Alt 98.7 Summer Camp 2019 at Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach
Saturday August 3rd, 2019
Alt Summer Camp is an annual festival presented by the radio station Alt98.7fm. The gates opened at 2:45pm giving people plenty of time to get to the stage before the first artistâs set. A majority of the artist were given a 30 minute set with 3 minutes between sets to prepare the stage for the next performer.
Oliver Tree was the first performer of the day. He took the stage riding a razor scooter dressed in his usual attire, a bright pink and purple wind breaker, bell flare jeans and his tiny sunglasses. With each song he performed there were different cartoon versions of himself shown on the screen above him, including him crucified on the front of a razor scooter.
Next up was Half-Alive. The Long Beach based band is best known for their song âstill feelâ which they kept for the end of their set. For parts of every other song, the lead singer was joined by two dancers on stage and danced with them during breaks from lyrics.Â
SHAED took the stage after half-alive. Personally they were my least favorite performer of the day. They werenât bad, there just wasnât anything that fun or interesting about their set.Â
K. Flay was one of the people I was excited to see live for the first time. I really enjoyed her newest album, Solutions, and was interested in what she would be like live. Her set was a good mix of her new songs as well as those from her past albums.Â
We took a break from being in the crowd during The Interrupters set to get hydrated and get food but still enjoyed listening to their set from the food stalls.Â
Lovelytheband came on stage around 6pm. They were one of my favorite performances of the day. Every song had the crowd jumping, dancing and singing along. Between some of their songs they mentioned it was the one year anniversary of their debut album as well as talking about the message the band stood behind.Â
My other favorite performance of the day came on right after. Grouplove came out with big teeth above them spelling out the bandâs name. Playing songs from all their past three albums they kept the crowdâs energy high and had everyone screaming along to their most well known songs. Halfway through their set, giant beachballs were released into the crowd. Near the end of their set they mentioned they are finishing a new album that they canât wait to let people hear.
After a short break for the crew backstage, Cold War Kids came on. Also from Long Beach, the band mentioned how they always love getting to play there. Continuing the trend, they played their most well known songs from all of their albums, ending the set with âFirstâ.
Phantogram was up next. They played all the well-known favorites, as well as treating the crowd to a new song they had only ever played live once. This performance hinted at new singles and album to come.Â
The Head and The Heart came on after Phantogram. A majority of the songs played were from their newest album Living Mirage. They ended their set with their most popular song âRivers and Roadsâ.Â
WALK THE MOON brought back more of the jumping and dancing to the crowd. Playing all their top songs, they kept the audience screaming along during the whole set. They ended the set with the song that first made a name for the band, âAnna Sunâ.Â
The last performance of the festival was Of Monsters and Men. The band presented a good balance of song from all of their albums. With tons of instruments and colourful visuals to compliment each song, they were the perfect end to a fantastic festival.Â
If next year has as good a lineup as 2019 I would be excited to go again. A big improvement for the festival would be to have screens either side of the stage to allow the bands to be seen from everywhere in the grounds.Â
