This Weekend: BAND Live From Sacred Rose Fest | Plus, Five Acts You Don’t Want To Miss
Illustration by Andreas Aristides
A new festival is coming to Chicagoland. The inaugural Sacred Rose Festival kicks off this weekend, Aug 26-28, at the SeatGeek Stadium campus in Bridgeview. BAND Magazine will be on the ground among the “Rosebuds” all weekend long sharing a first look at the debut festival.
Described as a “blooming love-letter to the sweet sounds of Americana, Psych-rock, Jam, Indie, Soul, Funk and Bluegrass”, the fest will have dedicated stages for fans of different musical genres. It’s three main stages - The Canopy, The Vega, and The Dreamfield - will each have daily stage lineups curated to feel like its own full-length, genre-specific concert. Festival organizers are encouraging fans to treat it as a “choose your own” musical adventure.
Sacred Rose is also bidding farewell to what’s become the customary hour-long festival set time. Instead, some sets will extend from 75 to even three hours long. This change is mostly geared towards jam bands whose fans come wanting to see longer improvisational performances and hear deeper catalog cuts beyond the hits.
The festival is hoping to make the experience more fan-first and geared towards specific audiences. At least, that’s the goal of Collectiv Presents, Sacred Rose organizers and founders of festivals like North Coast, Hulaween, and Summer Camp.
“In the early days of North Coast, it was a multi-genre festival, but over the course of time, as that fanbase grew older, the Venn Diagram of these music genres [we offered] started to shift outward and the common space in the middle started to shrink,” explains Collectiv Presents co-founder Michael Berg. But, says Berg, “From that point, we started thinking of how we can service this other part of our community being the jam band/indie rock/psych rock/Americana/funk side of things that all had a presence at North Coast and were a big part of our ecosystem, too.”
If you can’t make the festival, have no fear. BAND will be on the ground providing daily coverage, artists interviews, festival highlights and more. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok all weekend long.
If you’re going to the festival, here are our five acts you don’t want to miss:
St. Paul & The Broken Bones
St. Paul & The Broken Bones | Source: Sacred Rose
The eight-piece modern soul outfit St. Paul and The Broken Bones is likely to be one of the wildest sets at Sacred Rose. Don’t believe us? Just keep your eyes glued on charismatic singer Paul Janeway. That’s if you can keep track of him bouncing around the stage and amongst the crowd.
Philco
Phil Lesh & Friend | Source: Sacred Rose
Aka Phil Lesh & Friends. Phil’s “friends” will include Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nels Cline, among others. Friday’s first ever look at Philco is scheduled for an impressive three hours and is likely to include plenty of surprises. Festival goers won’t want to miss this one.
Dawes
Dawes | Source: Sacred Rose
Dawes almost feels like they’re a band molded by the hands of Sacred Rose. Prior to their 2022 record, “Misadventures Of Doomscroller,” the band’s impressive catalog of seven studio albums appealed to fans of Americana, Indie, Soul, Funk and Bluegrass. Enter “Doomscroller”, an album that includes a nearly 10 minute single and not so subtle hints of inspiration from The Allman Brothers Band, and you’ve now got the attention of the jam band circuit.
Cory Wong
Cory Wong | Source: corywong.com
Fans of Cory Wong know he’s going to bring the energy and funky riffs to The Dreamfield stage on Saturday. Known for his signature, modern funk rhythm playing with his band Vulfpeck, his solo work shows off his lead chops (like we needed convincing) and is guaranteed to include those melt your face off jam band licks festival goers are paying for.
Animal Collective
Animal Collective | Source: Sacred Rose
Animal Collective is back on the road with a new album under their belt, “Time Skiffs,” which is their first since 2012 to feature all four members of the band. Known for their experimentation across their catalog of albums, one can expect their live performance to be equally as unexpected (in the best way possible).
BONUS: Margo Price
Margo Price | Source: Sacred Rose
Grammy-nominated, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Margo Price, will be the festival’s “Artist At Large,” performing impromptu sit-ins alongside multiple acts throughout the weekend. We’ll be playing the “Where’s Margo?” game all weekend long and encourage everyone to do the same.
For remaining tickets, daily lineups and more info on Sacred Rose Festival, visit sacredrosefest.com.
