Sunny Sunday Closes Out Shaky Knees Festival

  • Tuesday, May 16, 2017
  • Carmen O'Hagan

The final day of the Shaky Knees Music Festival, held at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, was made perfect by great weather, even better music, and a fun environment.

Sunday was the only day of the festival that didn’t see a drop of rain. Festival goers were treated to bright sunshine and a stellar lineup of performances. Around the grounds there was plenty to enjoy by various vendors. Highlights included Coca Cola’s setup which allowed everyone to have their name (and a friend’s) printed on a can of Coke, completely free of charge, as part of their “Share a Coke” campaign. There were also multiple places to play corn hole within the festival, provided by various vendors, along with an area by the Ponce De Leon stage which featured large-scale Jenga and Connect Four.

Following Friday and Saturday’s performances it seemed hard to top, but Sunday’s lineup sounded promising and proved to be even better than expected. Little-known Canadian band Arkells definitely stood out during their set not only for their rock talent, but for their audience engagement as well. Lead singer Max Kerman jumped the barrier early into their set and went for a walk throughout the crowd. Towards the end of their performance he asked the crowd if anyone knew how to play guitar and brought a guy from the audience onstage to play the chorus of their song with them. Arkells certainly take the top prize for fan interaction.

Third Eye Blind, The Shins, and Phoenix all delivered impressive sets. Bleachers stood out as another highlight from Sunday. Frontman Jack Antonoff, widely known as the guitarist from Fun., had a bit of a delay because of technical difficulties but handled them amazingly well. At one point the sounds from Third Eye Blind over at the Peachtree Stage drifted and the crowd at Bleachers began to sing along. It proved to be the most serendipitous moment because the timing was perfect as their song “Jumper” came through right at the perfect moment as a chorus of “I would understand” erupted as Bleachers stood on stage trying to fix the problem. Antonoff laughed and thanked the crowd for waiting and understanding and then played a song solo on guitar before his band’s tech was fixed and they joined him for the next song.

All in all, 2017 was another great year for the Shaky Knees Festival marking its fifth anniversary.

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