Lighthouse Beer Festival, an annual festival in Wilmington, NC, was a blast this past Saturday. Perfect, gorgeous, North Carolina weather, over 70 international breweries, featuring their finest, lagers,IPAs, and Oktoberfest on tap for all to enjoy. Local resident Stephen Munk simply and perfectly describe the day, in an on camera interview with a local news channel, “it’s just wonderful!” What more could you possible ask for?
The only thing more you could would be for some great music all day to accompany the perfect weather, and the delicious beers; thank you Acoustic Syndicate and Onward, Soldiers, for adding to the wonderful atmosphere we were all now in.
Acoustic Syndicate has been playing together for 17 years, so I wasn’t too surprised after they started to play and everything in their set clicked in perfect harmony. The sounds of the banjo, acoustic and bass guitar blending so smoothly with the standup bass; Oh how I love any band with stand up bass. What they created was a very positive sound, and through their high energy performance, transcended that positive energy throughout the crowd.
Started by covering, Marley’s, “Three Little Bird,” they instantly had everyone on the Syndicate train, one in which no one would de-board until the festivals end. Man the stand-up bass was killing it. Next, playing through their own material, they had the front of the amphitheater packed with drunk college kids dancing, as well as the drunker, recent grads pleading with us to stay in school, living vicariously though us for the weekend, before it was back to Charlotte, Raleigh, or Durham for work on Monday.
Unfortunately most in attendance at BeerFest couldn’t care less about the great music we were witnessing in the front, and instead were going tent to tent, line to line, and awkward, drunk and unnecessary hello and goodbye with random acquaintance to the next. Not my ideal idea of fun, but its all about balance, and there is a time and place for everything, I suppose.
The soulful, bluegrass style funk of the Syndicate, along with no clouds, a shining sun, and the best beer; euphoric, bliss, perfection.
Beer of the day goes to Good Vibes, a local Wilmington brewer, who brewed a 9% delicious IPA, enjoyed and talked about by many at BeerFest.