** Mobile Users - turn your device sideways for better results **
** Mobile Users - turn your device sideways for better results **
That Music Fest is music festival put on by That Station, 95.7 FM at Durham Bulls Athletic Park — the DBAP, home of the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. The debut 2022 festival presented 25 acts that are from or make their musical home in North Carolina.
The inaugural festival June 24 and 25 was a straight-forward affair focused on the music. Tightly run stage activities were supported by limited stadium concessions, including a bar near the main stage, and band and festival merchandise sales. That Radio Station has announced that the 2023 festival will be one day, October 14, and feature food trucks and a beer garden on the baseball field, plus 18 different lawn games.
The main stage in 2022, seen below from the stands, was positioned at about second base of the diamond, which was mostly covered with interlocking white plastic tiles to protect the playing field.
The festival drew a mix of Millennials, Gen Xers and Boomers, possibly drawing younger fans because many of the bands in the lineup, like Delta Rae and B.J. Barham's American Aquarium, below, regularly play clubs across North Carolina.
Patrons paid $10 more for access to the field than for a grandstand seat. VIP ticket holders had access to the stadium's indoor skyboxes and a buffet, as well as the ballfield. Seats in the stands were out of the midday sun and cooled somewhat by large ceiling fans as well as the shade. But they took you pretty far from the action on stage, which we learned during Friday's Dillon Fence set (below).
Though the crowd bunched more tightly for each evening's top acts, mostly there was plenty of room for camp chairs, blankets and standing up front on the field.
Acts played the Landing and Concourse stages between acts on the main stage. The Landing Stage is not a part of the 2023 festival. An Acoustic Stage is to be presented on the stadium concourse; jump to pics of the 2022 Concourse stage.
The Landing Stage was a tent on the right-field upper deck (officially the Lowes Food Landing) beyond the Jackie's Landing bar.
Below, Saturday's opening show at the Landing Stage begins to draw an audience.
Later the narrow Landing area fills ...
Inside, on the stadium's concourse, the audience area in front of the Concourse stage became crowded quickly, as well. On Saturday, several rows of chairs were added.
Return to October Music Festivals // Go to our home page.