Unfortunately I won't be able to make it this year. I went last year, it was pretty much the same line-up and I had a wonderful time. The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park is absolutely stunning! My advice is to pay the extra and show up on thursday so you can get a good camping spot. One thing though, BE VERY CAREFUL!! That place was CRAWLING with heat last year. If I remember correctly they made over 350 arrests the first night. Not only did they have undercovers everywhere, suited officers were just walking up on people's campsites and busting them.
Bears creek is such a different festival. Uniquely awesome to some, uniquely awfully to others. I personally have only been to one BCMF and I loved it. The place is beautiful, and intimate with lots of room to explore and camp. You can always walk up to the front row, even at the headliners. You can ride your bike around the campground, and feed hay to the horses in the pasture. But the place is crawling with narcs. Luckily I knew this before attending. As I rejected their offers to buy their substances, others accepted and got arrested right in front of me. This is a true drug/firework/nitrous free family fest with a great vibe.
with what willy said, i agree very much. there are great areas to hike walk or bike. theres lots going on nature wise. you can pick whereever you want to camp out with your car. i did notice that the narcs had special colored wrist bands so it wasnt hard to pick them out. the one that talk to him later caught someone and the cops had golf carts to catch em. be careful but its a beautiful place~
Hey guys. This is my first post here, I just got back from Bearcreek and right away searched for any forums discussing it on google to share the great experience. First, the cop presense was way less than lastyear. They were there, obviously, but I did not notice tons of undercovers (As opposed to last year where you saw the Alex Grey shirt-wearing narcs all over) nor did I hear of any of the arrest rates that I heard last year. Everyone was blazing freely and having a great time. As long as you weren't walking around yelling for doses, you were OK. Great herb was getting all over and there were even some good chocolates going around the first night. So the cop presence definitely did not hurt the awesome experience. That aside, the music was absolutely life-changing and incredible. Pnuma Trio and Perpetual Groove both delivered the best live performance I've seen (I've seen each multiple times) and were just mindblowing. The audience durring both shows were dancing in such unison, really beautiful stuff. The Jazz and Funk were off the chain, too. Lettuce and Ivan Neville were everywhere, tons of talented saxaphone, trumpet, trombone, and flute players. Really talented musicians with a great nack for jamming hard. It was just impossible to not dance through every set that played over the weekend. Best of all where the vibes. I've never been anywhere that felt as loving and friendly. I recieved random hugs and had my hand randomly held lots of times throughout the shows. Dubconcious played their very last set of the band's career sunday and discussed their reasons for disbanded (They can't devote enough time to their families and loved ones and touring and partying is distracting them from their spirituality, they even announced one member was expecting a baby soon). It felt really personal and their final encore was beautiful and had people in tears. I give the weekend a 10/10. The music was just incredible. All the popular acts like Lotus, Pgrove, Pnuma, Malah, Green Hit, Taubab Krewe, and others were not just great - They all shattered expectations. I think the musicians were feeling the same vibe I was because they jammed harder than I've ever seen. It was really special and I couldn't have had a better time. Hope whoever went had an amazing time also. Happy birthday Micha, it was my friends birthday over the weekend also (Who I went with). Very good place to celebrate!
thanks for the bday wishes. i missed the festival though we just couldn't come up witht the money on time..
Thanks for that review BumpinReel! Looks like I'll definitely have to make it out there next year, sounds like you had an awesome time! Glad to hear the cop presence was calmed down this year. Hopefully the same artists will come back again, the Neville Bros. are fantastic musicians who always put on a great show! Oddly enough, my friend's (who I went with last year) birthday also falls on that same weekend! Looks like we'll have to go next year to celebrate
The headliners (Neville, Pnuma Trio, Perpetual Groove, The Malah) come back every year along with plenty of other great bands. The only bad omission from last year's schedule was Yonder who said not enough people showed up which I thought was horseshit because it was by far the biggest crowd of the festival. Sure it wasn't tens of thousands but last year's Bearcreek was a small, intimate festival. They should've had a great time regardless and the crowd was great to them and really vibing but thats their decision. Most everyone else good from last year came back so I'd expect them to come back again. Definitely check it out next year, its growing so there might even be some bigger acts (Like this year added Zach Deputy, Taubab Krewe, and Lotus, which I think offset Yonder and then some).
