when it rained.

“The overall mood was happy,” a friend of mine recalls nostalgically just a few months later. “People got out of the way. If you sat on the grass, they didn’t block your view. I talked to this guy for two and a half hours after he lost track of his friends—I think I reminded him of his mother. He said to me, ‘I hope one day I can marry someone like you.’

Especially cool: the scenes of the hometown hero DaBaby and good-as-hometown heroes Petey Pablo and that Avett brothers. The Avetts have taken a lot of victory laps in Charlotte over the years, but DaBaby seemed visibly moved to play a big Mecklenburg County show. You can travel the world and become a platinum rap star, but what does that mean unless you can play to a huge crowd within walking distance of ImaginOn?

Proposal for 2025 to the promoters, Bob Durkin and Rob Pedlow of Southern Entertainment: More water stations. Don’t let the sound from different stages bleed into each other. Set up extra Blue Line trains at night. Make sure VIP wristbands don’t crowd out the common people. Up your booking game: more awesome, less dart board. But most of all, keep at it. It’s been 20 years since the beloved Center City Fest shut down, and Charlotte music fans need this.