On Friday morning, vendors, volunteers and AthFest Educates staff worked to set up for the first day of the 2022 AthFest Music and Arts Festival. The popular Athens music festival showcases a variety of talented Athens musicians across five different stages and venues over the course of three days.
AthFest has not taken place since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, it returned in full force on Friday with people crowding Washington Street to see music, shop from vendors and participate in all of what AthFest has to offer.
Just getting started
By around 4:30 p.m., most of the setup was fully prepared for the attendees to begin arriving at the festival. 150-200 volunteers came to help this weekend at AthFest, according to an AthFest volunteer coordinator.
A long line of vendor’s tents stretched from North Lumpkin Street past North Hull Street waiting in the shade in anticipation for the festival to begin. Vendors sold all kinds of merchandise, including clothes, jewelry, art and decor.
The first show began at 5 p.m. when alternative-rock group A.D. Blanco kicked off the festival on the Wicked Weed Stage by playing “Where Are You Now?” and one of their most popular songs, “Serotonin.” A crowd formed quickly at the stage and continued to grow bigger and bigger throughout the night.
Indie rock group lighthearted started off the music on the Hull Street stage at 5:30 p.m. and was followed by alternative-rock band Convince The Kid at 6:20 p.m.
The crowd gradually grew in size and many attendees flocked to the shaded areas of the festival to see the performers. The weather in the evening was partly cloudy with a slight breeze that cooled off attendees as they enjoyed the live music.
Musician Jeremy Trimmer attended AthFest this year for the first time in several years. Trimmer has played in bands at AthFest several times and was scheduled to perform last year before it was canceled. Trimmer is playing saxophone for the Modern Skirts and the Quiet Hounds this weekend and is happy to see AthFest make its return as both an attendee and performer.
“It’s Friday at 6 p.m. and there is already a really big crowd of people that miss this environment and miss this festival and what it means to Athens,” Trimmer said. “It’s a long tradition of great music and great bands here. We have missed out on that the past couple of years.”
KidsFest made up the third outdoor stage for the evening and featured performances from younger bands in middle school and high school. The performers were Smith Larrison at 6 p.m., Dry Season at 7 p.m. and Surrender Cobra at 8 p.m.
In full swing
The first day of AthFest consisted of a wide variety of attendees of all shapes, sizes and ages including both people and dogs. By 6:30 p.m., the walkway for the vendors was packed with event goers perusing what each tent had to offer.
The Wicked Weed Stage continued with performances from the pop-rock band Heffner at 5:50 p.m. and the rock band GrandVille at 6:45 p.m. Both bands were outfitted stylishly in their own unique way. Each member of Heffner’s five piece band had their own distinct attire, while Grandville members sported a more country style with a cowboy hat and large belt buckles.
The sun began to go behind the buildings on Hull Street around 7 p.m. and a large crowd grew to see Elijah Johnston perform at 7:15 p.m. on the Hull Street Stage. Johnston brought a band of seven people to the stage to play songs off of his latest album “Day Off” and his most popular song “Sultan of Schwinn.”
Many attendees stood in line at food trucks in between music breaks with the longest lines being for BBQ, snow cones and popsicles to stay cool in the summer heat. The crowd seemed to hit its highest level around 8 p.m. as alternative R&B artist Convict Julie took to the Wicked Weed Stage at 7:50 p.m. and indie-rock band Neighbor Lady performed on the Hull Street Stage at 8:20 p.m.
Convict Julie was looking forward to getting to perform on Friday and the performance marks the start of a national tour for the artist.
“I’m very excited because I’ve never been to AthFest. As long as I’ve been in Athens it has been canceled,” Julie said. “To be able to play the main stage is exciting, so I am stoked.”
During AthFest, Athens-Clarke County police officers and AthFest security personnel monitored the festival throughout the evening as crowds walked back and forth across all three outdoor stages. As the event progressed into the night, the attendance continued to rise but it was seemingly nothing but smiles from everyone attending.
Drawing to a close
Most of the crowd that was originally spread across the entire festival made their way to see the last outdoor performance of the evening with the popular local band Hotel Fiction performing at the Wicked Weed Stage at 9 p.m.
The entire space made for the stage was filled and overflowed to the sidewalks and beyond as the crowd waited in anticipation for Hotel Fiction to perform. The people talked amongst themselves while waiting, and after a slight delay the band began their set.
The band played many of their songs including “Think Twice,” “Out of My Head” and their biggest hit, “Astronaut Kids”. The band was thrilled to play in front of such a large audience that danced, sang and clapped along to each song.
“We’ve never played to a crowd this big before,” lead-singer Jade Long said.
The band finished their set, but came back on stage to perform a cover of “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers. Once the song ended, many attendees started to make their way to the late-night shows taking place at the Georgia Theatre and 40 Watt Club.
The outdoor portion of AthFest packed up and the vendors closed their tents for the evening as crowds lined up for the late-night venues.
Attendee and Athenian Maggie Miller came out to see her friends in Hotel Fiction perform and enjoyed seeing the community come together on the first day of the festival.
“I think it's a great community building event to get people out of the house, even if it is really hot,” Miller said. “It is nice to be out here and see everybody.”
The Georgia Theatre held indoor performances by Wiecua at 10:30 p.m., Linqua Franqa at 11:30 p.m. and indie-rock band Monsoon at 12:30 a.m. Eight additional performances took place on the Georgia Theatre rooftop.
The 40 Watt Club hosted performances from Palace Doctor at 10 p.m., Night Palace at 11 p.m. and Modern Skirts at midnight.
With the first day of AthFest in the books, most Athenians have been glad to see the Athens staple return. AthFest continues on into Saturday, the longest scheduled day of the festival, with music starting at noon.
