Prepare to Make the Pilgrimage!
The Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival is upon us! This coming weekend we’re heading back to the Park At Harlinsdale in Franklin, TN for great music, good food, and loads of fun. This year will be the festival’s second year and it’s going down on Saturday September 24th and Sunday September 25th. I talked last year about how much I enjoyed it the first time around, and I wrote earlier this summer about how excited I was for it this year. Today I’m here to give readers a last minute prep guide to what they should expect. First things, first: tickets. General admission for the whole weekend has already sold out (which is incredible! I think word got out about how great it was last year, so a lot of people got the jump early on it). BUT all hope is not lost. Single day tickets can still be purchased, so hurry before they sell out too! It’s $69 per day. Think of this as convenient for those of you who can only make it for one day and are unable to commit to the whole weekend. Also, bear in mind that this year there’s a separate parking pass available for sale for $30 that can be purchased alongside your ticket. If you forgot about it or didn’t realize it, it’s ok, they will be selling parking passes onsite.
More ticket information can be found here and further parking/traveling information here. (You can also travel to the festival via canoe! I’d love to hear feedback from anyone who does this, it sounds like it’d be pretty cool!)
Next important thing to discuss: the lineup!! This can either be a great opportunity for fun stage hopping or for a heartbreaking headache as you are forced to decide between beloved acts. The full day to day lineup can be found here. Music starts as early as 10:30am, but it ends at 8pm. The main act for Saturday is Beck (which I’m probably most excited to see since he blew me away at the Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY two years ago) and for Sunday is Hall & Oates. There’s so many fantastic people there this year, not just the two main headliners. Last year the stages weren’t too far away from each other and the terrain wasn’t too bumpy at all, so Taryn and I were able to access each one in a good amount of time. There aren’t too many conflicts on this lineup, so hopefully we can repeat last year and make it to all the acts we want to see with time to spare. There’s three main stages this year, a specially curated stage from ASCAP Publishing, and a stage specifically aimed at those ‘Lil Pilgrims’ that will be joining you (remember this is a family friendly festival, so there’s something for all ages!). Speaking of the children, this year they’ll be able to participate in all sorts of fun activities including building their own puppets and even writing their own songs (how cool is that? Almost makes me wish to be a kid again).
Two more things of note, first your wristband is more than just your entry into the festival. This year your Pilgrimage wristband is also your means of getting in on some sweet deals in the local shops and restaurants around Franklin, TN. It’s called Pilgrimage After Dark and if you’re wearing your wristband out and about town while not at the festival, certain stores will grant you various discounts on items and food.
This year the festival also has an app that you can download. From what I can tell it’s only available on iTunes (maybe us Android users can join in next year?), but it’s a great way to keep you up to date with the schedule, map of the festival, and plus it’s free. So download it before you get there so you’re all prepped and ready once you arrive.
Last thing I’d like to mention before I go and get packing, is that this year we here at Concert Hopper were fortunate enough to hold a contest to give away two full weekend passes. Participants had to share our Facebook post or Tweet about the contest for a chance to win. Our luck winner was Jared Brewster and we’d like to congratulate him and also thank everyone who participated! Concert Hopper is grateful for all it’s contributors and readers, we couldn’t do any of this without ya’ll!
I can’t wait to be in Franklin this weekend and to see everyone (including you, Mr. Timberlake ;-) ). I have a feeling it’s going to be a fantastic festival experience!