The Playground Music and Arts Festival Jan. 20 featured 12 band performances, food trucks, merchandise stands and clothing vendors. The sold-out event at the Heartwood Soundstage occurred from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m., ending with a two-hour set from the group of UF alumni, Flipturn.
Heartwood Soundstage, which usually only has one main stage, added a second stage for the festival. The acts had alternating time slots on either the “See” or the “Saw” stage.
Hundreds of people gathered at the festival organized by Flipturn, Indie Live and Swamp Records. Ticket prices ranged from $40 for presale to $70.
Sejal Ramlogun, a 21-year-old UF public health junior, is a part of the socials and engagement team at Swamp Records. She said her team was responsible for publicizing the event.
“Honestly…I wasn't really expecting it to [be sold out], so it's really cool that it did,” Ramlogun said.
She and many others shared a collective excitement about Flipturn returning to Gainesville.
“It's such a win for [Swamp Records] because it's such a cool thing that we can bring Flipturn back here, and we can work with them every year,” Ramlogun said.
The Housing Crisis performed at 2 p.m. on the “Saw” stage for 30 minutes. Dylan O’Bryan is a UF alumnus who started his one-man band during his time as a student. He said although he records his music as a solo act, he has one of his friends volunteer to play other instruments for live shows.
His roommate, Trevor Griffin, played guitar on top of singing backing vocals for the set. The duo performed a cover of “This Must Be The Place” by the Talking Heads and closed their set with “Do You Wanna Float??,” an unreleased song.
“I was not expecting it at all,” said O’Bryan about having the opportunity to perform.
As soon as O’Bryan and Griffin’s performance ended, Quail Hollow took to the “See” stage for its 30-minute set. Complete with an energetic performance and an array of fresh sounds, the band also covered a Fleetwood Mac song, “The Chain,” and amped up the energy as a result.
The five members include 20-year-old vocalist and bassist Ashley Griffith, 20-year-old vocalist and guitarist Dominic Fonseca, 20-year-old guitarist Douglas Jaramillo, 20-year-old drummer Augustus Hoff and 22-year-old keyboardist Matthew Butler.
Griffith said the band got involved with Playground through Hoff’s connections at Swamp Records. The band joined Swamp Records in September 2023.
“Everyone [at Heartwood] has just been so awesome and saw potential in us and wanted to push us to do greater shows and do greater things,” Griffith said.
Griffith and the rest of Quail Hollow are traveling to Nashville in February to finish recording their second album.
Following Quail Hollow were Coyboi, Early Eyes, Corey Kilgannon, Happy Landing, Easy Honey, Girlpuppy, The Brazen Youth, Trash Panda and Liz Cooper.
The headliner, Flipturn, closed the festival at 9 p.m. Despite the temperature reaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit, hundreds of people filled the lawn at Heartwood for the band.
Contact Emilia Cardenas-Perez and Ben Miller at ecardenes-perez@alligator.org and bmiller@alligator.org. Follow them on X @emiliaandreaa and @.men_mbiller.
