Staying true to the vision of variety, The Rites of Spring music festival brought together genres for many tastes this weekend at Vanderbilt.
The set on Friday began with Archive Nights, followed by the vintage-tuned Beaker Street Blues band.
Gloriana brought joy to the country fans by performing some of the group’s new songs – including current single “Kissed You Goodnight.”
Fitz and the Tantrums, who recently played at Coachella, faced a heavy rain during half of their performance. The rain caused most of the crowd to hide under tents and scurry for dry spots.
To close out the night, MUTEMATH kicked off their performance with a parade to the stage, winding between the wet masses of an excited audience.
Saturday‘s performances started with Lockwood Barr, followed by Austin based folk/rock band Friendly Savages and rapper Chancellor Warhol.
Tyler Hilton’s entrance was marked with screams from teenage girls. Hilton brought songs from his new album “Forget The Storm” and the “One Tree Hill” soundtrack. Nashville’s own Caitlin Rose followed Hilton right before sunset.
A quick temperature shift to the 50s at sunset brought out the coats and blankets as well as Georgia based band, Reptar. Several audience members grumbled about the festival needing to change the name to “Rites of Winter,” but the chilly air seemed only to encourage people to jump to their feet and sing to keep warm.
Disc jockey Wick-It the Instigator made good of his title by instigating an even more excited crowd for the last couple of acts.
After a quick change of setting and the addition of MANY onstage amplifiers, Sleigh Bells literally moved the crowd with the duo’s noise pop/dance punk style. The energetic vocalist, Alexis Krauss jumped and bounced around the stage following the glow tape markers.
The crowd got a little antsy during the 30-minute delay prior to main act Wiz Khalifa and showed their impatience with shouts of “We want Wiz!”
Wiz, decked in several layers of varying styles of clothing, took to the stage with his illuminated mic stand and covered Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.” He then added his brand new single “Work Hard, Play Hard,” a song the rapper had only performed once before, to his set.
Much to the delight of the pumped fans, the night wrapped with Wiz’s biggest hit “Black and Yellow.”