Deluna Festival celebrated the excellence of live music and the beauty of the ocean during the weekend of September 21-23 for its third year in a row on the white sandy beaches of Pensacola, FL.

Deluna welcomes about 10,000 people each year and is located directly on the beach and surrounding hotel/shopping areas. Attendees were welcomed with a sunny and fun-loving atmosphere and were offered many perks other than quality live music.

There was delicious and fairly priced food like Greek, Chinese and Italian inspired vendors as well as an interesting booth called “Hippie Dips” offering healthier choices. A quaint café’ style vendor provided a large awning to make for comfortable outside dining.

Also on Deluna’s menu were a slew of alcoholic beverage vendors. While the variety of drinks and brands was impressive, you could question the quality of some of the drinks—more specifically the lack of strength in the daiquiris.

Of course attendees could find several vendors selling clothes, accessories, smoking goods and even an iPhone repair booth, but more impressively there was a media tent that provided seating and flat-screen televisions so attendees could enjoy the weekend’s college and professional football games alongside the live music. While all of these offerings were fine and dandy, one cannot ignore the whole purpose of this festival—the music.

Friday, September 21

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to the opening day of the festival due to a quiz or two for classes. Friday provided a line-up filled with various smaller independent bands as well as big-ticket names. Some of the more well-known acts included City and Color, Band of Skulls, Ben Folds Five and Guided by Voices. But the headliner for this night was Pearl Jam.

Saturday, September 22

Saturday’s lineup included Joan Jett and the Black Hearts, The Joy Formidable, Band of Horses, Foo Fighters, Paper Diamond, Diplo and many others.

The established 80s rock band fronted by one of the queens of rock n’ roll, Joan Jett, gave the audience a blast of nostalgia with beloved classics like “I Love Rock n’ Roll.”

The Joy Formidable, traveling from North Wales, put on a fun show and reminisced with the crowd about their first and only other time performing on a beach—which just so happened to be their first show ever as The Joy Formidable. Lead guitarist and vocalist, Ritzy Bryan, told the crowd, “This is fucking awesome,” and the crowd exploded with energy.

Band of Horses, playing on the second to largest stage, gave the somewhat small but excited crowd a great and intimate performance. While breaks to talk with the audience were few, the music spoke for itself, especially with their closing song “The Funeral,” one of their most moving and popular works.

At the Heritage Stage (reserved for bands originating in the southern states), NOLA funk/soul group Kermit Ruffians and the Barbecue Swingers showed Pensacola just how well the boot state parties. The mixture of brass, entertaining talk breaks and soulful vocals by guest Nile Jones was a soothing companion for the soft waves and refreshing breeze of the beautiful beach. The show incited the audience to laissez les bon temps roulez with their Mardi Gras themed light show and New Orleans rendition of Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling.”

Foo Fighters blew up the main stage with their ground shaking performance—literally the ground was shaking. They played to a huge audience and did not disappoint those who loved their radio-hit songs. However, front-man (and former Nirvana drummer) Dave Grohl, seemed to scream a lot more live than he does on studio recordings. While most of the audience was pumped with this aspect of his performance style, I would argue that some instances were just a tad unnecessary.

Designated for the late-night portion of the schedule was Paper Diamond. The dubstep DJ did a fairly impressive job keeping the audience dancing with his predominately original songs (as opposed to remixes and mashups) and entertaining rapport in between songs. Even though he lacked any lightshow aesthetics (unlike his performance at this year’s Hangout Fest), he was really fun to watch. Unfortunately, the audience was dominated by a large group of youngsters—like kids that should have been at home asleep or something—so some of the older electronic lovers were a little uncomfortable with the seemingly “drunken” and hormone raging kiddies taking up the dance space with their bump n’ grind.

After the stage and audience had been successfully warmed up, Paper Diamond handed over the mic to Diplo, whose “party-boy” reputation brought in an even larger crowd. Thankfully, the teeny-boppers had cleared out and the dance floor was open for people old enough and responsible enough to be at an electronic show.

Sunday

While Sunday’s performances started rather early in the morning, any normal person who stayed for Diplo’s late performance the night before was probably curing their hangover on the beach no earlier than 2 p.m.—just in time to catch Blackberry Smoke on the main stage. They were good ole country boys playing tunes about man’s troubles as well as the good times you have in life. Their acoustic setup and pleasant voices gave the audience on the beach a nice relaxing remedy to soak up the sun to.

Unfortunately, if you chose to then walk over to the Windcreek Stage to see Bob Mould and his band, you were in for a rude awakening. While the band wasn’t necessarily bad, they were most certainly loud—abrasively loud. You couldn’t hold a conversation anywhere near the performance area and you couldn’t even understand the lyrics if you wanted to listen. While there was a pretty good crowd enjoying the show, casual listeners would have easily been scared away.

The next band to take the Windcreek Stage was the 90s punk rock band Superchunk. Now, these guys knew how to rock without blowing out your eardrums. They gave an exciting performance filled with catchy songs and the feeling that they really loved what they did. The guitarist and bassists jumped up and down with energy, belted their songs with passion and even the drummer was seem mouthing each type of sound he banged with his sticks. They even joked about the infestation of dragonflies (September is the mating season for dragonflies in Florida) and kept listeners entertained and intrigued. While the audience was impressed, the majority of the attendees were all-day campers patiently waiting for the next performance.

The final performance of the Windcreek Stage was Florence + The Machine. This was possibly the best performance of the entire festival. The act seemed to have started before the band even stepped on the stage—seemingly due to the slow set production. The waiting audience was continuously awed as each piece of the set was put in place—a stunning stain-glass-window painted backdrop, a dramatic black and white grand piano, a beautiful gold harp and a sleek mirrored microphone stand. When the band finally arrived, ecstatic fans screamed for front-woman Florence Welch, dressed in her iconic long flowing dress.

She was clearly the star of the show, running up and down the center aisle, elegantly dancing and twirling on stage and singing as beautifully and dramatically as she does on her studio albums. For “Rabbit Heart,” she asked the audience to make human sacrifices by sitting on each other’s shoulders and closing with “Dog Days Are Over,” she instructed the audience through the ritual of jumping up and down throughout the ending chorus. The entire show perfectly represented their latest album Ceremonials, by making the performance an almost religious experience for the audience.

Last Regards

While the still-young Deluna Fest improved its organizational skills and security as compared to last year, there were still some major issues with this year’s event. Most importantly, the lineup was not entirely impressive. There were a lot more fresh faces than seasoned artists, and some of those more established musicians aren’t quite as relevant as many of the artists on tour this year (i.e. Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters).

Also, there were a few schedule conflictions including playing some of the few established bands during the same time slots. If you’re only going to have a handful of well-known artists, spread them evenly throughout the day so that attendees can have a chance to see them all.

Lastly, the placement of the stages was a bit off. One main stage and one small were on the beach while the other two were on the cemented parking area around it. It would have been better to have both of the main stages on the beach so that attendees could see the bigger names with the beautiful view. As amazing as the Florence + The Machine performance was, it was a crime to not have the show under the setting sun by the infinite ocean.