Sol Blume festival in Sacramento blew us away at every turn, from the intimate vibe to alternating stages and, of course, a fantastic array of talent. Despite being a fairly new festival, having only launched in 2018, Sol Blume has quickly risen to become one of the most important and anticipated music events (competing for their audience on the same levels as big music festivals!) by featuring a curated lineup of the hottest up and coming and established hip-hop and R&B artists. All we can say is that we have never been to a festival where the lineup was so perfect that we wanted to see every single act, until Sol Blume.
Here are some of our favorite moments:
Kiana Ledé performed a fire set and got the crowd going with her hit song “Show Love”.
Charismatic Swedish-born songstress Snoh Allegra performed fans favorites “Fool For You” and “You Got me”.
Philly’s Grammy-nominated rap queen Tierra Whack had the crowd going crazy with an energetic set. Tierra performed hits from her unconventional debut album, Whack World, as well as her latest single “Unemployed.”
Jamaican-American Masego, a self-taught saxophonist, pianist, singer, and producer brought the house down with an electric performance. Opening with arguably his most popular song ‘Tadow’, Masego set the tone for the whole show, following up with hits from his debut album “Lady Lady”.
J.I.D delivered a set that we can only describe as pure fire. Atlanta native performed tracks from DiCaprio 2 (his sophomore album, following last year’s The Never Story. It’s also the sequel to his 2015 DiCaprio EP.) J.I.D’s talent undeniable, but seeing him live definitely adds another layer. His stage presence is enormous and the ability to effortlessly connect with the crowd brought the energy to an all-time high.
Canadian sensation Jessie Reyez delivered the most memorable set of the night. Her authenticity is genuinely a breath of fresh air for the music world. Incredibly strong, but vulnerable and unapologetically herself, Reyez took the crowd on a wild ride of emotions and was undoubtedly one of the rawest performances we have ever seen. Jessie’s captivating energy is contagious, and more importantly she is absolutely fearless in her art and conversations with the audience while performing, from talking about immigration (as a daughter of Colombian immigrants it’s no surprise that Reyez has strong feelings about the current state of immigration), tackling depression, breakups, to the sexism and misogyny she experienced in the music industry (chronicled in her chilling single “Gatekeeper”).
Aside from these difficult topics, the singer-songwriter immediately said that she wanted the crowd to take two things away from her performance: one was to not “fuck up an opportunity” and the other, “if you don’t love yourself no one is going to love you.” The first message came with her sharing her own story of hustling and handing out her mixtapes that no one wanted to listen to, and how she finally got her foot in the door in music through songwriting and now she gets to do what she loves every day.
Reyez played all the crowd’s favorites, including “Dear Yessie,” “F*** Being Friends,” “Great One,” and “One Kiss,” her first #1 song as a songwriter (a co-write for Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa). The festival’s most powerful moment came during the performance of “Figures” where the crowd sang every word while Jessie was playing an acoustic guitar and it created pure magic.
Miguel closed the night with his highly anticipated set (including his hits “Sure Thing,” “Adorn,” “Criminal,” and “Skywalker”).
Sol Blume’s best moments were also happening backstage with the artists supporting each other. Jessie Reyez was singing along to Tierra Whack’s “Unemployed”, J.I.D showed up to watch Arie Lenox, Tierra Whack and Jessie Reyez, and Tierra Wack was vibing with Jessie Reyez and calling her Queen in her Instagram stories, she also came out to support Miguel.
Sol Blume delivered tons of great music and positive vibes and we are counting days till Sol Blume 2020. See you all there!
Recap by Irina Liakh,
Photos courtesy of Sol Blume
