Brainquility 2020 Blew All Expectations Out of The Water!
Brainquility Music Festival held its third annual funk-filled weekend from February 6th-8th and this year’s event blew all expectations out of the water! Though the weekend kicked off with a rocky start due to the unpredictable force of mother nature, curators at Ontap Music were not letting a little rain get in the way of their funk parade. Curators expanded the festival to include some more vendors on site and a third full day of music, but mother nature had other plans regarding our third full day. Despite a torrential downpour, attendees were still able to enjoy the fully immersive experience provided by Brainquility throughout the rest of the weekend.
Live painting at the Sound Stage by @MastroNYC during Brainquility 2020
Thursday kicked off at 3:30 PM with Night Crawler on the Live Stage, but it wasn’t long before all the power in the park went out. The stage crews and curators worked in overdrive trying everything they could to get the power back on. The power finally came back - about an hour or so before the torrential downpour was scheduled to hit us. As the rain hammered down on us, curators worked swiftly to open us the Music Hall at Suwannee to welcome anyone who wished to brave the rain and make a run for it. Sidetrakd and Defunk took the stage inside the Music Hall to keep the party groovin’ through the rain. Around 11 or so, the wrath of the rain began to ease up and soon we were back to clear skies for the weekend. To celebrate the passing of the torrential downpour, the Floozies took the Live Stage a little later than expected and brought the face melting funk that all the attendees had been craving all day. Though the rain threw everyone for a loop and some artists had to cancel their appearances for the weekend, curators at Brainquility Music Festival worked in overdrive to reschedule the rest of the weekend and work some of the canceled Thursday artists into the schedule for Friday and Saturday. After Brainquility 2020, it is clear that a little rain will now stop the funk parade at Spirit of Suwannee Music Park.
Friday morning came with an abundance of sunshine and good vibes. With the sun peaking from behind the trees, the birds were chirping and the Spanish Moss was dancing in the gentle breeze. Some attendees made their way to yoga workshops while others went face-first into a hashbrown bowl and space juice by the Grilled Cheese Incident. Hi. We are “the others”. There’s nothing like starting your day off with a cup of Space Juice from the Grilled Cheese Incident. For more information on these delicious eats available at Brainquility 2020 - stay tuned to our Bars N’ Bites page for the full, in-depth review! The day officially kicked off with Custard Pie on the Live Stage, followed up shortly by Dunstan Wallace & Friends on the Sound Stage. Brainquility curators do a quite exceptional job at having the two stages have different genres available for attendees. So if a funky, live band jam on the Live Stage isn’t your thing then you can boogie over to the Sound Stage for some deep house, EDM, or techno vibes. As the day danced on, Sidetrakd took the Sound Stage around 5 PM and shortly after the Lazy Syrup Orchestra brought the funk to the Live Stage. Attendees began packing into the Live Stage area and finding those primo spots to hang their hammocks and relax as they prepared themselves for Marvel Years to take the stage next. Marvel Years has a very unique, electro-funk meets rock n’ roll vibe that gets you up and dancing at the strike of the first chord. Just as he’s cutting into some deep and funky grooves on the decks, he breaks out his guitar to add that perfect amount of melody to the mix. Since Maddy O’Neal was unable to perform on Thursday, due to the unfortunate circumstances with the weather, Marvel Years threw “Viral Love”, featuring Maddy O’Neal, into his set to show her some mad love. The rest of the night was a full send from Russ Liquid at 9:30 to Manic Focus at midnight. Russ Liquid’s mix of deep bass with his funky trumpet riffs is a unique, groovy sound that he has truly made all his own. Closing out the night with Manic Focus was definitely one of the more high-energy performances of the weekend. Manic Focus only had a live drummer on stage with him and he still brings the heat like most full live band productions. This funk filled night with Marvel Years, Russ Liquid, and Manic Focus was the picture perfect build up to Saturday as these artists would be going b2b Saturday night under the name Brainchildren. After Manic Focus closed out the night, there was a full night of secret sets and campground wandering to be had by all who could withstand the chilly air.
Saturday morning came and there was a somber sense of last day vibes sprawling throughout the park. Some attendees could be seen packing up their campsites getting ready to peel out directly after the final band and others could be seen splayed out in their hammocks wishing there was another day of dancing to be had. The day officially kicked off at 2:00 PM with Boots N’ Catz on the Sound Stage and Row Jomah on the Live Stage shortly after. The highlight performances from Saturday were definitely MZG, Kill Paris, Brainchildren, Sunsquabi, and Justin Martin. MZG brought the house down with their deep, dubstep vibes and over the top energy. Watching these two play off each other during the performance is a spectacle all its own. Following their set up with Kill Paris was a perfect decision from the curators of the event. The deep funky dubstep vibes continued as Kill Paris remixed “Gonna Make Me Loose My Mind” by DMX and had every person as the Live Stage showing off their best dance moves. After gettin’ down and dirty to some deep, heavy dubstep vibes, attendees slowed it down just a notch with the performance from Brainchildren. The collaboration between Marvel Years, Russ Liquid, and Manic Focus had some smoother, funkier vibes oozing out of the PK sound system at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park amphitheater. This once in a life time collaboration between these three artists had all the attendees packing out the Live Stage to get a piece of this funky action. After this special collaboration between the Brainchildren, the night closed out with some Dirtybird action on the Sound Stage from Justin Martin and some electro-funk vibes from Sunsquabi on the Live Stage. Brainquility boasted a perfectly balanced line up where deep, heavy bass and electronic dance music meets at a cross road with some super groovy, rhythm-driven funk.
Brainquility Music Festival offers a fully immersive and interactive experience for all attendees to enjoy. From live painting their own creations to blowing glass on site, curators offer a wide variety of activities suitable for any age. Scattered throughout the park, attendees can find canvases by Dan Collins that depict various psychedelic patterns and pictures. These canvases are left with these simple, black-outlined psychedelic patterns so that attendees can stop and put their two cents in with some color! All throughout the weekend, attendees are invited to grab a marker and help bring these masterpieces to life. Brainquility also offers one of the few fully interactive merch experiences in the festival scene. Curators bring a full screen printing service on site that allows attendees to mix and match pre-set patterns and designs to craft their very own, unique t-shirt for the weekend. With a handful of designs to pick from and a variety of shirts, attendees have the opportunity to walk away with a one of a kind piece of Brainquility merch! If t-shirts aren’t your thing but you get down on some jewelry, Brainquility also offered a limited edition hat pin and the opportunity to blow your own glass pendant on site. Not many festival curators go the extra mile to make sure their attendees get hands on and have a creative spirit awakened within them. Brainquility is definitely setting the scene to be one of the top festivals at Spirit of Suwannee Music Park.
Brainquility Music Festival definitely went off with a bang this year! Though attendees were caught in a rainstorm on Thursday, a little rain won’t keep the brainiacs at bay. If anything, the extra time to take a nap on Thursday just fueled the brainiacs and sent their feet into dancing overdrive for the rest of the weekend. Brainquility Music Festival has grown exponentially since is first year in Safety Harbor, Florida. Curators at Ontap Music are happy to call Spirit of Suwannee Music Park their new home as it allows for more expansions to the festival layout and landscape.
Though the third day succumbed to the wrath of mother nature in 2020, attendees are on the edge of their seats for the 2021 announcement. We hope to fully immerse ourselves in a full, three day Brainquility experience next year that is filled with more creativity, more funk, more handcrafted food..and did we say more funk? It is clear that curators at Brainquility Music Festival are just getting started and we are looking forward to seeing the festival grow over the next few years. Stay tuned to Brainquility’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for more information regarding the 2021 return of the festival. Also, keep it locked here as we will update as soon as information unfolds. As always, stay hydrated, if you see something then say something, and we hope to see you at a festival this spring!
