By Emily Smith, Arts and Entertainment Editor
The Savannah Stopover music festival celebrated its fifth anniversary March 5-7, featuring over 100 bands this year. Local and touring bands alike performed at various venues downtown, entertaining people from all over the country and kick starting the city’s busiest season.
A little rain didn’t stop the opening fifth anniversary. Local Savannah surf rock band, Wave Slaves, started the show at Trustees Garden. Guitarist, Joshua Lindsay, set the mood by jumping off of the stage and interacting with the crowd, encouraging them to dance.
Nashville band, Turbo Fruits, soon followed with a high energy, rock and roll set. If you’re wondering where this gem of a band got it’s name, you’ll never guess. “I was at a casino in Scotland and turbo fruits came up on the slot machine.” lead singer of Turbo Fruits, Jonas Stein said.
Finally, headliner Southern Culture on the Skids took the stage drawing the largest crowd of the night. After the opening show, various downtown venues such as Hangfire, The Jinx, Congress Street Social Club, and Trinity United Methodist Church opened their doors to over 100 local and traveling bands where performances were held non stop into the night.
Art Rise Savannah teamed up with Stopover this year to host a band poster competition. Finalists were announced and recognized at The Jepson Center March 7. Caleb Williamson’s poster for Tall Tall Trees came in first place, Alex Wagner’s poster for The Generationals took second place, and Ryan Howard’s poster for Matthew E. White came in third.
102 artists submitted their band posters into the competition.“This is the first time that we’ve partnered with Stopover and we got the most entries in the world,” Executive director of Art Rise Savannah, Clinton Edminster said. “The cooperation in past months between Stopover and Art Rise is telling of things to come in Savannah.”
Most bands that played downtown are already on their way to the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, but their weekend layover in Savannah made the event a huge success as it continues to grow each year.
