Fans of great music and sustainable, local cuisine have equal reasons to rejoice about the imminent return of the Sweetlife Music & Food Festival. Presented by Sweetgreen, a natural food restaurant based in DC with 16 locations in the DMV areal, the fourth annual Sweetlife Festival will take place on Saturday, May 11, at Merriweather Post Pavilion. And your friends at RVA Magazine want you to see it for free!
Fans of great music and sustainable, local cuisine have equal reasons to rejoice about the imminent return of the Sweetlife Music & Food Festival. Presented by Sweetgreen, a natural food restaurant based in DC with 16 locations in the DMV areal, the fourth annual Sweetlife Festival will take place on Saturday, May 11, at Merriweather Post Pavilion. And your friends at RVA Magazine want you to see it for free! Featuring an incredible lineup of local and international acts on two different stages, there’ll be great music to enjoy throughout the day at Sweetlife Festival. At the top of the bill is French indie band Phoenix, who will be releasing Bankrupt!, the long awaited followup to 2009’s hugely popular Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, in only two short weeks–so by the time Sweetlife takes place, you should be able to sing along with all of their new tunes. Co-headliners the Yeah Yeah Yeahs will also release a new album, Mosquito, by the time Sweetlife takes place, so this will be your first chance to see both of these amazing groups perform their new material in a live setting. Also performing will be Kendrick Lamar, whose album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City might have been the most critically acclaimed hip hop album of 2012, party-starting indie-dance group Passion Pit, up-and-coming blues-rock guitarist Gary Clark Jr (whose dad did NOT play for the Washington Redskins), dance-pop singer Solange (whose sister IS married to Jay Z), and dubstep violinist/YouTube star Lindsey Stirling.
Phoenix
But that’s not all Sweetlife Festival has to offer! Since it’s being presented by a restaurant with roots in the local and organic food movements, Sweetlife features an extensive array of food vendors that are far from the typical hamburger stands you’d find on the concourse at any other festival. With five different food areas, each of which is organized according to a different theme, Sweetlife is just as worth attending for the food as it is for the music. In addition to an area devoted to the wares of sponsoring restaurant Sweetgreen, there’s The Market, an area where you’ll find delicious organic snacks from KIND Snacks, Sticky Fingers, Bakery De France, and more; The Wharf, where fresh seafood from the Rappahanock River and the Chesapeake Bay will be served; The Locals, where plenty of great DC-area restaurants will allow you to sample their wares; and The Tavern, which is devoted to high quality craft beer and wine from the DMV area, including Flying Dog, Chocolate City Beer, Mountain State Brewing, and more! There’s so much great food available that you just might forget to watch the bands–but seriously, don’t do that, as the music’s going to be great as well.
With all this amazing music and food crammed into one amazing day, this festival for the senses truly promises to live up to its name. It promises to be a highlight of the long, hot summer of 2013, regardless of the fact that it’s taking place in the middle of Spring. If anything, this will be a bonus, as it might be slightly less than boiling hot at Merriweather Post on the second Saturday in May. So beat the rush, avoid the worst of the heat, and have a great music festival experience at the 2013 Sweetlife Music & Food Festival!
WHAT: Sweetgreen Presents The Fourth Annual Sweetlife Music & Food Festival!
WHO: Phoenix, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gary Clark Jr, Solange, Lindsey Stirling, Holy Ghost!, Youth Lagoon, Haerts, Robert DeLong, MS MR, twenty|one|pilots
WHERE: Merriweather Post Pavilion, 10475 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia MD
WHEN: Saturday May 11, Doors open at 12 PM
ADMISSION: $75-$95 for General Admission, or $150 for VIP Seating–advance tickets available HERE
And you know what the best part of all this is? You could go to the Sweetlife Festival for free! We’ve got two General Admission lawn tickets to give away, and you could win the pair by entering your info into the handy-dandy widget below. You’ve got until Friday, April 11 at 5 PM to enter, but don’t hesitate–do it now! And look for bonus chances to win!
One last thing before we go–since words alone cannot possibly do justice to the experience of attending the Sweetlife Festival, here’s a trailer put together by the organizers, featuring footage from past years that gives you a closer look at the music, dancing, light shows, food, nature, and fun that all combine to make Sweetlife Music & Food Festival an awesome day in an awesome location. Check it out, and get stoked, because this is going to rule!
