My son loves music, but he’s like, a kid, so we haven’t had a chance to take him to very many shows. When we saw that the Savannah Stopover Music Festival had a few all-ages venues and was free admission for kids under 12, we were like, “Hey, let’s see how this goes.” We bought tickets for the last day of the festival and planned to see as many bands as we could.
Lodging
It wasn’t a short drive to get to Savannah, so we were going to be staying overnight. The Stopover Festival is in Savannah’s dazzling historic district, and the hotels in the immediate area were not cheap. Things might have been more affordable if we had booked ahead, but we made our plans at the last minute, and everything available was a lot of money.
We opted to stay in the southern part of Savannah, about a ten-minute drive away from the festival, and saved a couple hundred dollars for our trouble. In the end, we spent a total of about an hour awake in our room, so it was well worth the trouble of the drive. Parents who are more prone to fatigue or drunkenness should balance this math differently, because the Savannah streets aren’t the greatest to navigate as an unfamiliar driver.
Parking
One of my main concerns with staying across town was parking. We arrived at the festival around 4:30 p.m., well ahead of the evening acts but also into the second hour of the day’s festivities, and found a fantastic street parking spot right near the three venues where we would be spending our time. Street parking is paid from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, so we paid for our spot through 7:59:59 p.m. at a grand total of about $7, conveniently collected at a terminal using our credit card.
It worked out well because we arrived early, but parking seemed fairly limited in the area, and I’m sure it was tough for those who arrived later for the headlining acts. One could certainly plan to park far away and walk, and I did notice that there were public parking garages available as well, so there are options available. I was pleasantly surprised by how things turned out, but I wouldn’t take that as an excuse to be too comfortable in the future, especially if arriving later in the day than we did.
Festival HQ and Getting Wristbands
Rather than being a fenced-off area for the festival, the venues for Stopover are scattered throughout Savannah’s historic district. This meant we were mixing with festival-goers, tourists, and partiers. We hadn’t heard of “Saint Practice Day” before, but apparently it’s a thing in Savannah, and despite St. Patrick’s Day not being for another week, the shamrocks and green beers were out in force.
Of the eight total stages in the festival, there were three all-ages venues available to us: the Congress Street Social Club, the Ships of the Sea Museum garden, and the the Trinity United Methodist Church. The bands on these stages overlapped with each other very little, so we were more or less a captive audience to whatever all-ages show was playing during a given hour. (That’s not really a complaint, because they booked great bands and I was not disappointed with what we saw.)
Unfortunately, the only place to pick up our wristbands was at Festival HQ, which was several blocks away from all of these venues and incredibly difficult to find due to lack of street numbers. We missed seeing Sam Lewis play because of this, but we ultimately found the place and secured our admission. Plan for some extra time to pick up your wristbands.
Venue #1: Congress Street Social Club
We first made our way over to the Congress Street Social Club. There we caught The Pauses, an Orlando power trio with a huge sound.
The band itself was great, and the venue would have been fine under most circumstances, but as a festival venue, it left some things to be desired. First, the restaurant/bar was open to the public, so it had me thinking, “Did we even need to buy tickets?” (Yes, we did. The other two all-ages venues required wrist bands.) Second, there was a big ass tree right in the middle of the courtyard where the band played, so the prime viewing space was obstructed (you can see in the photo above that we managed a spot just barely peeking around the tree). Here’s a wider view of the venue with the (honestly quite beautiful) tree in full view. This was from the single song we caught by Plastic Picnic.
As a parent, my main concerns with this venue were the smokers and the very loud amps in the enclosed courtyard. During particularly aggressive sections, I covered my boy’s ears with my hands, and eventually, a kind soul came up and gave us some ear plugs for him – which he promptly and repeatedly pulled out. Oh well. As for smokers, I guess that’s just existing in public in Georgia, but the other venues were far better in this regard.
Lulu’s Chocolate Bar
Right between Ships of the Sea and Congress Street Social Club sits Lulu’s Chocolate Bar.
One way, indeed.
This wasn’t part of the festival per se, but between Mom and Dad’s sweet teeth and our desire to get the boy a treat for his great behavior during the day thus far, we had to make this a part of our trip.
Ultimately the emphasis was more on bar than on chocolate, but there were quite a few food and beverage choices for the non-imbibers in your party. We got the peanut butter chocolate mousse cake to share, and it received the approval of the guest that really matters.
Venue #2: Ships of the Sea North Garden
The second venue was the garden at the Ships of the Sea Museum. We arrived upon its opening at 6:30 p.m., totally ready to see some music. The grounds were beautiful and provided plenty of space to run around and play for those who are so inclined.
This stage was unobstructed with plenty of space for people to stand. They had a makeshift bar on the side with medium-priced beers and mixed drinks (with themes like Savannah Sweet Tea and Montreal Mule). The bathrooms were huge and surprisingly clean, with straight-up changing tables available for parents. This venue was a huge step up over the last one.
After a slight wait, we saw our first band on this stage, the Nashville-formed Twen.
Featuring a charismatic singer who was weird in the very best sense of the word, a skilled guitarist and backup vocalist, and a strong rhythm section, Twen put on a hell of a show with a nice spacey vibe and a sound somewhat reminiscent of The Pixies. The crowd wasn’t too big at this point, so it was easy to get close to the stage with plenty of space for moving and dancing.
When New York’s Gus Dapperton came on, thing were starting to get quite a bit more crowded, and for good reason: he’s really good at playing music.
Not only that, but he was just funny, man. He introduced the band in a similar fashion as in this video, telling the audience that each of member of the group in turn was “six-foot-five” in addition to other humorous “facts.” Despite the goofiness in look and action, the dreamy pop melodies and danceable arrangements were a perfect setup for the headliners of the festival. Gus’s bass player was particularly good, playing intricate and rhythmic lines with apparent effortlessness.
By the time Athens, Georgia’s of Montreal came on, the crowd was packed in pretty densely, although I expected far worse. I secured what I thought would be a spot for our family a few rows of people back while my wife let the boy run off a little energy in between sets. As it turned out, the crowd pressed around me so tightly that the family wasn’t able to join me, and I was not really able to extract myself (and didn’t really want to, to be honest). The report is that my son enjoyed the set, especially the light show, from the grass – which was probably better for his ears, anyway. The nice thing is that there was plenty of space for him to safely run around while still being able to check out the show.
For their part, of Montreal dropped a new album the day before this show, and from what I can tell, we were the very first audience to hear live performances of “Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia” and “Plateau Phase/No Careerism No Corruption“, so that’s pretty cool.
Disappointingly, keyboardist Jojo Glidewell was missing, so the group played as a four-piece. Frontman Kevin Barnes did not address the absence on stage, and the sound was full, which makes me think there was some amount of prerecorded music used during the show. They did play a more guitar-focused set, though, so I like to hope what we heard was mostly produced live. Guitarist Bennett Dean Lewis and bassist Davey Pierce both had synths on hand, and they seemed to cover all the parts between them.
Besides the two new songs, the group mostly stuck to songs from 2007’s classic Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? with other hits from throughout the years scattered throughout. It was nice to hear “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” live, though they oddly only played half of this one before seguing into the highly catchy “It’s Different for Girls“.
The band does a lot to make sure the crowd enjoys the show. Every few songs, two or three people come out on stage in various costumes, dancing, throwing things into the crowd, just being cool or creepy or characteristic of the song. An of Montreal tradition seems to be threading hundreds of long, connected balloons into the audience, and this show was no exception.
Playing fifteen total songs, of Montreal had the crowd pumped and exuberant throughout the set, despite being down a man. It was super nice of my wife to watch from further back with our boy, as this was the only set of the night that I felt might have been a little too much had the small man been in the thick of things.
Venue #3: Trinity United Church
With the headliner in the books, it was time to embark on the gravy portion of the evening. We walked over to the nearby Trinity United Methodist Church and planned to see two more groups. Sure, it was late, and our boy was tired, but we didn’t come all this way to wimp out early – not unless it was clear he just couldn’t hang anymore, but his mood remained upbeat.
First up was the husband-wife duo The War and Treaty (with band). The main thing I have to say is, “Whoa.” Between showstoppers “Hi Ho” and “Down to the River” and some more tender, as-of-yet unreleased music, these guys ran the gamut of everything you want to feel during a musical performance. I reiterate: whoa.
It was an incredible set, packed to the brim with talent, energy, and power. With both husband and wife singing together and separately on lead vocals, it was a true duo, with neither seeming to be the primary driving force behind the music. You could feel the connection these two had – you could see it in the way they looked at each other during the other’s solos – and it was mesmerizing. And both of them could sing, man. This was a truly special event, and I’m glad we got to be witness to it.
The venue was great for the situation too. We parents were exhausted, and our son was really, really exhausted once we got a few songs in. Trying to balance whether to just leave and the fact that we came all the way out here for this, he mercifully made the decision for us by falling asleep in a pew toward the end of The War and Treaty’s set.
After the set, I went to use the restroom, which was awkwardly positioned in what they had set as the backstage area of this church. (The bathroom placement was by far the weakest point of the venue, and parents be warned, the men’s restroom did not have a changing table.) So in going to the restroom, I had to walk past the warming-up bands, and walked past the husband half of The War and Treaty. I said, “You guys were great, man. So good,” and he said, “Thanks, bro,” with a look in his eyes that said he really meant it, and he threw an arm around me. So that was pretty cool.
With the young lad sleeping, we gave ourselves permission to stay for the last set, and we’re sure glad we did! The final band of the day was Austin’s Wild Child – appropriate given the number of times I have called my son just that.
Touting a relatively huge seven-person lineup, Wild Child was a perfect, mellow, soulful way to close out the evening. With musicians on lead vocals/fiddle, baritone ukulele/ vocals, bass, drums, cello, keyboard/trumpet, and electric guitar/trombone, this indie pop band had a huge array of sounds at their disposal, and boy, did they use them well. Lead vocalist Kelsey Wilson croons with the best of them, and makes it seem easy at that. I may have been past the point of movement at this time of the evening, but my enjoyment remained sky-high.
Wild Child closed out a fantastic set and we drove back to the hotel, excitedly discussing our favorite moments from throughout the day.
You’re never going to find a music festival that’s perfect for bringing a kid, but Savannah Stopover was ultimately pretty accomaditing and entertaining. We will definitely be returning in the future – and with a more experienced young concertgoer in tow.
Photos not credited above taken by author, Danny Brown