This weekend, the inaugural Landmark Music Festival took place in West Potomac Park in D.C. This festival was created to raise money for the maintenance of the National Mall, which, according to the festival's organizers hasn't been renovated in 39 years, and needs over $750 million in repairs to monuments and landscaping.
For a festival in its first year, Landmark had auspicious beginnings. The line-up was top-heavy, with headliners Drake and the Strokes carrying the Saturday and Sunday schedules respectively. I got to see a mix of performers who were new to me and some old favorites. For the new on Saturday, I enjoyed Band of Horses' chill vibes and and danced to what a friend referred to as Miguel's "sexy music." Miguel was an entertaining artist if nothing else, and I followed his costume changes as closely as his songs. He went from wearing a leather jacket and two scarves, to shirtless but still wearing scarves, to finally shirtless with extremely low-riding red skinny jeans. Drake put on a fantastic show, which made up for waiting an hour in the rain, although he did overdo it on the local specificity (yes, we know we're in D.C.).
On Sunday, Chromeo and alt-J were predictably highlights, especially since alt- J is very close to my heart as a band. To get good spots for alt-J, we missed the end of Chromeo's set, which I heard later was a mistake. Ultimately, it was worth it, since I ended up eight rows back for The Strokes' magic. A friend claimed that Julian Casablancas vomited during the set, but since Twitter has yet to confirm this, I will have to conclude it was just secondhand smoke from the (recently legalized in D.C.) marijuana in the air.
alt-J on Sunday.
Logistically, the festival did okay, but there were some challenges. The National Mall is already hard to access, since it's a far walk from the closest Metro at Foggy Bottom and it was hard for Ubers or Lyfts to get to easily when the concert ended for the night. To get back to Georgetown, I walked about a mile before finding a cab. There were long lines for the beer stands and bathrooms on Saturday, although the crowds and lines seemed much smaller on Sunday. The food tents were centralized in one location, which may have been convenient, but seemed to exacerbate the long lines around dinner time. I have to admit I only tried one food item there: a grilled cheese from the Big Cheese, which, although probably not worth its festival price of $9, was very cheesy and delicious.
One thing I have to say for Landmark: I was able to get close to the stage for both headliners and found that people were not as pushy or aggressive as I've found at other festivals. I wouldn't have guessed that the citizens of D.C. would be more laid back than Californians, but stereotypes don't always hold true.
All in all, the festival was a great time, and the bands made up for Landmark's other inconveniences. I'm hoping it'll be back next year.
