Last weekend, Columbia, Maryland, was caught at the center of one of indie music’s biggest festivals. With headliners Lana Del Ray, Boygenius, and Maggie Rogers, the All Things Go Music Festival was electric with an energized appreciation for the sounds of today. After attending the festival’s first day, I was profoundly impressed by the exceptional artistry at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
As a first-time festival-goer (and frequent concert-goer), I did not have much expectation for the event. However, I was blown away by the organization and the event’s level of ease in terms of traveling from stage to stage.
Without knowing much of the other artists’ music, they performed show-stopping sets— Raye, Peach Pit, Sudan Archives, and Fletcher, to name a few.
Lizzy McAlpine’s name on the lineup largely influenced my presence at the festival, as her voice transcends current musical boundaries. Most are familiar with the viral bridge from “Ceilings,” typically paired with a video of someone running as the tempo increases as an ode to the song’s dramatics. Experiencing the crowd loudly projecting her lyrical masterpieces back to her, like “Doomsday” and “Over the Ocean Call,” spoke to her impact at a festival this large scale. Her electric set reverberated through the trees towering over the Chrysalis stage, wedged between performances of Dayglow and Mt. Joy.
Night one’s headliner was native Marylander and Grammy nominee Maggie Rogers. Rogers has been making waves in indie pop since she was an undergraduate student at NYU, with a video of Pharrell Williams listening to “Alaska” for the first time.
As a long-time Maggie Rogers fan, I was bubbling with anticipation as the crowd waited for her to close out the star-studded lineup on day one of the festival. Decked out in a baby blue mock neck tank and a dark mini skirt, Rogers brought her vibrant talent to the stage, dazzling the audience with hits like “Back in My Body” from Heard It In a Past Life and “Want Want” from her most recent record, Surrender.
All Things Go invited emerging and established artists to the stage to celebrate the intersection of various music genres and put the fan at the center of the experience.