BFD is an annual music festival held by the radio station Live 105 that I have been attending since 2015. The festival is divided into four different stages—a main stage (where the biggest artists usually play), two Bud Light Festival Stages, and the Local Band Stage—and one tent, the Subsonic Tent, mostly for the festival’s more electronic acts. This year the festival’s headlining act was Pheonix. I had only heard a few of Phoenix’s songs before the festival and I was kind of surprised that they were headlining BFD, but my friend told me that they headlined Coachella in 2013 so I expected that their set would be good. Although I wouldn’t be staying through their whole set, I was still excited to see them perform live, and there were other artists that I was excited to see at BFD, such as Franz Ferdinand and Marian Hill. With so many things happening it is hard to pinpoint exactly what to review and rate but I have broken it down into the venue, audience, best acts, and headliners.
While I have enjoyed BFD more in past years, I wasn’t really into their lineup this year. The audience wasn’t as lively as usual either, but I still did encounter some interesting people. At one point though, I found out that one of the festival’s acts, Andrew Mcmahon in The Wilderness, was actually also a member of the band Jack’s Mannequin. I never really listened to them but they had this one song that I really liked. I wasn’t really paying attention to their set until I heard the beginning of one of my favorite songs, “Dark Blue,” and I was in total shock. My friend had no idea why I was so amazed to learn that he was in Jack’s Mannequin, but hearing that song live brought back so many memories because I would listen to that song all the time when I was in middle school.
Even though I will be graduating from high school soon and I hope to move to the East Coast, perhaps I’ll still be able to come back every year and continue to go to BFD. Through BFD, I have gotten to listen to new artists and meet some pretty interesting people over the years. The fact that the festival also allows fans to meet their favorite artists (and watch the people at Live 105 interview artists) adds to the amazing experience at the festival. Because of BFD, I have always had something to look forward to in the beginning of Summer, and this year’s festival did not do anything to change that.
