Photo by Chris Cleary
by Anthony Salupo
This past weekend Funkadelphia had a chance to travel into our own backyard of Barto, PA for the first ever Luna Light Music and Arts Festival. As the festival shuttle took us deeper into the mountainous woods of eastern Pennsylvania, the worries of reality rushed away like the trees outside the windows. In its debut year, the festival reflected all the luxuries of a smaller community gathering. The environment was friendly and relaxed, you could hear at least one or two stages no matter where you were camped, and it was only about a five minute walk from one side of the festival grounds to the other. The size of the crowd made it very likely to run into the same people multiple times making for friendships that lasted a weekend instead of a few hours, and possibly forever.
The festival also offered an extremely diverse lineup with some insanely unique jam bands as well as some very impressive electronic acts. Spreading itself over a massive spectrum of music, Luna Light called on the awesome musical talents of artists of all styles and sizes, ranging from local acts to internationally touring performers.
Yet, Luna Light also managed to go beyond the call of just musical lovers. Visual masterpieces, from live paintings, to art installations, and digitally mapped 3-D structures spanned across the grounds. Notable installs came from Peter Zebbler, who constructed a unique piece just for the festival’s main stage. With over 10 live painters settling into canvases over the beautiful weekend, names like Adam Psybe, Andy Reed (aka Infinite Geometry) and Jonathan Solter just touch on the talent featured.
Each night the festival came to full life, giving birth to a surge of fire artists spinning everything to wands to hoops and poi. The trees gave way to plenty of shady and pleasant campsites, spread out a loose comfortable free-form pattern, rather than a compressed barricade. With so many impressive aspects to a first year festival, we can’t help but hope that Luna Light will return in 2015.
Luna Light Festival – Website // Facebook // Twitter
Luna Light 2014 Official Recap
Friday
Particle: Upon arrival, we were blessed with the sound of Particle, a very new school rock ‘n’ roll jam band that almost has a little Daft Punk flavor to it. The four member group was a great act to start the festival off with a bang.
Particle – Website // Facebook // Twitter
DJ Russo: A last minute addition to the line-up, taking the place of Kyala Scantilla, DJ Russo had a chance to throw down on the Hex Stage. He threw down a very high energy set that consisted of some very funky jazz infused glitch-hop.
Shpongle: The main event of the weekend was definitely the Simon Posford DJ set the first night. One of the godfather’s of psychedelic dance music, Simon honored the title with an absolutely breath taking set. His audio was accompanied by an amazing 3D graphics visual art display by Zebbler (also part of the Zebbler Encanti Experience). As your brain was trying to decipher the messages your eyes were trying to send it, you could feel the music making its way through your body. You then feel yourself getting swept away by the music, and as it changes you change with it. This was a performance that satisfied all human hungers.
Shpongle – Website // Soundcloud // Facebook
Saturday
Out of the Beardspace: The sun was shining bright Saturday afternoon as we stretched out a blanket and got down to Out of the Beardspace. This full out ensamble had a plethora of instruments that even included a konga drum. A very unique jam band with a very light and airy groove, yet there was a splash of metal here and there.
Out of the Beardspace – Website // Facebook
Tweed: Tweed brought a fresh and uplifting presence to Luna Light. They had a very interesting groove similar to that of Papadosio, but with a little bit more glitch, as well as some real in your face style of funk.
Tweed – Website // Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter
The Indobox: This jam band out of Boston, MA made its way into the mountains to show us what they can do, and they certainly were impressive. The Indobox brought a very classic rock twist to the jam band, and also had some fantastic stage presence. You can check out more from these crowd pleasers on their new album Shapes and Colors.
The Indobox – Website // Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter
Lettuce– When Lettuce comes to play, you better be prepared to make a funky sandwich. These guys bring the funk so hard it is nearly impossible to not get up and groove. No matter the stage, Lettuce always comes to party and satisfy the lust for funk.
Lettuce – Website // Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter
Additional Photos by Harry Wilkinson:
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