Sweetlife | Highlight Magazine

Sweetlife: A Music and Food Festival
May 11th, 2013 // Merriweather Post Pavilion // Columbia, MD
Photos by Cara Bahniuk // Words by Ryan Bahniuk

Inspiring people with passion x purpose. That was the goal of the 4th annual Sweetlife Music + Food Festival, and through the excellent lineup of both musical artists and food vendors and a sustainable philosophy, this festival was a definite success. Sweetlife started four years ago as a small block party held outside the Sweetgreen restaurant in Washington DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood, but eventually outgrew its surroundings and had to be moved to the historic Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. This venue provided a great backdrop for not only the music headliners, but also the locally sourced food choices. Since this festival prides itself on its variety, I’ve decided to grade out each part:

Food

Sweetgreen, the festival’s namesake, sponsor, and organizer, was omnipresent throughout Merriweather. The restaurant, known for its organic and locally grown green food choices, used this same philosophy when selecting food vendors to occupy the “experience forest”. The forest is actually more of a treelined grove that sits behind the main field and pavilion at Merriweather. Normally an afterthought during other performances at the venue, Sweetgreen took full advantage of the space, filling it with food trucks from DC and booths representing restaurants from all over the Mid-Atlantic. The highlights:

Pepe, world famous chef José Andrés’ DC based food truck, served Spanish inspired “mobile sandwiches”. I tried the Pollo Frito, a sandwich consisting of fried chicken, guajillo peppers, garlic aioli, and tangy brava sauce all wrapped between sliced ciabatta bread. Honestly one of the best sandwiches that I have ever had, and I eat a lot of sandwiches.

Bev Eggleston, founder of farming coalition EcoFriendly Foods, had two industrial smokers going all day and a full pig roasting over a pit fire.

Kushi Izakaya, located close to DC’s Chinatown neighborhood, was frying up fresh ginger tempura chicken: the perfect on the move festival snack. While the chicken was a bit fatty, the fresh ginger and crispy tempura crust made up for it.

DGS Delicatessen, a trendy NY style deli and also Sweetgreen’s relative neighbor in Fort Dupont, was serving all beef hot dogs topped with house smoked pastrami. Their booth was adorned with a row of Dr. Brown’s soda cans to bring a bit of NY deli style to the grove.

Rappahannock Oysters was shucking fresh raw oysters from their booth on the edge of the “forest”. Rappahannock is committed to fostering the native oyster populations of the Chesapeake Bay and was serving the local variety, which they call “the greatest tasting oyster in the world”. Their mignonette sauce with chopped shallots paired perfectly with the briny taste of the fresh raw oysters on the half shell.

Grade: A-

Music

Did I mention the all-star lineup of artists yet? I’m getting all caught up in the food experience, and I’ve barely mentioned the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gary Clark Jr., and of course Phoenix and Passion Pit. Arriving early at the festival, I staked out my seat in the first row for all of the main pavilion performances. The highlights:

Lindsey Stirling opened up the pavilion stage with her unique blend of instrumental violin, dance, and dubstep. While not my cup of tea, I would certainly enjoy this performance if I were in a nightclub in Eastern Europe.

Gary Clark Jr., the most chill man in music, walked quietly onstage and then shredded out on his guitar for just under an hour. He played songs from his debut studio album Blak and Blu, but few of them sounded like the studio versions. He played multiple extended guitar solos, some topping a few minutes long, before putting down his guitar, saying “thanks” into the mic, and casually walking off stage.

If you have never had the opportunity to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs live, take the chance on this tour for their recently released album Mosquito. Nobody beats the on-stage eccentricities of Karen O, who repeatedly spouted water out of her mouth like a whale, plunged the mic into her mouth, and jumped into the pit to have the audience sing along. The art-punk trio played through the last decade of their hits including “Maps”, “Gold Lion”, “Zero”, and the rousing finale of “Heads will Roll”.

Kendrick Lamar brought some variety to the musical lineup. His creatively composed raps about growing up in Compton obviously don’t really connect with me, but I can definitely appreciate his talent. He was the one of the only acts of the day to encore, this time with a fully a cappella extended freestyle verse.

Passion Pit stole the festival. I’ve written about my love of their music here before, so obviously I’m biased, but I feel like they left Sweetlife with more fans than they showed up with. Michael Angelakos falsettoed his way through the performance full of synth lines that are commonplace for Passion Pit, but on another level compared with similar bands. Passion Pit is on quite a roll recently, as one of the headliners at Sweetlife, Bonnaroo, Firefly, and Austin City Limits.

Phoenix was the true headliner of the festival and didn’t disappoint, bringing their French-originated, American-influenced rock to Merriweather. Phoenix played their set with a raw sound more reminiscent of the early 00s garage rock revival than their more pop-friendly hits of the Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix era.

Grade: A-

Weather

The one factor that Sweetgreen couldn’t control was how the weather held up, and let’s just say that it didn’t. The day started with the normal mid-atlantic summer humidity, but as always, that ended up breaking into a ferocious downpour. The rain started right before Kendrick Lamar’s set and turned the festival grounds into a giant mud pit, drenching all the fans not shielded in the seated pavilion. The food trucks closed their doors and windows and the restaurant vendors bunkered up, waiting out the storm that eventually passed revealing a great sunny day again.

Grade: C+

Sustainability

Promoting sustainability was the goal of Sweetlife and short of finding a way to recycle mud, I think they accomplished this goal. From the locally sourced food vendors, to the organic farmer’s market, the philosophy of the festival’s two main sponsors, Sweetgreen and Honest Tea, was everywhere. Sweetgreen gave away sunglasses and shirts for recycling used bottles and even installed solar panels on the pavilion’s roof to offset the energy footprint of the festival. Each vendor also distributed their food with compostable utensils and napkins.

Grade: B+

Fans

I am usually a harsh judge of festival goers and their true familiarity to the artists performing. It seems that at a lot of festivals the fans are there more for the “festival-experience” than the performances themselves. This sounds curmudgeonly, but at Sweetlife there were fans who showed up because particular artists were performing. Chants of “Gary! Gary!” rang through the pavilion as Gary Clark Jr. proved his guitar prodigiousness. Even the first act of the day, Lindsey Stirling, had fans who have followed her music and seems genuinely excited for this moment in her career. Ignoring the high school bros in lax pennies, the fans at Sweetlife impressed me.

Grade: B

Overall

This festival was a rousing success for Sweetgreen, the local DC food scene, and the authentic promotion of the DC music scene. I already can’t wait to see what artists Sweetgreen draws for next year and hope that we are invited back.

Grade: A-

Food