04 May Those Pretty, Pretty Lights and Sounds

Photo by: Chris Salata

We decided to start our afternoon with Mr. Jesse Young. There is a good chance you haven’t heard of him and he’s kind of hard to find from a simple Google search. (But we think he likes that.) He’s just a man with a guitar that actually informed the crowd he had to fly in drummer for the festival.

Just by the looks of him, he looks like your average guy. A great pair of Ray Bans, cotton t-shirt and as a cool as cucumber attitude. But his voice is that of a full-blown superstar. After jamming out with our fellow Sunfesters through his fabulous set, we think its safe to say John Mayer should watch his back.

And then it was time for an act we had been looking forward to all weekend long: Jillette Johnson. We fell in musical love with her a few months back when a friend of ours shared her video “Cameron” on Facebook. We love a girl who isn’t afraid to send a tough message musically.  Domestic violence, homophobia and everything in between, if she feels strongly about it, she’s belting it out behind her piano.

Did we mention she is a piano master with the voice of Adele and the heartache of Taylor Swift? Not to mention her fashion is fully on point, and she is quite the story teller. “This song, ‘Basketball,’ is about when I was sleeping with a younger guy,” she says. We can only explain her as if Girls was a musical. We like it…. A lot. We know understand why the people standing next to us came from Jillette and only Jillette.

And then it came time to end our evening, it was a tough decision. To keep up the rock theme we had going with Daughtry or to see one our favorite DJs, Pretty Lights. So we thought to ourselves, “Why not both?”

Luckily for us, Chris Daughtry started out with the classics like “It’s Not Over” and “Over You.” Thank you for giving us some of your best right off the bat. We got our fix and made our way over to what we can only explain as a mini-Ultra. That, of course, was the stage set for Pretty Lights.

Currently one of the top DJs in the world, any fan of EDM couldn’t have left anything but overjoyed after his set. It was pure, classic beats that were near impossible not to dance to. And where to begin with his light show. He stayed true to his name that’s for damn sure. Derek Vincent Smith, nice work. The flower headband children thank you.