Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1500319
Photography Jordan Geibel Pat Green AND FRIENDS I t was built, and they came. After a year's worth of talking and three months to pull it off, the founders of the One Square Mile Round Top music festival call the first iteration an acoustic and financial success. Hosted in the renovated Round Top Dance Hall on the grounds of the spruced-up Stone Cellar, music filled the air for four days in late April. Pat Green headlined the sold-out Saturday night in the music hall, and bands played nearly all day Saturday in the covered area just outside The 550 Market. The weather deity cooperated so that music lovers could sit in the sun or bask in the shade of giant oak trees, sipping cool beverages, or downing a beer. "When Pat's on, he's on, and that night he was full-throttle," says Brad Blacketer, director of operations at Marburger Farm, who was there with wife, Tracy. VIP ticket holders were treated to a meet- and-greet with Mr. Green pre-show and had privileged access to the private speakeasy The Mark throughout the weekend. Blue Water Highway, the no-longer-unknown folk rock band from Austin, blew away the near-capacity crowd in the hall on Friday night. It seems apparent now that the festival will continue yearly. The founders speak of expanding the lineup to layer in diverse genres of music and add more venues to make this a festival that may even extend beyond the one square mile of Round Top city limits. One Square Mile Music Festival Takes Round Top Blue Water Highway Pat Green and Band Taylor Tomlin, Heather Elliott Black Cat Choir Western Bling jams Cathy Frietsch, Marla & Matt Hurley Coty Cole, Denverado 52