Music Midtown is a smaller-scale music festival in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia. This festival usually takes place mid-September, and lasts for only two days.
I just attended this festival for the second year in a row, and even though it ended three days ago; I am still recovering. Being in the heart of HOTlanta, getting extremely sweaty the whole entire weekend is inevitable. I am personally not a fan of being hot, but was willing to get out of my comfort zone in the name of good music and fun times.
I had such a fun time at last year’s festival, and the lineup was INCREDIBLE. I was personally slightly disappointed in this year’s lineup, but decided to go for the experience. Not every festival can include the perfect mix of current indie bands and impressive headliners such as MM 2017 did.
After deciding which bands to see from this year’s lineup, I tried to listen to the music of the headliners to prepare. The headliners this year were Fall Out Boy, Post Malone, Kendrick Lamar, and Imagine Dragons. Two headliners usually play at the same time each night to close out the day.
On the first day, my boyfriend and I arrived at the festival at around 3 o’clock. This is when bands that we wanted to see were beginning to perform, and we got to see a lot of bands in a row. We saw an upcoming R&B artist Yuno, Lovelytheband, BØRNS (one of my favorites), Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and Post Malone.
We stayed near the back of the crowd during most of the acts, but we wanted to be close to Post Malone. We got to the middle of the pit during 30 Seconds to Mars, and stayed there for an hour and a half to wait for Post Malone. Jared Leto put on an AMAZING show (obviously), and even brought Billie Eilish out for a song! The middle of the pit was extremely tight, and I do not recommend trying to be in the center of a pit for large bands at a music festival if you are claustrophobic. Although seeing Post Malone up close was worth the wait and experience of being covered in surrounding people’s sweat, I will be catching his next concert from my back of the pit comfort zone.
On the second day of the festival, we decided to explore East Atlanta and relax before heading to the park. Day one WORE us out, and we needed time to recuperate. At around 4 o’clock, we arrived at the festival to wait for Foster the People to come on. They are one of my absolute favorite bands, and I was extremely excited to see their set up close. Everyone around us only knew “Pumped Up Kicks”, their most popular hit, but I knew basically their whole set list. As usual, they did not disappoint, and I enjoyed seeing them the most out of all of the festival acts.
After Foster the People, we caught parts of Khalid, Imagine Dragons, and Kendrick Lamar’s sets. Each set was unique, and it was so enjoyable to sing along to the popular hits that the bands know to play at festivals. Huge crowds showed up for each of the final headliners, but we enjoyed singing and dancing in the back.
Although Hurricane Florence did threaten our good time in the days leading up to the festival, the most we saw from her all weekend was MAYBE 3 minutes of drizzling rain. After that, the Hotlanta weather was sunny and humid, as usual. Being from Rock Hill, this music festival made for a great Florence escape combined with a great time for the second year in a row!
If you are interested in going to a music festival and need a smaller festival to start out with, I highly recommend Music Midtown!
The two-day lineup is only a small time commitment, and Piedmont Park is large enough to fit thousands of people, but not too large to where your body aches from walking at the end of the day. It seemed as if this festival mostly hosted millennials this year, but was mostly family friendly and would be enjoyable for all ages. There are usually diverse genre music acts each day, and a large selection of food stands for all types of diets.