Music festivals in RVA have a bit of a complicated history, but Mason Owen and Lucas Fritz might have broken the curse with The Shack Up Fest which returns to the Broadberry and the Camel this weekend.
Music festivals in RVA have a bit of a complicated history, but Mason Owen and Lucas Fritz might have broken the curse with The Shack Up Fest which returns to the Broadberry and the Camel this weekend.
Owen, bassist of locals The Shack Band, and Fritz, one of the owners at The Broadberry, had been working on the idea for a music festival for a long time. Originally they floated around the idea of calling it the “Shack off” But when they actually sat down and starting hammering out details, they realized a unique problem.
“You shack up with someone else,” Owen recalled somebody saying. “But you shack off by yourself.”
From there, 2015 played host to the first ever The Shack Up festival which hosted more than a dozen bands over two days at both venues. Owen said about 1000 people bought tickets to last year’s fest and he thinks that’s a good sign for this year’s event which starts this Friday.
“If you can make your inaugural year successful, than that’s half the battle,” he said.
As with any music festival, success is great, but the music is what really counts. Sure enough the line up spans some of Owen’s and Fritz’s local and touring favorites.
“We tried to curate a lineup of stuff we enjoy listening to and believe are about to go on to bigger and better things,” Owen said.
Including on the list NYC-based The London Souls:
“They’ve got this cool, old school Led Zeppelin power rock trio-feel,” Owen said about the band which will be headlining along side The Shack Band Saturday at The Broadberry. “[They’re] Just fronting this really cool vibe.”
Another act Owen is pumped to catch is Charleston, SC’s Stop Light Observation (STO).
STO is set to drop a new record, TOOGOODOO, which was recorded inside a 250-year-old house on the Toogoodoo River in their home state. They’ll be playing Saturday just after 5 PM on the outdoor stage.
“We think we are grabbing them on the way up,” Owen said.
Meanwhile, Fritz is pumped to catch another South Carolina-based band on the bill: Atlas Road Crew Friday night at the Broadberry.
“They bring great vibes with their high energy rock and roll,” Frtiz said. He’s also pumped, as always, to catch The Southern Belles as they perform in their monthly First Fridays residence at the Camel which will take place as part of the fest.
“The caliber of acts and involvement of the community has grown immensely from last year,” Fritz said ahead of this weekend’s event. “I’m excited to see it come together now that we worked some of the kinks out from last year.”
Owen and Fritz stressed the importance folks picking up the weekend pass which gets you into both venues at your leisure.
“It’s a short bike ride or a cheap uber between the venues,” Owen said. “So we hope people will take advantage of that.”
And as if all this music wasn’t enough, both Starr Hill and Bold Rock Cider will have unique brews on tap for fans as well. “[The drinks will be] appropriate for a 90 degree, 90% humidity outdoor event,” Owen joked.
So don’t spend your Friday and Saturday shacking off, instead head to either/both The Broadberry and the Camel for the Shack Up fest.
