//From FES-TAA-VUL to Garden Party, Albino Skunk Fest Adjusts to the New Normal
Albino Skunk Music Festival

From FES-TAA-VUL to Garden Party, Albino Skunk Fest Adjusts to the New Normal

Brett Barest

It was just a year ago that the Albino Skunk Music Festival celebrated its own 25th anniversary and we all took it for granted that number 26 would be here before we knew it. This is 2020, however, and nothing can be taken for granted as the pandemic first canceled April’s Spring Skunk and has hung around long enough to do the same to the fall Skunk Fest( which would normally be going down this weekend).
View Statement on Event Safety | Preview the Music Lineup

Fortunately, promoter Glynn Zeigler and his accompanying band of misfits that dedicate so much time and energy to these two annual festivals are not a group that is going to give up and not have live music in their lives. Drawing from Skunk Fest’s roots as a gathering of friends and a few bands, Zeigler and company brought us a Skunk Farm Garden Party back in June featuring two bands and about 130 attendees. The success and comfort level that evening provided paved the way for this weekend’s Garden Parties 2.0 and 3.0, Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.

This weekend’s Garden Parties bring us everything we have come to love about Skunk Fest over the years, specifically the coming together of a community in support of some wildly talented musicians representing a variety of genres. The difference is that while the Skunk Farm can comfortably hold up to 2,000 festival goers on a good weekend, Garden Parties will be limited to about 200 tickets per day. This emphasis on social distancing is the only way something like this can work safely, both for the attendees and the artists and staff putting on the event.

Another difference of this “one-eighth scale Skunk Fest” as Zeigler calls it, is that the food, drink, and art vendors normally found at these festivals will be absent. As such, guests will be free to bring their own food and drink to further minimize stranger-to-stranger interaction.

At the time of this writing, Saturday’s Garden Party is already sold out and Friday’s event is getting close as well. Why am I telling you about a show you probably cannot go to, then? Simply because I want to shine a light on the resilience, creativity, and passion that goes into an annual event like this and the determination it takes to keep live music alive in any capacity possible. It would be easy enough for Zeigler to shrug his shoulders and say “maybe next year” but instead he found a way to book 11 bands across two days in the most COVID-appropriate way possible just to keep some level of optimism and normality in these odd times.


Safety is a Priority


From young, local acts like Ella & Mary to Grammy winning Americana legend Jim Lauderdale, and so much talent and accomplishments in between, this is the biggest show the Upstate has seen since this whole mess started back in the Spring. Even if you cannot get tickets, check out each of the bands on this lineup, give them a listen, and appreciate how much talent Zeigler brings to the Skunk Farm year in and year out, pandemic be damned. FES-TAA-VUL, Garden Party, or anything in between, the Skunk Farm is always the place to be once the music starts.

Albino Skunk Garden Party Lineup

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Upstate Live Music Calendar

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