Good People Good Times

Kicking off the summer season filled with hot weather, great times, and extraordinary music, Good People Good Times was a hand picked, home spun weekend festival on May 18th-20th. Located in the wooded suburbs of Gnawbone, the music is held in the campgrounds at Explore Brown County.   The beautifully sprawling campgrounds, formerly called Valley Branch Retreat, are tucked into shallow valleys surrounded by the rolling tree covered hills.

Good People Good Times (GPGT) is the brainchild of Derick Howard and Ashley Goddard.  Derick is a musical staple of our Central Indiana scene with years of concert and festival experience.  You can tell he compiled all that was important to all those involved, both as an artist and a fan, and set out to create that event. 

As we entered the retreat, we were greeted with smiling faces and someone directing us where to park, hassle free. There were revolving shuttles to drive us and our gear to the primitive campsite we desired back within the campgrounds. We set gear up and prepared to spend the next two days listening to music, hiking the trails, watching live artists demonstrate their craft, and enjoy the people we meet along the way.  And my fears that we were too close to the stage to get any rest, were unfounded, because as midnight rang each night, the evening became a silent disco, where you could get stereo quality sound in headphones, or have the sounds of the night without. 

In designing the lineup, Ashley and Derick picked an eclectic mix to get something for every taste.  By Sunday morning, the stages held everything from jambands to DJs, hip hop, funkadelic, sweet twangy bluegrass, and helping of electro. Here is the listing of the performers: Howard Lewis & Lovins, Strange Arrangement, Hawcreek Experience, Glostik Willy, Zmick, the Coop, Mike Perkins, The New Old Cavalry, Fresh Hops, Gravel Mouth, MC Sparkplug, The Baked Beings, Hyryder, Eumatik, Elephant Quiz, Megan Maudlin, Shaddyside Allstars, Kaleidoscope Jukebox, Mikial Robertson, Tonal Caravan, Kodama, Head Bread, Sway, Blunt Honey, and David Campbell.

Saturday’s lineup was a homecoming of sorts, as many of the crowd’s home town favorites threw down some of their best sets.  It’s cool to think our little scene has the artists who performed:  Howard Lewis &  Lovins, Megan Maudlin, Gravel Mouth, Mikial Robertson, Hawcreek Exerience, and The Baked Beings were among them. Arguably the best set of the whole weekend was played during the crowd’s breakfast with an 11:30am start, by Hyryder, from Indianapolis.  Their choice of covers and execution of those covers are second to none!  They played “Eminence Front” for goodness sakes!  Glostik Willy has now played three times and each of their sets are as varied as their talents.  It was cool to see.

I hope they don’t try to get much bigger, the few hundred festival goers is the perfect size.  You had plenty of room for your site and to roam, yet there was the feel a big ole good time was being had.  Just enough vendors, parties and good times.