Nestled between oak trees covered in Spanish moss, a group of college kids crowded into a backyard for the Playground Preshow, which establishes itself as a quintessentially Gainesville event.
With organizers hanging spotlights from a basketball hoop and bands using the house’s first floor to store equipment, the home-grown nature of the event closely mimicked the local Indie music scene itself.
Playground Preshow took place Jan. 17, the night before the Playground Music + Arts Festival. Hosted by Swamp Records, Golden Ratio Booking and Indie Night live, the event featured four bands and brought in an audience of around 100 people. This is the event’s second year preceding Playground festival, Gainesville’s largest indie music festival. It highlights bands playing at Playground as well as other local groups.
Local artists The Nancys and Buboy performed at the show, as well as Tampa-based Rohna. Hall Pass, a band out of Athens, Georgia, surprised the crowd revealing itself the mystery artist advertised on social media. Tickets were $10, with 25% of proceeds going to Direct Relief’s California Fire Relief effort.
The Nancys were the first to go on stage, kicking off the event with a combination of originals and covers, including “Vampire Empire” by Big Thief, alongside their upcoming single “Best Dressed,” coming out on Jan. 31.
Theo Lorenzen, a 21-year-old information systems junior at UF and bassist for The Nancys, learned the instrument to join the band and has now been playing with them for eight months. When he’s on stage, he said he aims to mimic the crowd’s energy.
“I’m not attached to a mic or sitting, so I try to have fun and move around a little bit,” he said. “You gotta enjoy the song more than the people in the crowd, in my opinion.”
Buboy, an indie-pop group, followed The Nancys energetic set with original songs like “Darling” and “16,” as well as a cover of Beabadoobee’s “Glue Song.”
The band is also performing at Playground on Jan. 18, and bassist Nigel Humbert, an 18-year-old music freshman at Santa Fe College, said the group used Preshow as a chance to rehearse songs they have less experience playing live. Humbert said he feels “a lot better” about taking on the music festival after playing the house show and tells audiences to look out for the group’s upcoming EP and WUFT Amplified appearance.
Matthew Boughton, a 19-year-old computer science and electrical engineering sophomore at UF who is volunteering at Playground Festival, attended the Playground Preshow to support both the performers and his friends who are in Swamp Records.
“They’re all incredibly good and super talented,” he said about his friends. “I know some of them have worked with other music festivals, and they’ve just done such an amazing job.”
He said the popularity of the event has grown since last year’s performance at The Treehouse, and he hopes Swamp Records will continue to host events promoting the local music scene in Gainesville.
Boughton said he values the indie music scene in Gainesville for its ability to bring people with various backgrounds and tastes in music together.
“Even though we all listen to a lot of different music — I’m more of a punk, hardcore guy myself — I love the community that’s around with this sort of indie scene,” he said.
Christa Dalesandro, who recently graduated from UF with her masters in business management, said she didn’t attend similar events when she was an undergraduate student in Miami. Being a part of Greek life, Dalesandro primarily visited bars and went to large parties at fraternity houses, but she has enjoyed the change of pace.
“I love this vibe,” she said. “It feels more down to earth. It's really homey. It’s definitely a much different vibe, but in a good way. It feels so authentic and free flowing…and the live music is absolutely phenomenal.”
Contact Juliana DeFilippo at jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @JulianaDeF58101
Juliana DeFilippo is a freshman journalism major and General Assignment reporter for The Avenue. In her free time, she loves to read and work on crossword puzzles.
