southern ground music and food festival

so this weekend is charleston was the southern ground music and food festival hosted by the zac brown band and when i first heard about it when i moved here i thought it would be great to go to. but when i saw ticket prices and with not having the best source of income and didn't really have anyone to go with i kinda put it on the back burner but kept trying to win tickets from the local radio stations. last week my mom asked me if i was going as she heard about it and i said no and went to look again to see how much tickets were and amy said to look on craigslist to see if there were any cheap tickets. so wednesday night i looked and people were selling part of a 3 day pass for anywhere from $35-45 so on thursday someone had a single ticket for friday night so i said why not for $40. (it was cheaper than tickets online and more in my price range) so i picked up the ticket friday morning and set off friday afternoon to enjoy a fabulous time at a southern food & music festival. 

friday at the southern ground festival

now right after i picked up the ticket i saw that on friday night zac was going to be doing covers. i was a little upset, but figured hey i've already seen him in concert and i'm sure whatever he does will be awesome. so i got there around 3 on friday afternoon and it was a great set up. a big stage and a small stage. and if you paid the big money you got to sit onstage and get a 4 course meal by some great chefs - one of them is zac's tour chef and two were local award winning ones. but for everyone else they had some great local restaurants bbq and the zbb's eat & greet truck too. so i enjoyed walking around and seeing what everyone had before i went with a pulled pork sandwich by husk/mcgrady's tent and it was delish! i can't wait to actually go to husk! so when i was sitting down eating at a picnic table, two older men asked if they could also sit down. so we started chatting about the festival and music. and a local artist was mentioned and i said how much i loved them. one of the guys mentioned a small set he was doing and said to email him and i'd be able to go. they were friends with the singer and pretty involved in the local music scene and mentioned a few places to check out some great stuff. so that was on the back of my mind the rest of the night. so i went into the general admission area and listened to some great bands until zbb started and i managed to get along the general admission fence! so i was pretty pleased with myself!

zbb friday night doing covers

zac and his band were incredible. they did all covers and i really enjoyed it and the atmosphere there was electric. the members of his band were all given chances to showcase their talents in the songs and they did "love the one you're with", "aimee", "folsom prison blues", "oh my, sweet carolina" and others. but i was highly impressed. zac has an amazing voice and i just really enjoyed it. i didn't stay long for my morning jacket who played after zac, but i was really glad i decided to go and i can't wait for next year. this is the first time for this in charleston and i had a blast. 

saturday at the festival

so when i got home i emailed the guy i met and went off to work saturday morning. when i got off work at 2 he had emailed me back saying he had an extra ticket for the festival for tonight if i wanted it and that he'd email me again on monday about the other show. of course i wanted another ticket to the festival. so i picked it up and went off to enjoy my second afternoon at the festival! and the ticket he had was a pit ticket, so i'd be a bit closer! it was a bit more crowded than friday as it was a saturday afternoon, and i probably could have tried to get closer to the front, but since there was a runway down the middle of the pit i decided to stay along there a bit more towards the back. and i was happy being there. i was a blanket away from the back stage area along the runway and just enjoying the afternoon bands before train and then zbb. and the family on the blanket during train said i could stand on the blanket with them and we chatted during the set change and i had a great time meeting them. they had 2 boys (10 & 5) and were here for the weekend from fayetteville and we exchanged #s and emails. and because they were so nice i was able to be along the stage...

zbb saturday night

 so zac was fabulous! i saw him play this summer with kenny chesney at the new meadowlands stadium with my momma & sister. so both nights of the festival i was a biiit closer. and with being along the stage saturday night i even closer. he sang all the popular songs and did the "devil went down to georgia" like he always does live, hearing him sing "colder weather" live is my favorite. and "free" & "america the beautiful" give me chills. and it didn't help that a few times zac was feet away from me!

zac pretty close!

 and the best was they did their song "sic 'em on a chicken" right next to me!!!! it was awesome!

for real - zac is like 5 feet from me! eeeeeeeeeeee!

it was an amazing show

and they also did a song along the wings on each stage where the expensive dinner seats were. so i had an amazing evening and weekend. i'm so lucky to have just randomly chatted with the guys and gotten tickets for saturday night plus the upcoming show i'll he going to this week. so my weekend was great music and food with a little bit of work and football! the jets had a great 2nd half and came out to win! wooo!

how was your weekend?