Soundside Music Festival 2024: A Review

I have been to many music festivals.  I have been a part of planning music festivals.  With that in mind, I would like to share with you my thoughts on the Soundside Music Festival, which I attended with a couple of friends this past weekend (September 28th and 29th) in Bridgeport, CT.

I was extremely excited to go to this weekend long party, and who wouldn’t be? Acts like Teddy Swims, The Goo Goo Dolls, Grace Potter, Noah Kahan and Foo Fighters (I’ll get to it) are of course going to be a HUGE draw.  As goes with so many festivals with gigantic acts known world wide, there are always “ups and downs”.

Let’s get into it.

THE BAD:

  • The weather was ATROCIOUS.  I am always skeptical of these types of shows at this time of year because they can be so unpredictable in terms of weather. A summer show when it is 80 degrees in the shade but has some rain, I am totally okay with. This one was a bit rough being at the end of September (insert corny Billie Joe Armstrong joke here). There was consistent misty rain and heavy wind, mixed with cold temperatures, with no escape unless you went into a bathroom.  However, the weather is not controlled by the festival organizers. Let’s face it, if you are too fragile to go to an outdoor music festival and cry about the elements, maybe you should stay home, ya buzzkill.

  • The food prices were as expected…music festival food prices.  I got a solid veggie wrap for $12, but it was just that…a veggie wrap. No small bag of chips, nothing else. Just a tasty warm wrap LOADED with spinach and a few other veggies.  Definitely helped with my freezing hands, I will say that. But again, the price was to be expected at a festival of this magnitude.

          Pro tip: spring for VIP access at this festival, you’ll get shorter lines for food and drink, and enclosed trailers with real bathroom stalls. Plus the VIP area backstage was LEGIT!  Large tents with plenty of tables and seating offered up a break from the natural elements that weren’t so kind all weekend long.  See below…..

 

 

  • It was a very long walk for me and my friends from point A – the train station drop-off,  to point B – the festival entrance at Seaside Park. Same goes for on the way back to the train, to take us back to where we parked, to get back into our car to get back to the hotel. Had we not left the festival earlier than the end of the last set of the night, we would’ve been stuck with price-gouged rideshare options, assuming we would’ve actually been able to find our driver. Exiting a concert of any size is obnoxious, but I heard stories of people sitting around for 90 min before even getting into their driver’s car. It’s all a part of the experience…stay for the entire show, or beat the crowds back to home base. We made the decision to leave slightly early and while walking back to the train I was able to snag a festival poster off of a bridge underpass pillar. Needless to say, I stand by that decision! Heh heh heh

 

  • And finally…umm, Foo Fighters backed out as the headliner slot on Sunday, just three days before the festival started. Ultimately things worked out. Gretta Van Fleet, and Jack White stepped up and delivered raucous sets in the Foo’s absence…but it would’ve been a nice heads-up for the fans to have this info a little bit earlier. Good on Jack White for taking over and killing it.

 

THE GOOD:

  • Everything else!  Acts like Lisa Loeb, personal favorite Boyz II Men, Grace Potter, Fleet Foxes, Norah Jones, pinch hitters Greta Van Fleet, & Bleachers (who stepped in for Queens of the Stone Age), Teddy Swims, and of course my other personal favorite NOAH KAHAN were exceptional!! That’s why we all went there…the eclectic lineup, bringing different types of music to people from all walks of life. The veteran bands and the newer bands bring us all together.  THAT was the spirit of the festival!

  • The staff never left you hanging. If you had a question, they got the answer for you. Oh, and it was clean. The bathrooms were, well let’s just say, I wore good shoes, and they were still in good shape at nights-end.  The food might’ve been a bit pricey, but we aren’t talking about hot dogs and hamburgers. It was all very solid, tasty stuff. Wraps with vegan options, gourmet burgers, seltzers, plenty of water including hydration stations, warm drinks, and craft cocktails for you (me) snobs that want something different from a boring lager or IPA, but also don’t want wine (sorry, wine is for fancy dinners, not music festivals)**

 

**Two things to consider for the next one though, Soundside…shuttles for transport from train stations/parking lots to at least the festival grounds and back, and maybe some heated areas, jic of inclement weather.**

OVERALL:

Despite my complaining about small things that are out of the festival organizers hands, this was an OUTSTANDING experience.  The weather wasn’t ideal, but if that’s my biggest complaint, this festival is doing just fine! Everyone from staff to attendees were extremely cool, I met numerous people from out of town including some that were at my hotel in town specifically for Soundside. I also met a pretty gal that I will never see again, but she seemed cool and that was the whole vibe…just get away for a few days, meet people you might never meet otherwise, enjoy like-minded people and some amazing live music. Take the bad, take the good, experience it together, and do it again next time around!

 

SOUNDSIDE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024: 4 out of 5 stars