Bristol Rhythm and Roots 2025 already has a day in the books, after a nice gentle warm-up through the early hours of Friday that turned electric as folks filtered in and grabbed food, hugged necks, and started seeing some of the nation’s finest roots music, and the crowds continually built up through the evening while flowing smoothly, never feeling obnoxious or overwhelming but filling State Street enough to feel like a party.
Blank arrived at the Bristol Rhythm and Roots festival grounds at the Birthplace of Country Music around 5pm Friday to get press passes and disburse to student reporters from D-B EXCEL. Photos in this blog/article about Day 1 are courtesy juniors Aniya Stidham and Allison McCarthy.
The temperature was a perfect mid-70s, that perfect zone where a jacket is not needed but the heat is not sweat-inducing. Barely a cloud in the sky, this more working-class and regional-commuter style festival is slow to fill on the Friday of each year as folks around the area get off work and make their way downtown.
Many familiar faces and places is a common theme in this 24th installment of the festival, but there’s always some really fun new surprises worked into the mix as well.
Vendors like Island Noodles remain popular. Folks love looking down at the festival from the rooftop bar of the Bristol Hotel. Brunch Box –and this writer can attest–has one of the most amazing sandwiches in the Southeast, a grilled cheese pork chop sandwich with blueberry preserves that’s just insanely good.
Elderly attendees had ample sit-and-rest spots across the grounds and plenty of area for camp chairs near each stage. Multiple scultpures and signs and murals appear to set the scene for perfect selfie spots, a new major consideration for most live events. A major draw for high schoolers college and young adults, the festival social scene seems to provide a plethora of on-foot “cruising” lanes, bars and party tents, and festival attendees of all ages seem to enjoy showing up in various interpretations of roots and indie festival fashion or perusing the multiple hip and artistic vendors up and down the street.
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Reedy River String Band warmed up the Cumberland Square Park
Elias Hix and his band of friends shared the cute story of meeting on their dorm floor freshman year at ETSU and seeing the festival together that year as an early band bonding experience they were happy to wax nostalgic about given they’d achieved a booking at the festival within a few years of forming. Earnest folk-rock with beautiful fiddle accompaniment, Elias Hix is a younger regional artist to watch.
Lucille Klement and her rowdy indie-folk outfit proved again why Stateline Bar and Grill is one of the best sleeper venues in the whole festival; the booking folks tend to put some of the rowdiest, funnest new up-and-comers there and in the other barrooms on State Street. A healthy crowd peered over and around each other in the crowded bar to see some cool kids play some cool tunes.
Ramona and the Holy Smokes reveled in straightfoward classic oldtime country celebration.
Joy Oladokun played soulful, groovy indie country rock as a dark horse surprising favorite of Friday on State Street.
Larry Keel’s Electric Larry Land played some groovy electric jamgrass in Cumberland Square Park as the sun began to set, with a nice reworking of some classic Zeppelin late in the set.
Fruition brought a bouncy tight harmony-driven sound to the Piedmont Stage.
Holy Roller played the Sixth Street Stage for the second year running, and notably their crowd had swelled by a factor of 3-4x in that time period; the alley on 6th was completely packed, and a large, young standing crowd up front dancing and singing along to originals they know seem to show this ebullient indie rock outfit is breaking through.
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Tonight:
Corklickers 4:30 Theatre Bristol.
Farm and Fun Time live on Radio Bristol features Shane Smith and the Saints and Kris Truelsen and Country Casserole from 5-7 in the Paramount Theatre
Abingdon-based indie-folkers Orbital Planes play Machiavellis’ Outdoor Stage at 6:30.
Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley will be at the Country Mural Stage at 8:30.
Shane Smith and the Saints and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong take the primetime and late night slots on State Street and Cumerlad Square, and Shadowgrass does the latenight set at Country Mural Stage.
Sam Collie and the Roustabouts play 10:30 at O’Mainnins’s and Mama Fuma hits Borderline Billiards at 10:15.
We hope to see you out there!
