Ten Years of Suwannee Hulaween

Welcome back festivarians to Live Oak, Florida and the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park, where on October 26-29, 2023, Suwannee Hulaween descends for the tenth anniversary of this world-famous, slap yo mama good, music and arts festival. How do you like your Cheese. Stringy of course with a funkalicious Saturday dance set and a Sunday afternoon frisbee set. JRAD? Pretty Lights? Something for all the hippies. Live Oak, this is where music lives. Ten Years of Suwannee Hulaween. You know what we do here. If you don’t, then find out. Build it. Withers to brisket, with an attention to detail. Dance on it. Use it up and tear it down. Ten years of Suwannee Hulaween. Fiesta de lo extraño. Party of the strange.

When people agree that Hula is their favorite music and camping festival, they say it with a conviction reserved for the few, crystalline certainties. And with pride as lifelong Floridians and Southerners, calling this our home festival and contributing to the ultimate spectacle. Your welcome. Your time is our pleasure.

A thousand apologies dear reader if the records of these events appear out of sequence. The anachronism can be attributed to ego death and the collateral ilk. Late nights, chemical toilets and sunrise sets. As with all things, time and the Hulaweens coalesce into one long happy, party memory. You’re welcome. Bet.

In no uncertain terms, the wook wranglers were born under the shade of the turkey oaks at Hulaween. It was Lil D-Big Arrel from Cheese. Love. Sauce. who first coined the phrase as the hippies passed out in groundscored beach chairs failed to respond to the cracking of the kangaroo whip. Cypher, Quinton, Emma Jay, The Captain, Cheyenne, Clayopheus the Sacred, Fooboo, Thatcher Owen Mullins and all the rest. These are ten years worth of memories and an inkling to the portent of this year’s potential.

Git on wooks!

Anybody that’s been to the Sprit of Suwanne Music Park on the last weekend of October can tell you, it only gets better ever year. Suwannee Hulaween is ready to celebrate the festival’s tenth anniversary with historic, genre-bending lineup. Following a five-year hiatus, electro-soul pioneer Pretty Lights will headline Hulaween as his only East Coast festival performance on his Soundship Spacesystem Tour. Goose, Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, John Summit, Trey Annastasio Band along with the Cheese set the mark high for this year’s music. It’s more music than one can get to. Check out the rest of the insane lineup here.

Trinketz VIP Dance Party. We didn’t build the fire. No wait. We sure did. Keep your eyes peeled for Asheville’s favorite sister, Trinket and her amazing dance party. Sorry fellas, you must have the proper lanyard to enter and if you get the green light, please take off your shoes. Look for feathers in her dreadlocks and bones in her nose.

The Triforce. Cheese. Love. Sauce., The Titty Kitties. Hobo Kamp. It all comes together this year in one delicious burrito. Michigan wooks. Adam’s Breath balloons, no deals. This is the ant bed you made. Sleep in it. This was where Emma Jay came into the fold, noob that she was, now an expert festivarian. Look for her renegade vending somewhere deep in the woods with the forest people. These are professional rocket hippies to be sure. “Experienced” campers that know how to skate the fine line between classy and thugish behavior. Let them pave the way and learn from their experience. (Ed. pro tip- Early entry on Wednesday (which is a must) costs $40 with the purchase of a four-day ticket. Every day before that is only ten dollars a day. For $70 Join Kamp Happiness Sunday prior for a few extra days of set up and helping to lay the groundwork for the adventure to come.)

Tickets on sale now right here.

The Roanoke Mafia. Since its inception, the wook wranglers have celebrated their continued membership in the Roanoke Mafioso. Riding mules and hauling their wagons, half of them would come down for MagnoliaFest and the other half would arrive two weeks later for Hula. Octobers are pretty special in Live Oak. They come because it represents a place where dreams come true. Where every fantasy can become real in just a few seconds. Don’t ask how it happens. There is no lost and found for the ego.

Visit some of the other Hulaween contributions from the wrangler archives like Dance of the Monkey Kings, Cheese. Love. Sauce. and The Kamp Ha Penis Dumpster Fire. Explore the interweb and check out our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. We will stay in the eye wall of the Hulaween virtual fun as we focus on the artists and other contributors as we gear up for the event. Stay focused grasshopper.

The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park and Campground is an 800-acre campground located on the historic banks of the Suwannee River. Boat launch on site, bring your canoe or kayak and take a stroll along this beautiful cypress tree lined piece of North Florida. Bring the family and enjoy great fresh water fishing, wildlife habitat, or play our disc golf course through the pines and oaks. With miles of trails, hiking, bicycling, and golf cart rides are one of the many great ways to see the outdoors.

Something for every hippy. Hulaween doesn’t know you and she doesn’t care what kind of music you like. She’s going to make a warm poridge steeped with jam band, bluegrass, bass, house, deep house, dubstep, techno, electric, progressive house, electro house, trap, trance, progressive trance, psychidelic trance, yacht rock and divorce core and she’s going to pour it over your face. Get ready. The man thinks he’s going for that Saturday night Cheese show but he doesn’t yet understand the Pretty Lights bass thumping that’s going to leave the decks traveling across the field, up his leg and right into his tan starfish. Your welcome.

Call me Swiss cause I be Cheesin’.

Do not mess around and miss out on the world famous Kamp Happiness Circle K? Trading Post and Hagglin’ Table. That’s right. Five square feet of some of the silliest and most extra-special collectibles this side of a Spanish flea market. When leave one-take one blankets aren’t enough, come to the hagglin’ table where every transaction is supervised by one of our trained staff of professionals. Treasures await you.

Stop what you’re doing. Hulaween is proud to host the Spirit of Suwannee favorites, Free Range Strange. Sunny Rae, the Savage and the rest of the bunch will bring their high-energy twist on folk, bluegrass and jam-rock to the party. What does the lumberjack say? Wait for his lighting shreddage and the late-night, campfire jams. Don’t sleep on this one. Always a strange time.

Get lost. Don’t be afraid to get lost at Suwannee. That’s part of the fun to get completely turned around in the forest and happen upon all matter of unexpected surprises. Renegade stages, hidden passages and secret rooms. Find your way to The Loop and visit with the beautiful people. Check out the VIPness and make your way down to the river. Monday is a big river day at Hulaween. Don’t be afraid to stay one more night and play groundscore bingo. It’s all out there, you just have to poke around.

Hulaween, one can make anything happen. All you have to do is pretend it and it becomes real. Molly Tuttle talked about it after their secret set in 2022. Few places so easily invite this unusual behaviro where the concept of reality becomes relative and subject to interpretation. Join the collective ego-death over the course of the week and remember what the best version of yourself looks like. It looks good on you.

(Ed pro tip. Take a trip inside the SOS Cafe and Music hall for the breakfast buffet, live music or just a cool place to sit and enjoy a cocktail or a draft brew. It also hosts one of the nicest water closets in the park. It’s right next door to the laundry so you can relax at the bar whilst your clothes get warshed.)

Spirit Lake. By day the ladies of the Complimentary Bar are flashing their pearly whites and by night, the Frick Frack table draws in the suckers ready to part with their treasures. Gambling is an addiction. Sit a spell with the swamp monster or venture through one of the many art installations that are just ready to blow your mind. Make your way to the Spirit Lake stage for intimate jams and be on the look out for silent disco. It’s an endless parade of fun in every direction and serious adventure awaits.

Location. Location. Location. The park has so many different great places to camp and they all offer something different. Whether it’s with Tristan and Cat in the Renaissance, Moonshine Gary in the cottages, Zach and Emily in the Bird Sanctuary, Tim and Sunny at 80 acres, Billy in The Loop, Matt near the Bat House, Lucy on Hippy Trail, Luke Sidewalker at Spirit Lake, Thatch at the horse stables or Bonnie in the VIPness, nowhere is safe. It depends on what style of camping you’re looking for. Some folks like to get back in the woods, away from the party, giving you the option to join the fray and then retreat back into your sanctuary. Some people like to be in the mix. Kamp Happiness likes to be in the eye wall of the storm and the original settlement around the Poncho Tree near the intersection of the Pine Field and the Farm Field remains. It’s in the shade, not too far from the Bill Monroe Pavilion, where it remains today. Come early and join the fun at 101 Happy St. Anyone that wants to leave can just step over the line.

Thanks again for making the wranglers the Orion Arm’s number one media source for all things wookishly groovy and stupid fun. Join Big Betty at the Hobo Kamp for a heaping spoonful of all the most ridiculous pulp you will find. Join us for our Thursday night house band, “The Tranquilizers” as they struggle to tune their instruments for two straight hours.

Felicia,

Ten Years of Hulaween. Has it really been that long? Golly. I remember what we were doing in 2013?  We made love in the phosphorescence at Blind Pass and drank rum drinks at Mermaids before it became a Margaritaville and disappeared with the rest of Fort Myers Beach into Gulf of Mexico. Lance Armstrong joined the ranks of the admitted “users” and President Obama was inaugurated for his second term. Silver Wrapper and Purple Hat Productions brought Hulaween to the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park and for the festivarians of the southeast, things would never be the same. This year we party for all those who loved the festival and have gone home to their final reward. Clayopheus, Corporal Turner, Fooboo and so many more. If they could speak from the other side we might hear them singing with the wind and asking us to join in their beautiful song.

Bye Felicia-