Concerts Festivals Merriweather Post Pavilion

2015 Sweetlife Festival Day One

Posted on August 25, 2015
Jack Antonoff Performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival

The Sweetlife Festival has grown quite a bit from it’s modest DJ’s-in-a-parking-lot beginnings in 2010 to the two day festival headlined by Kendrick Lamar and Calvin Harris. Credit and respect to the crew behind the festival because they’ve grown the event each and every year, booking bigger and better bands. However, I think we saw this year that a two day festival might be a little much for this event.

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Tove Lo performs on the TreeHouse Stage at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. The Swedish songstress drew one of the biggest crowds of the day. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Billy Idol performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. His set featured rock radio staples such as "Rebel Yell," "Eyes Without A Face" and "Dancing With Myself." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - SZA performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Signed to Kendrick Lamar's Top Dawg Entertainment label, SZA has released a number of well received EP's and guested on tracks by Wale and Schoolboy Q. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

In previous years, the draw of Sweetlife was you would get to see a killer headliner (Avicii, The Strokes, Phoenix, etc.) along with a bunch of great up-and-coming bands that would soon be headlining shows of their very own (Action Bronson, Haim, Zola Jesus, Hozier, etc.), all for a decent price. This year that wasn’t the case. Spreading the good acts out over 2 days made the lineup paper thin and really took the focus away from the music. Most of the millennials in attendance sat around taking selfies and waiting for the more well known acts on the lineup. I think the organizers learned a valuable lesson this year in that if you’re going to take up everyone’s entire weekend, the show better be worth it. In my opinion, that wasn’t the case this year.

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Frank Black of The Pixies performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Kendrick Lamar performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Lamar's sophomore album, released in March, debuted atop the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Billy Idol performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. His set featured rock radio staples such as "Rebel Yell," "Eyes Without A Face" and "Dancing With Myself." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Tove Lo performs on the TreeHouse Stage at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. The Swedish songstress drew one of the biggest crowds of the day. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

That said, I did see some great sets. Tove Lo was amazing and I instantly fell in love with her performance. Kendrick was great, obis, even if he did stick to his old material. Billy Idol was fun, as was Jack Antonoff and Bleachers. I was excited to see The Pixies again, but they played a weird set with no front lighting and only sang the choruses of the first two songs. Strange. I’ll have photos from Day 2 (Charli XCX!!) up soon.

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Jack Antonoff of Bleachers performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

COLUMBIA, MD - May 30, 2015 - Billy Idol performs at the 2015 Sweetlife Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. His set featured rock radio staples such as "Rebel Yell," "Eyes Without A Face" and "Dancing With Myself." (Photo by Kyle Gustafson / For The Washington Post) (Kyle Gustafson/For The Washington Post)

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Kyle Gustafson is a freelance photographer based in Washington, D.C. His work appears weekly in The Washington Post. Complex Magazine named him one of the 50 Greatest Concert Photographers Right Now.

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