Fool’s Paradise 2017 – More Funk Than You Can Shake A Booty At
Fool’s Paradise, the Lettuce-anchored festival in St. Augustine, went down March 31st and April 1st this year, and it absolutely lived up to its hashtag of #FunkFools.
The festival is held at St. Augustine Amphitheater, a great little venue bordered by Anastasia State Park. The venue itself is medium sized at a capacity of about 4,000 with large covered areas, some small grassy areas and a great parking lot scene. Entry into the venue was very quick and easy, and within moments of arrival everyone was raging. Everyone I spoke with said that the VIP Camping Packages were outstanding and were the way to go. The festival teamed with the state park to bundle campsites with VIP tickets. Every campsite had electricity and water as well as a picnic table and a fire ring. The sites are a short walk from the venue and a short walk to the beach. The VIP camping packages also included a poster and tickets for the late-night sets as well as other perks.
Both days had the music starting a little later in the afternoon, and, thanks to the venue allowing for re-entry, everyone had ample time to check out the great parking lot scene. There were lots of people selling merchandise, numerous food trucks, and hundreds of people having a giant party outside.
The Amphitheater itself has lots of food and drink vendors inside as well, with very reasonable pricing. There were even water fountains with bottle fill stations which were very welcome, since this is Florida and even in April it still gets hot during the days.
We arrived late on Friday, so we missed Organ Freeman as well as Manic Science. On a side note, driving anywhere near Orlando even early in the afternoon on a Friday is a nightmare. I don’t know what Florida is going to do about the area, but traffic through Central Florida is a nightmare.
Lettuce took the stage, and to give an idea of just how intense their set was, they *opened* with “Mt. Crushmore.” The funk kept chugging through “Ziggowatt,” “Bowler” and more. Then they turned it up another notch with the addition of guest Oteil Burbridge on “Slippin’.” As if that weren’t enough, then they brought out Vulfpeck’s Antwaun Stanley for “Knock Yourself Out.” They brought Antwaun back out at the end of the set as well for the closer “Do It Like You Do.”
Friday’s closer was Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, and, for my money, they had one of the most powerful sets of the weekend. They opened with a great funky jam that went right into “Good Lovin’,” and the music never really stopped the entire time. About ¾ of the way through the set Oteil came back on stage and stayed with them the rest of the set. They closed out with one long piece of “Dancing In The Streets” into “Brown Eyed Women” into “I Know You Rider.” Seeing the entire venue smiling, dancing and singing along to “Rider” was a phenomenal moment.
Unfortunately, as the venue is in a state park, there is a hard cutoff for sound at 10:30, but that didn’t mean the party was stopping. It was back out into the parking lot for a quick recharge of food and water and then a very short walk across the parking lot to the Elks Lodge for the late-night sets. It’s less than a five-minute walk from the entrance of the amphitheater to the entrance of the Elks. The Elks Lodge is just that, the meeting hall for the local Elks. It’s larger than expected but still not a particularly large venue. They had beer and water available for purchase and a room that held a couple hundred people. It felt a bit like we were seeing these awesome bands in a high-school rec room.
First up for the late-night set was Jaw Gems. They played a mix of funk and electronica that was a good kickoff for the night. Next up was Eric Krasno Band, who really ramped things up. Friday ended with the Infinity Jam with Krasno, Oteil and others.
Saturday was a full day of events. Like Friday, the music did not start up until later in the afternoon. One of the great things about Fool’s Paradise, though are the Artist Excursions. This year the choices were among a Ping-Pong Tournament with Adam Deitch and Adam Smirnoff, Putt Putt with Jesus Coomes, Antwaun Stanely and Lyle Divinsky, and a boat trip with The Shady Horns. We opted for the boat trip. We met up with the boat at 11:45 am in downtown St. Augustine (BTW – parking in St. Augustine is a NIGHTMARE. We almost missed the boat). The boat took us out and cruised around the shoreline while we were entertained by a playlist curated by Ryan Zoidis and Eric “Benny” Bloom. There were ample chances to chat with the band members, and the boat provided beer and water. It was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
Between the boat ride, grabbing some lunch, a change of clothes and an uber to the venue, we missed the afternoon early sets by Florida bands Ajeva, The Groove Orient and Ben Strok and the Full Electric as well as the first main stage set by The Main Squeeze. At 5:15, The Motet took the stage, and there was no stopping for the rest of the night. This is a band that knows how to start a dance party, and singer/fountain of energy Lyle Divinsky knows how to turn it up to 11. Watching this band crank everyone up as the sun was setting was a great moment that had the whole place bouncing. I’ve said before that if it was possible to somehow channel Lyle’s energy, I’m fairly certain we could power most of the continental United States indefinitely.
All day on Saturday Florida-based one-man band El Dub was playing sets out in the courtyard at the front of the amphitheater. He did a great job crafting highly danceable live-looping pieces. It was the perfect addition to the bright, sunshine-filled day.
After The Motet, next up were The Floozies. This two-piece live funk/electronica act is comprised of brothers from Lawrence, Kansas. Matt plays guitar and handles the electronics, while Mark plays drums. They have been steadily climbing the ranks of festivals throughout the country, and they had a constant buzz amongst the crowd at Fool’s Paradise leading up to their set. They did not disappoint, to say the least. They came out swinging with heavy, hard-hitting funk right out of the gate, and the addition of the Shady Horns from Lettuce put things over the top. By the time they were done everyone was on the floor raging hard.
Lettuce had the final set of the night, and it was a monster from start to finish. They played hard and fast going right up against the 10:30 sound cutoff. Coomes came out in a great mask but ditched it after the first song. They brought out Antwaun again for songs like “Funky Duck” and closed out their set with favorite “Squadlive.” It was clear the crowd was here for Lettuce, and both the audience and band reveled in the joy of their 1 ½-hour-plus set. Everyone on both sides of the rail was on fire and loving every minute of it.
Finally, the sound ordinance forced the band to wrap up after a short encore (the only encore I saw all weekend), and things moved over to The Elks Club after another brief stop in the parking lot for some food and to check out the assortment of things for sale.
Saturday at The Elks was all about keeping the funk going. Only two acts were on the lineup: Dumpstaphunk and a Dumpstaphunk superjam called Fools For Funk. Dumpstaphunk started up, and it was impressive. The club itself was absolutely packed wall to wall for this. They absolutely killed it from start to finish. I’m not sure there ever really was a break in the music from about 10:30 until 2 am, when the club closes. It was hot, sweaty, loud and awesome. The band seemed to flow naturally from song to song, and slowly people came on and off until the band on stage had become the Superjam group, seemingly without ever missing a beat.
Once everyone stumbled out into the early morning air to cool off and calm down, there were smiles for miles. All weekend I never heard a single negative thing from anyone in the crowd, and I asked around. The raves about the benefits of the VIP Camping packages, the not massively overpriced drinks and food, the ease of getting around the venue as well as the camping – all of it combined to make a good festival great. These types of festivals where not everyone is camping on site can quickly feel disconnected and break the immersion that makes going to a festival the wonderful escape that it is. Fool’s Paradise balances that out very well and provides a fantastic value for the price.
Fool’s Paradise absolutely made us all #FunkFools, and we can’t wait to get back next year!
Scroll down for galleries of photos from both Day 1 and Day 2.
Fool’s Paradise 2017 Day 1 Photos
Fool’s Paradise 2017 Day 2 Photos
