You know it’s fall festival season when you begin to plan your trip to the Suwannee Roots Revival at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park & Campground in northern Florida. It is taking place  October 9-12. I believe there’s a bit more anticipation this year than in years past since the festival was canceled last year due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Suwannee Roots Revival takes place at the legendary Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park & Campground which covers over 800 acres of land and is  home to some of the largest festivals in the south, some having as many as 30,000 attendees. The beauty of Roots Revival is that it is much smaller with only several thousand attendees, which leaves plenty of space for campers to spread out and room for numerous late night campground music settings.

   I’m really excited about the lineup for this year featuring headliners Oteil & Friends featuring Oteil Burbridge who has been playing bass with Dead & Company for the last few years. Oteil will be joined by Melvin Seals, Steve Kimock, Jason Crosby, Jimmy Kimock, Tom Guarna and Lamar Williams Jr.  Many Roots Revival treasured regulars are returning this year including Donna the Buffalo, Peter Rowan, Jim Lauderdale, The Ain’t Sisters, Nikki Talley Band, Grass is Dead the Mosier Brothers Band and Verlon Thompson. Other artist who will be performing are Della Mae, Shannon McNally, John Mailander’s Forecast, The Lee Boys,  Snake Oil Medicine Show and many more. John Mailander will be returning as Artist at Large again this year. The festival takes place over four days Thursday through Sunday on four stages not including the late night campground stages. Most artists will play multiple sets on different stages overlapping some but allowing you to see every artist over the weekend. 

   The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park & Campground is probably my favorite venue for festivals like this. It is located in Live Oak, Florida and only a seven hour drive from New Orleans. There is RV camping, cabins and tent camping in the campground area as well as primitive camping. The park is on the banks of the Historic Suwannee River so floating is also an option. The facility also offers a general store, snack bar and ice cream stand. It is a bicycle friendly venue. If you’ve never been to a camping festival like this, this would be the perfect place to start. 

   The largest of the four stages is Big Cosmo’s Amphitheater which is set in a natural amphitheater filled with cypress trees which will end up filled with swinging hammocks full of music lovers. The stage is named for one of the founders of the festival Randy “Big Cosmo” Judy who passed away last year. Randy started this festival with his life partner Beth Judy as well as The Suwannee Spring Reunion which takes place in March. The festival also offers the indoor Music Hall Stage which is where the snack bar and bar are located. The Tent Stage is under a small circus style tent and is very intimate but energetic setting for live music. The Music Farmers Stage & Back Porch will host numerous workshops throughout the weekend. There is also an excellent kids area with a lot of hands on things for kids to do and the whole festival it is a family friendly environment. 

The campground itself has two designated open pickin' areas, Slopryland hosted by Sloppy Joe and the Bill Monroe Shrine.  These areas are there for attendees who are musicians to have a place to meet up and jam with other like minded folks throught the weekend. Once the stages go dark these areas really get fired up and it's not uncommon to see musicians that you saw perform earlier to be pickin' into the night.  Aside from the two designated pickin' areas there are picking groups and jam settings throughout the campground pretty much around the clock all weekend.

    If you’re the bucket list type of person the Suwannee experience should be immediately added to your list.

all photos are by Melissa Goehner 

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