Tag: lovin life music fest

After years of browsing lineups for events like Bonnaroo, Coachella and Lollapalooza, music enthusiasts in Charlotte now have their own music festival to fill the void: Lovin’ Life.

The line outside of First Ward Park in uptown grew quickly, with attendees clad in corset tops, flower headbands and four-inch inseams eager to get their first look at the festival grounds.

Before the gates opened on Friday, Bob Durkin, co-founder of Southern Entertainment, the company that brought the festival to Charlotte, said the event has been a long time coming for the city’s music scene.

“We’re excited,” said Durkin. “We’re from Charlotte, and we’ve been entertaining in other cities, so we’re really excited to bring this to our hometown.”

Durkin said he and his team tailored the lineup to cater to all music preferences, noting that the festival’s top-billed artists — Post Malone, Stevie Nicks and Noah Kahan — were the main attraction.

The lineup for the first couple of days of the festival also featured hip-hop artists DaBaby and Petey Pablo, modern country sounds from Jessie Murph and Shaboozey, moody pop and alternative performances from Holly Humberstone and David Kushner, and sets from former chart-topping bands The Fray and The Struts.

“Some of it may not be for you, but everyone has their own tastes,” Durkin said. “But I think our headliners talk to everyone.”

Hannah Wills and Safanah Barrak said the headliners were the deciding factor in their agreement to travel from Cleveland to Charlotte for their first music festival.

“This is actually my sixth time seeing Post Malone live,” Wills said. “And I’ve seen Stevie twice, since she’s my mom’s favorite artist.”

Despite the festival’s name, guests have had mixed reactions about the event.

A ‘complete disaster’?

While organizers described the festival as a “beacon of positivity and camaraderie,” some attendees took to social media to vent their frustrations about the show.

Aside from the weather, hourlong wait times for food, defective wristbands and second-rate VIP experiences were among the complaints from festivalgoers.

X user Kevin Harrish, who tagged the festival’s official account on the platform, wrote that the festival was a “complete disaster” before detailing the problems he had getting into the event. Harrish said the gate opened late and his wristband wouldn’t scan, further delaying his entrance to the festival — complications that “hundreds of people” experienced.

Another X user posted: “When you move the VIP behind the speakers…” accompanied by a photo of the main stage taken from the VIP area, implying that the view for tickets that costed hundreds of dollars was subpar.

“Let’s talk about ways to improve the experience,” the user posted hours later. “Glad the music was great. Lots of improvement can be had.”

Spreading the love

Though some likened the event to the infamous Fyre Festival, a 2017 event in the Bahamas widely considered to be a failure, not everyone shared the same experience as those who called out the festival on social media.

Shortly after the festival gates opened, Henry Brown and Jennifer Hartmann, who came from Maine, said they didn’t run into any problems and praised the organizers for how it operated smoothly (and how cheap the drinks were).

“The line wrapped around the entire block, but it went really quick,” Brown said. “Once we got inside, it was really well organized.”

Durkin admitted that there could be hiccups since its the first time Charlotte has hosted a music event with roughly 25,000 guests each day, and said he and his team plan to listen to any feedback festivalgoers provide.

He also had a message for everyone in attendance.

“We’re asking everyone to be patient,” Durkin said. “There’s a lot of things I’m sure we can improve on, and we’ll get to it. We’re just happy be here, music creates community, and people should be able to be patient and relax.”

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