Today, one of North Carolina’s most popular music festivals is taking its show on the road — literally.
The Hopscotch Music Festival, which will take place Sept. 5 to 7 this year in Raleigh, is presenting a series of road shows in various cities across North Carolina, as well as one in Richmond, Va., that will span the next two weeks. The road shows are intended to coincide with Wednesday’s announcement of the festival’s 2013 lineup.
Greg Lowenhagen, Hopscotch founder and director, said the road shows were motivated by a desire to promote the lineup announcement away from the festival’s base in Raleigh.
“In the past what we’ve done, basically, is we’ve thrown shows in Raleigh to sort of celebrate that and highlight what we just put out,” he said. “This year we decided to do that in different markets around the state.”
The road show circuit will kick off in Chapel Hill tonight with an early show at Nightlight headlined by Baltimore band The Snails. Later, Chapel Hill garage rockers Last Year’s Men headline a show at The Cave. From there, the festival will present shows in cities such as Charlotte and Wilmington.
“That was the idea, to sort of spread that celebration of the lineup out and to make sure that we had a presence in those cities starting here in April when we announce the lineup, rather than waiting until August or something to try and get the word out,” Lowenhagen said.
Boone-based band Naked Gods will headline a Hopscotch road show in Asheville on May 2. Bassist Chris Hutelmyer said he appreciates the festival’s commitment to music fans throughout North Carolina, specifically in the western part of the state.
“It’s cool to have them reach out because there is a lot of good music going on in the area, in Asheville and in Boone,” Hutelmyer said.
Last Year’s Men frontman Ben Carr said he is excited to see the festival promoting itself to music fans outside of the Triangle.
“I think it’s great that they’re doing it in a bunch of different cities, namely Richmond, which I thought was really neat,” he said. “Hopefully it’s kind of like an invitation to come on down for the Hopscotch weekend and everybody have a good time.”
Carr said that despite Chapel Hill’s proximity to Raleigh, he rarely makes the trip to see shows.
“I think with most shows I always feel like, ‘Damn, I gotta drive all the way up to Raleigh go see this show,’” Carr said. “But with Hopscotch, it’s like making the Mecca out to Raleigh for the best weekend of your life.”
Lowenhagen said that with the road shows, Hopscotch is seeking to inspire music fans outside of its core Triangle market to attend the festival.
“Essentially what it is is we’re talking about places that are all within three hours of Raleigh, and we want to make sure people in those cities know that this is happening in September within three hours of where they live,” Lowenhagen said.
He continued, “This is a weekend event that is accessible to those people — easily accessible — and it’s something that we hope they’d put on their calendars as if it was almost happening in their own town.”
Contact the desk editor at diversions@dailytarheel.com
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