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Friday, May 02, 2025

The Avenue | Music

Attendees chant and sing during Strike Anywhere’s set at Bo Diddley Plaza on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021.
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

Gainesville FEST musical festival celebrates 20th anniversary

FEST, the three-day, multi-venue event, celebrated its 20th anniversary Oct. 28-30. Performances were scattered across a variety of downtown Gainesville locations — with music venues like Heartwood Soundstage, bars like The Bull and other local establishments featuring lineups of punk rock, pop-punk and other musical genres — drawing in crowds from across the country.   


THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

From classroom to stage, UF students, alum work tirelessly to make music a reality

Gainesville’s local music scene is filled with UF students and alum who are juggling a full course load, work and aspiring music careers. Aside from balancing different responsibilities, college musicians also grapple with the business aspect of their craft — creating digital advertisements, promoting social media content, finding venues for performances and handling music production. Essentially, they become their own manager, publicist and producer. 


Robbie Kingsley, lead singer of The Hails, performing their hit song “Younger” for Gainesville fans at Playground Music Festival at Heartwood Soundstage Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022.
THE AVENUE  |  MUSIC

More than a thousand fans jam out at Playground Music and Arts Festival

More than 1,000 people from across the state flocked to a small Gainesville venue in the sticky summer heat Saturday, headbanging and jumping up and down to local indie acts. Thirteen bands played back-to-back sets at the Playground Music and Arts Festival. The festival was hosted by Heartwood Soundstage as a kick-off to indie rock band flipturn’s debut album, “Shadowglow."



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