The first thing you’ll notice about the Pilgrimage Festival is how sanitized it is. It’s family friendly, it’s overwhelmingly drug-free (unless concert-goers were being really sneaky about their weed use), and it’s stunningly clean. How often can you say a music festival is clean?
It’s as sanitized as the very city it takes place, the quaint, yet expanding Franklin, Tennessee, and it works to its benefit. Compared to its grittier Tennessee brethren Bonnaroo, Pilgrimage seemed to say, “Okay, how do we do this, but for people who aren’t trying to camp in a field for four drug-fueled days and then stay up until 2 a.m. for a DJ set?”
It’s Music Festival Lite. And you know what? It works to their advantage.
The biggest and best acts of Saturday’s (Sept. 23) festivities were all Southern born and bred, from the twangy, festival-opening Texas Gentleman (from, you guessed it, Texas) to the Saturday-closer, headliner and Pilgrimage co-producer Justin Timberlake (the Tennessee kid made it a very personal affair).
The oppressively hot Tennessee day officially kicked into full festival gear once Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue took the main stage mid-afternoon. Makes sense, considering Trombone Shorty can get any party started, and the NOLA charmer found the right balance of classics and crowd-pleasers for those just getting introduced to him, covering everything from Red Hot Chili Peppers to 311.
Gary Clark Jr. was no stranger to the well-placed cover song, either. During his sweltering, earth-shattering set, the musician played his take on “Come Together.” (Clark wasn’t the only artist feeling that very united vibe, as Big Sam’s Funky Nation put their big brass band spin on the classic.)
One of the few missteps of Pilgrimage was putting the wildly popular Avett Brothers, fresh off their incredible documentary May It Last, on the second-biggest stage. It wasn’t that fan favorites like “I and Love and You” or “Kick Drum Heart” or “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promis