CINCINNATI — The Bunbury Music Festival is all grown up.
Now eight years old, the annual music festival returned to Sawyer Point and Yeatman's Cove Friday evening. The event will continue to rock the riverfront with acts such as Greta Van Fleet, Run the Jewels and The 1975 from noon-11 p.m. Saturday and 1-11 p.m. Sunday.
The Orphan The Poet was the first band to play Friday. The local band's set was slightly delayed before beginning at 1:45 p.m. The fifteen minutes of waiting wasn't a big deal though. Things happen with live performances.
A rising Ohio River also forced festival organizer PromoWest to move Bunbury's River Stage to higher ground. That stage now shares the Yeatman's Cove lawn with the Monster Energy Main Stage.
The lawn offered plenty of room for both stages and didn't impact performance schedules for either.
Crowds felt a little light when the admission gates opened at noon on Friday, but the crowd quickly picked up by mid-afternoon. Cellphone service started lagging slightly by 8 p.m., but was never bad enough to completely disrupt service.
ATMs also worked fine, minus the ridiculous $4.85 transaction charge.
Having covered Bunbury each year since 2015, I can say my favorite part of the music festival is discovering new acts.
Taylor Janzen and Chandler Carter both performed great sets that stopped me in my tracks.
Just followed @taylorjanzenn on @Spotify after catching her set at #Bunbury2019. Great vocals. This is the true reward of covering music fests - discovering new artists. Follow @WCPOLoungeActs to hear Tarylor’s recorded live set @WCPO. pic.twitter.com/kGRea1CDMm
— Brian Mains (@BrianDMains) May 31, 2019
Joywave offered a bit of standup as well as fun, poppy songs. In between tunes, Joywave lead singer Daniel Armbruster cracked on Blink 182's canceled appearance this year and last at Bunbury.
Exhibit A of @joywave snark pic.twitter.com/C7FnFkvhnp
— Brian Mains (@BrianDMains) May 31, 2019
For general information about this year's Bunbury click here.
