As you know if you have read any of our pages, Lynn and I are big live music fans. We don't usually post about concerts for several reasons. Mainly it would be quite boring as most are a one day event and all we would really have to post are photos of us and the stage. Also, we go to so many concerts that posting every one would just be overwhelming with not much benefit.
This trip however, is a long weekend with multiple concerts as well as spending some time with friends so we wanted to share the adventure here with all of you.
Our friends from Atlanta, Mike and Karen, would be meeting us in Raleigh for a Zac Brown concert on Thursday, October 5th. We are big fans and have seen his show many times in many different places. We had not seen him in Raleigh and I had not been to Walnut Creek in many years so we were looking forward to that show.
Then on Friday we would head down to Charleston, SC for Darius Rucker's Riverfront Revival Festival, which is a 2 day music festival in Riverfront Park on the banks of the Cooper River. The festival would be Saturday and Sunday. We were making a long weekend of it in Charleston, arriving Friday and returning on Monday.
We had reserved a VRBO within walking distance of both Walnut Creek for Zac Brown, and the Riverfront Park for the festival. So when the day came we were loaded up and ready to go by 11:00am. The weather was good so the top was down and we were ready for a road trip!
We took the scenic route staying off of interstate as much as possible, stopped in Asheboro for lunch, and arrived at the VRBO about 3:30pm. Mike and Karen were not far behind. Since we were walking from the house to Walnut Creek we did all of our tail gating on the front porch of the house, watching traffic start to get heavy and knowing we did not have to deal with that. Pretty sweet!
So we walked to the venue and found our seats. Lines were long and it took a while to get but we had expected that so no worries.
As always, Zac put on a fantastic show! The crowd, the vibe, the whole thing is something you need to experience. He did an emotional tribute to Jimmy Buffet and I think the whole stadium was in tears. This was only a month after he passed away. After the show we hoofed it back to the house, ignoring the traffic. Again, a pretty sweet situation.
Off to Charleston! The line up for the Riverfront Revival was very eclectic. There would be 2 stages and a band on one of the 2 every hour on the hour from noon to midnight both days. Our big must see performances would be Darius Rucker on Saturday night and Turnpike Troubadours on Sunday night.
It's about a 4 hour drive from Raleigh to Charleston. We left the VRBO about 10:30am and went straight to Angie's Restaurant in Garner for breakfast. This is a country breakfast kind of place. Everything made from scratch and locally sourced. It was just what we needed to get a long day started.
After breakfast we hit the road for Charleston. You pretty much have to take interstate otherwise it just takes too long to get there. We stopped at Buc-ee's in SC because, well, you have to stop at Buc-ee's right? And wow. Just Wow.
We got to the VRBO about 4:00pm. Nice little studio perfect for our needs. Within walking distance of several restaurants and 2 breweries, not to mention the Riverfront Park. After getting settled in we went out to take a look at the Riverfront Park and make sure we knew what that was all about and where to go, etc. The Noisette Creek Pedestrian Bridge had just been built on the north side of the park. Since we were walking to the festival this would have made it a lot easier for us. When we got there we were told it was closed to the public and would be used by vendors and performers. Ok, no worries.
We drove around to the main entrance to scope that out. Beautiful park. Just before the main entrance to the park area is a restaurant called Momo. Very highly rated with excellent views of The Cooper River. Since we did not have plans for dinner we stopped in without a reservation. Fortunately they were able to seat us upstairs by a window. Outdoor seating would have been hours waiting so the window was just fine with us. This was an excellent dining experience all the way around.
From there we stopped at Coast Brewing, then back to the VRBO.
The next day would be Day 1 of the Riverfront Revival Festival. Our plan was to walk over to the Junction for brunch, and then to the festival from there. The Junction is our kind of place! Funky, excellent food and drinks, and we were able to walk right up for full service at the bar because most parties were waiting for tables for 4 or more.
We left The Junction a little after noon heading for the festival. We did not realize that there would be golf cart taxis an pedicabs pretty much everywhere to get you to the festival gates. We grabbed the first empty golf cart we saw and were at the gate in less than 5 minutes.
We got into the gates about 12:30pm. First show would be Haley Mae Campbell at 1:00pm. We walked around and checked the merch tents, the bars, and food. There were a lot of food vendors! Other than the VIP area it was all open with grass seating. We set a blanket between both stages so we would have good views without moving.
Haley Mae Campbell put on a great show. I had know idea who she was but I'm sure we will be hearing more from her.
Carter Faith was next up, also a great show. I knew of her as Lynn worked at the same firm as her dad. Likely to be hearing a lot more from her also.
Since the park is on the Cooper River there were a lot of folks enjoying the music from their boats. Damn good idea!
We wondered around and got some food and drink, Lynn bought some merch. As I said, we were mainly there to see Darius.
All of the performers put on a great show. These guys, Cha Wa, were extremely entertaining. Kind of Earth Wind and Fire with Funkadelic rolled into the same band.
Later that afternoon there was a cargo ship moving down the Cooper River. Kind of crazy site from the park. Clouds moved in but the weather held out, thankfully.
Darius put on a fantastic show, of course!
Great show and a great day! As I mentioned, we were within walking distance of the park so after the show we headed back to the VRBO. We realized that some people had parked almost as far away as our place was so we were lucky to have found it. The golf carts and pedicabs were lined up but booked ahead of time so we just walked it. It was late when we got back so we crashed for the night looking forward to the next day festivities.
First thing the next morning we started it all over again with brunch at The Junction. This place really rocks! Cannot recommend it more highly. And once again our walk right up to the bar strategy worked well for us!
This time we flagged a pedicab to take us to the gate. We were looking forward to the line up for day 2. Turnpike Troubadours is one of our favorites. We had seen them at Red Rocks in Colorado in 2022 and that show was awesome. The weather was sunnier but cooler so it was shaping up to be a great day.
Lainey Wilson really puts on a show!
We ran into an old high school friend of mine, Linda, and her husband Titus. We had not seen each other in over 30 years! We had a lot of catching up to do. Small world.
The main event!
After the show we were able to grab a pedicab back to the VRBO. These guys were working hard and having a good time! What a great festival. Everything was well planned and the venue was a great place for such an event. Darius puts on this festival every year and we love Charleston, so I am sure we will be returning in the future.
The next morning was time to head for home. Our VRBO was perfect for this type of weekend and being within walking distance of the festival made it that much better. On the way out of North Charleston we stopped at Vicious Biscuit in Summerville for a brunch. Awesome bisuits!
This was really an epic music weekend for us. Starting in Raleigh with good friends and the Zac Brown show, then Charleston with Darius and Turnpike Troubadours at the Riverfront Festival. Plus a nice road trip to make it all come together. At this point we were looking forward to getting home and getting ready for the Holidays. A great adventure to end on in 2023!
"TRAVELING - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." lbn Batutta
Please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below. Also, I can be reached at Rocky@Rocklyns.com should you feel the need to reach out.
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