Night Moves Festival debuted in 2023 an independent music festival under the Foo Foo Festival umbrella. Now, they're back to do it again, this time with more bands, more locals, and twice the stages.
This year’s lineup includes headliners Alvvays, Silversun Pickups, and Beach Fossils, with local or regional bands like Feed Lemon, and Baby in the 90s filling out the roster.
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Robert Goodspeed, director of Night Moves and manager of The Handlebar is applying the experience gained from the success of 2023 to make this year look and feel more like a traditional outdoor music festival.
“I think festivals are more like, there's something going on all the time,” said Goodspeed. “And you know, this was, last year was kind of just a show, which is fine, but I think we wanna make it feel a little bit more like a festival.”
Securing Maritime Park for the location of the festival a second year in a row has afforded the Night Moves organizers a serious advantage: familiarity. The main challenge of Night Moves 2023 came from having too few concessions. This year, Goodspeed assures food truck options will be broader, lines will be shorter, and vendors plenty.
New to the festival this year is the addition of local artists to join the experience.
“We're going to have more artistic options going on,” said Goodspeed. “We're gonna have some live art installs and stuff like that to make people feel more engaged while they're there.”
Ticket prices this year were lowered to $60 for a general admission day pass to be more accessible for music lovers. Weekend and VIP passes are also available.
“We want people to come, we want people to know that this is for them and not just for Night Moves, right? Like this is for Pensacola and we want people to feel like this is their festival that they can relate to,” explained Goodspeed.
Statewide funding cuts this year have reduced the ability of grant programs to support events like Night Moves and Foo Foo Festival. Last year was the first time Night Moves got approved for the grant after several years of applying.
Therese Felth Mckenzie, chair of Foo Foo Festival, emphasized how important events like this can be for a community like Pensacola that relies heavily on tourism.
“They are catering to an audience that is a little bit more niche,” said McKenzie. “You're going to get people that are following Night Moves or some of the performers that they have lined up for this festival who are just going to be hardcore fans.”
There’s also the hope that people who are going to Night Moves Festival will take part in other Foo Foo events during the 12 days.
“They’re going to look at the schedule of events that we have during the twelve-day period and go say, ‘Oh well, I'm coming to town because I want to see the Silversun Pickups,” explained McKenzie. “But while I’m here, I’m going to stay a little longer and I’m actually going to attend the opera event.’
When it comes to the Night Moves lineup, Goodspeed said his goal is to ensure that all attendees walk away with at least one new favorite band.
“I'd love it if some kid was out there and they saw Feed Lemon or they saw Color of the Void,” he said. “And they were like ‘I would love to go see this band again.’ And then they follow them on Instagram, and then that's the rest of the story. And so that's why I think people should go, is because I think that they will walk away from it a fan of someone. And it is, like I said, a community event and we want everyone in town to feel like they're part of a growing festival.”
Currently, there are 16 acts booked for the main festival on Saturday, Nov. 9, which takes place from 1-11 p.m. at Pensacola’s Maritime Park located behind Blue Wahoo’s Stadium. The VIP package includes access to the festival on Saturday plus amenities such as a private bar and viewing area. The weekend pass includes two pre-shows at The Handlebar on Thursday and Friday to kick off the weekend and an after-show on Sunday to wrap everything up. All three ticket options are available online in limited quantities. More information is available at nightmovesfest.com.
