Floyd’s most beloved festival, FloydFest, now in it’s 8th incarnation is rallying the revelers July 23rd through July 26th. And, in keeping with tradition, they’re offering four straight days of musical and worldly delights in the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of SWVA. According to organizers, “this year’s theme Revival echoes the festival’s mission to serve as a holistic plateau for the restoration and rejuvenation of our individual values, and our living culture.”

“It’s easy to get bogged down, spun and otherwise deflated from the hustle and bustle of life,” explains Kris Hodges, the festival co-founder. “To take time out and consider these demands and still maintain one’s sanity, ideals and heart – may be what the art of living is all about”.

The beautiful festival venue, Blue Cow Pavilion, is located at milepost 170.5 off the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, the 80-acre mountain plateau offers primitive and RV camping, a progressive ‘Global Village’ area of workshops and demonstrations, over one hundred artisans and crafters, food ranging from pulled-pork BBQ to fresh sushi to Dogtown pizza (read an article about them on Roanoke.com), a comprehensive healing arts area, and a Children’s Universe, featuring stage performances geared for kids, puppetry, workshops, playground equipment and super helpful babysitting services.

Of course what we, at myScoper.com, are most excited about is the wide variety of music scattered across seven stages at any and all hours of each day. The possibilities are endless for building your own custom festival experience. Here are just a few of the acts that we think you shouldn’t miss! We won’t!

Blues Traveler

Dreaming Creek Stage :: Saturday, July 25 :: 9:30pm
If you didn’t catch John Popper’s impromptu performance a Blues BBQ in downtown Roanoke earlier this year don’t worry, you can see the whole grammy award-winning blues jam band guaranteed to blow away audiences at FloydFest this year! It’s not every band that’s still staking out new musical territory and embracing fresh challenges more than 20 years into their career, but that’s the case with Blues Traveler.  Having long ago graduated from the jam-band underground to mainstream stardom, the iconoclastic combo has consistently stuck to its guns and played by its own rules.

The band’s best-known single, “Run-Around,” was the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history.  In 1994 they hit mainstream with their fourth album, called, appropriately enough, Four. They recently released a ‘best of’ collection of their older songs, Cover Yourself, and their latest, a new album North Hollywood Shootout. Along the way, the band has played more than 2000 live shows in front of more than three million people.

Sxip Shirey

Blue Ridge & Beyond Dance Tent :: Friday, July 24 :: 5:30pm
Sxip Shirey is a composer, performer, sound designer and story teller. Sxip Shirey composes music for pyro-technic clowns, circus artists, good theater, contortionists, a choir, and his five-piece gypsy-klezmer-tango-punk ensemble The Luminescent Orchestrii. His solo work is performed on devices such as The Industrial Flute, The Mutant Harmonica and Obnoxiophone. He also tells a good story. Sxip Shirey has appeared at The Sydney Operal House, The Kennedy Center, the Adelaide Festival in Australia and at Bonnaroo.

“Sxip has the incredible ability to turn the minds of his audience almost entirely inside out.” -Jeff Stark, Nonsense NYC

The Belleville Outfit

Blue Ridge & Beyond Dance Tent :: Saturday, July 25 :: 4pm
With a tight, seamless, and an acoustic sound that’s uniquely theirs — a mix of gypsy swing, big band jazz and cross-genre Americana music, original songs and some clever covers — the startling six-piece Belleville Outfit of Austin belies the tender age of its members and its vast experience garnered swiftly after its union in 2007.

“…an Austin band that captures the best of the hippie-friendly roots string band zeitgeist, without succumbing to it … a band to watch.” -Roy Kasten, No Depression

Yard Dogs Road Show

Streamline Stage at Hill Holler
Friday, July 24 :: 10:45pm
Blue Ridge & Beyond Dance Tent
Saturday, July 25 :: 12:30am
The Yard Dogs Road Show is a hobo cabaret, a living patchwork of vaudeville and rock and roll. In the enchanting land of stage show entertainment, theirs is both pleasant and formidable terrain.  They require a sensitivity to the subtle and the absurd. They lead the modern hobohemian on a visual and sonic journey through part of history that may or may not have existed – followed by an ambitious return to the emotional challenges of our punch-drunk contemporary world. It’s a true story on stage: sword swallowers, dancing dolls, fire eaters and sunset hobo poetry – all animated by the live sounds of the Yard Dogs cartoon heavy band. Yard Dogs Road Show is pure visual and sonic voodoo.

And show your love to these “under the radar” artists,
just spreading their wings on the FloydFest scene…

Stephanie Rooker

Village Stage :: Saturday, July 25 :: 8pm
Drawing from a broad range of musical influences: from singer-songwriter folk of her native Appalachia to her immersion in traditional folk music of Ghana to her distinctive grasp of the cultural evolution of American gospel–blues–jazz–soul–hip-hop, Stephanie Rooker’s music is fresh & cultivated. This music is brimming with hope. It’s not a saccharine or unsubstantiated hope, but a wide-awake, insistent kind of hope…the kind that unites us, that reflects on our separations with wisdom and understanding, and reminds us to keep on lovin’ and doing good for one another.

Soulhound

Pink Floyd Garden Stage :: Saturday, July 25 :: 5:15pm
Zesty groovesters Soulhound are purveyors of heart pounding funk, soul and sweaty grooves. Music to shake your Tic-Tacs to! Soulhound has been described as “part James Brown funk, part Stevie Wonder soul, with the lyrical voice of Robert Bradley, all thrown in with some groovin’ bass lines and powerful guitars.” Clearly Soulhound are inspired disciples of the groove-oriented R&B, Soul and greasy Funk of the late sixties and seventies.

Last but certainly not least, our favorite of the Crooked Road Folklife performers…

Doug & Telisha Williams

Virginia Folklife Workshop Porch :: Friday, July 24 :: 4:45pm
Doug and Telisha Williams embody the true Southern songwriting tradition.  Hailing from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, their roots are real, their words are true, and their energy is contagious. Telisha and Doug met in high school and there hasn’t been a time since that they haven’t been playing music together. With their open, inviting personalities and intriguing stage presence, the duo is quickly growing their fan base. First timers at their live shows feel like old friends and part of the family after just a song or two. A single set of their music can bring audience members to their feet in applause, to their knees in prayer, and back to the bar to buy another beer.

Regardless of what you like or who you see, you’re sure to have a great time at FloydFest! For a complete list of performers, information, and to purchase tickets online, check out the official FloydFest Revival website. SEE YOU THERE!