Moon River Music Festival: Weekend Recap

The two-day long festival took place in Chattanooga's Coolidge Park along the bank of the Tennessee River. Over the course of September 10th & 11th thousands of people from across the United States converged onto the festival grounds. Let's take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly (but mostly good).

I'm going to go ahead and get the bad stuff out of the way first. Lightning brought a stop to the festival on day two during the third set of the day. Heavy rains followed and rendered the festival grounds unfit for use, causing a cancellation. Word from locals was that Coolidge Park floods easily in regular conditions, add on festival stages and you're in for a disaster.

However, all was not lost. Moon River has a fantastic team behind the scenes who manage the scrape together redemption for the weekend. Not only did the festival refund all the tickets for day two, Drew Holcomb set up a pop-up show at Chattanooga's Solider's & Sailor's Memorial Auditorium with many of the cancelled acts. This show was free to all festival goers. Leon Bridges even performed a rare acoustic performance.

Thankfully, that is really the only bad things I can say about the weekend. Day one went off without a hitch, and every artist who performed was stellar. Well established artists like The National and Greensky Bluegrass, new faces like Wild Rivers and Daniel Nunnelee, and rising stars like Briston Maroney and Zach Bryan dotted the lineup. There was not a single artist who I didn't enjoy all day.

The quality of day two's lineup was just as good. Again, not a single bad performance. Sammy Rae & The Friends were an easy stand out across their three performances throughout the day, Abraham Alexander was also a new name who is incredibly talented. The headliners, Leon Bridges and Charley Crockett, were also just as incredible as one could have hoped.

The experience at the festival was also top notch. Easy entry, good crowd flow, plenty of food and drink options, water refill stations, and a plethora of shady spots to sit down and get out of the sun. Security was also present everywhere, a reassuring sign in such a large crowd. The festival also had plenty of photo spots and a high degree of production on and off of the stage. 

While there were many sad faces when the festival got rained out, the joy throughout the weekend was immense. Day one there wasn't a disappointed fan in sight. The sheer happiness felt at the pop-up show on day two was also overwhelming. Drew Holcomb and his team know what they're doing in this regard, Moon River shines as a celebratory community of music lovers.

My final thoughts? Moon River is a fantastic festival with a great team behind it. A stellar lineup, great production, and even better community make this small festival really special. My only advice? Move it away from Coolidge Park. It is clear that just a little rain can destroy everything they've built, and as nice as the park is that is too big of a risk for a festival of this scale.

Want more Moon River 2022 coverage? Check out WEGL daily recaps below, including scoops on each performance from the weekend.

Moon River Music Festival: Day One Recap

Moon River Music Festival: Day Two Recap