If you were at the Miami Valley Music Fest this year, then you saw and heard all the amazing talent and experienced the love, but for those of you who missed it and those of you who’d like to reminisce, I’ve got a festival wrap up for ya and some great pictures from my good friend and business partner, Jimmy C.!
Jimmy and I were particularly excited about this event! Not only have we had fantastic experiences at this festival previously, but this was our first chance to hold our own official event booth for Music Connection Dayton! Thanks to the many wonderful donations to our recent Kickstarter, we were able to start the beginnings of a mobile event space to showcase Dayton area music, and Miami Valley Music Fest ended up being an awesome place to start!
FRIDAY:
When we arrived early Friday afternoon, the campgrounds were already beginning to fill up, and you could feel the excitement and the electricity in the air as all of the other vendors and campers moved in gear and the 
temperature started rising. The sun was beating down on us pretty good by the time we set up our booth and began working on our own camps, but then, just in time, Nate and Bob arrived to help us finish. Storm clouds started rolling in on us across the horizon, and we ended up with a pretty good spat of rain. That cooled things down a bit, and then the skies gave us the most beautiful double rainbow, complete from end to end, for a good 5 or 10 minutes. We all took that as a sign that the rest of the weekend would be fabulous, and that it was!
Photo by Mark Satterfield
With 50 different acts on 4 stages, we can never catch them all. The additional catches of holding down our event booth and wanting the chance to meet folks at our booth also kept us sitting tight for a good portion of the weekend, but with much thanks to Nate and Bob, we were still able to step away quite a bit and catch some of the acts up close and personal. Let me tell you! None of them disappointed in any way!
From Friday’s lineup, we were able to catch Will C. and Family, D Funk All Stars, Magic Jackson, Mark Cantwil, Trey Stone and the Ringers, Sean Finnigan and Lost on Iddings, and Signs of Life – The Essence of Pink Floyd!
When the rain rolled through, Will C. and Family’s set got delayed, and then we thought they might not get to play at all. It cleared up pretty quickly though, and with their always fun and laid-back style, they got the main stage jammin’ right away! Magic Jackson delivered us the funk on stage 2, and that’s when I really started to get my boogie on! Mark Cantwil gave a soulful, solo performance on the acoustic stage, and it was really cool to have a chance to see him LIVE after listening to him for months now on W937 Dayton Radio!
In between sets, festival organizers treated us to some yummies from Basil’s in Troy that 
were just outstanding and really kept us going until late in the evening. Trey Stone & the Ringers, who brought us right back around to some more killer music, and 
then finishing out the evening, we caught Sean Finnigan & Lost On Iddings as well as Signs of Life – The Essence of Pink Floyd playing a special “Live at Pompeii” set that 
had the crowd pumped and asking for more! We’d experienced a lot of great music throughout the day and had plenty of opportunities to chat with folks about Dayton music as well as the good folks at The Gem City Podcast and Troy Community Radio. We worked up a pretty good appetite by then, but this time, The Crazy Redheaded Canteen had the hookup! We proceeded to stuff ourselves on “The Motherload” sandwich and “Trailer Tots” before passing out happy as clams in our tents.
SATURDAY:
From Saturday’s lineup, we had the chance to boogie down with Scott Lee & the Whiskey River Boys, Subterranean, Jah Soul, Elementree Livity Project, Glostik Willy, Paige & the Belairs, The Almighty Get Down, Emily & the Lost Cat Ramblers, Tony Red Band, Sharon Lane, Kris B.’s Midnight Railroad, Terrapin Moon, and we got to finish out the weekend with some of the most killer jams ever from Grover!
Emily & the Lost Cat Ramblers started off our morning with some fine dancing under the tent on stage 3. Then Scott Lee & the Whiskey River Boys brought just the right energy to the main stage with them, and the audience responded in kind! After that amazing start to the day, Paige & the Belairs added their unique flair to the event, matching Paige’s beautiful and passionate singer-songwriter stylings with just a touch of humor and light!
We headed back to our booth for a while and had the chance to catch up with Manfred and Ashley, from Taffy’s in Eaton, who were out promoting for the Eatonic Music Festival. Music Connection Dayton is the exclusive online source for info on this very cool Labor Day weekend festival featuring the legendary, Buddy Guy, along with 30 other talented acts, and it was an absolute delight to catch up with Manfred and Ashley for a few minutes as they made their rounds!
Racing back to the main stage later, we were lucky to catch a couple songs from the end of Subterranean’s set. When these guys perform, it is always a highlight for us! They are some of the most talented musicians and
coolest cats around in our opinion, and there is a lot of 
talent around! A little later, we made our way across the campgrounds to catch Ms. Sharon Lane, who was the highlight of the acoustic stage for the weekend and filled up the hill in front of her with loving friends and fans who just can’t stand to miss her performances.
Jah Soul knew exactly how to rock the main stage, exploding with love and groove from every one of them, and Tony Red Band, Glostik Willy, The Almighty Get Down, Terrapin Moon, and Kris B.’s Midnight Railroad all rocked their sets and kept the energy rolling all night long. The real highlight of our Saturday night though came when Yellow Springs’ band, 
Grover, took over stage 3! There was just this crazy energy that had been building throughout the day, and within a matter of minutes, the area under the canopy was filled with swaying, bumping bodies and ear-to-ear smiles. I couldn’t help myself! I had to move and groove with everyone! The sore feet the next day were signs of a GREAT time, and the happiness that came out of this live experience was one I will not soon forget! The rest of the crowd won’t either based on the group of folks who shouted “encore” over and over and begged the band to play more! The cats from Grover are supremely awesome though and gracefully left the stage so that more music and dancing could commence!
We had an absolutely amazing time with all the wonderful music and cool vendors, but a huge part of these kinds of events is also the camaraderie and social aspect of meeting up with old friends and making new ones. We saw a whole lot of great folks who we know and love, and we were stoked for the chance to share the good word about Dayton area music with so many new folks! Having other local media there like Gem City Podcast and Troy Community Radio also really gave us encouragement that a cool new musical movement (pun intended) is starting to unfurl it’s sails here in our area! We are extremely excited about what the future holds for Dayton music, and this was one heck of a way to keep that growth moving forward! THANK YOU to all of the tireless organizers and volunteers and sound & light crews who helped make this event possible for the 10th year in a row! It was awesome!
Check out some really cool pics from Jimmy C. (and a handful from myself as well as a fan pic or two), below!
Music Connection Dayton 