Magnolia Fest 2006 Photo By Hailey Petway
Magnolia Fest is a four day music festival. Music aficionados can spend the day or the weekend swimming, kayaking and swaying in hammocks.
Sing and dance from Oct. 23 to 26 at the Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak, Fla. The park offers horseback riding, hiking trails, bicycles for rent, kayaking and canoeing on the Suwanee River. The river has beautiful but stinky sulfur springs and ruins from an old resort.
The festival offers free admission to volunteers. This is especially popular amoung students. Volunteers work four-hour shifts three times over the weekend. The jobs range from cooking for the musicians to banding the incoming patrons.
The second best thing is the atmosphere. Young and old relax together over the long weekend. The campsites are usually partitioned by the campers with tarps or blankets, giving the individual sites more privacy. The camping area forms a loop away from the music with the ends leading to the music stages.
The festival offers all kinds of local music like bluegrass, reggae, and rock and roll. Some of the most popular bands are Donna the Buffalo and The Duhks. The music plays day and night over the four days.
There are two main stages. The first stage is in a grove of trees and a forest of hammocks surround it. Individuals bring their own hammocks and set them up, allowing others to use them when the owners are elsewhere.
Between the stages there is a market. Local craftsmen sell different types of art, organic goods, food, instruments, and of course hammocks.
Photo by Hailey Petway
