This weekend, we had the pleasure of attending what will undoubtedly go down as a LEGENDARY festival. Counterpoint 2014 in Kingston Downs, GA did not disappoint whatsoever. The 3-day festival was highlighted by the return of Outkast to Georgia and the 20th anniversary of their debut album! Over 60 artists were in attendance, with well over 20,000 people each day all unifying over bass pounding EDM, soulful R&B, and hard hitting lyrics.
Kingston Downs (Rome, GA basically) is about 60 miles outside of Atlanta, so it took us about a hour or so to get there. Laced with new gear from Footaction and a great amount of Camus Cognac, we were primed and ready to rock out.
The festival grounds were absolutely humongous. It felt like we were in a secluded city. The excitement was palpable as we walked through the parking/camping grounds. Friday night was highlighted by the likes of Pretty Lights, Krewella, SchoolBoy Q, and Rich Homie Quan.
Saturday was no different, except for the fact that it was HOT, the unrelenting schedule put a smile on our eardrums yet again. Of course I was naturally looking forward to the hip-hop and r&b acts, but the suggestions from people while opened my eyes to new artists! A-Track’s hard hitting set was definitely new to me and surprisingly one of the best of the day. Janelle Monae was the epitome of a rockstar as she put on an eccentric/James Brown-inspired set the late Godfather of Funk would have been proud of himself. We also got a chance to meet a lot of our followers, which is always a plus wherever we go. Other popular acts Saturday included: J. Cole, Foster the People, STS9 & Griz.
Sunday was the biggest day of the weekend without question. 20,000+ people poured into the festival grounds in what seemed like a continuous line. People were hanging around the stage Outkast would eventually perform at to better position themselves for the evening. We hung out in the artist village before heading to see “Run The Jewels.” Killer Mike (Adamsville, GA product) played to his home crowd with his partner EL-P. The pair bounced back & forth with their trademark ferocious rhymes, but when Killer took a break from the RTJ materials to raps his verse from “I Ain’t Never Scared” the crowd went bananas. Unfortunately their set as well as other artists/djs sets were cut short because of the threat of severe weather. There were thousands of unhappy festival goers to say the least, but after a 2-hour rain delay we got back to go back in.
Our passes gave us all the perks of the artist village, so instead of heading back into the muddy festival grounds we chilled there. Eventually we ran into some familiar faces from the Stankonia camp. While catching up with old friends, Andre 3000 nonchalantly comes strolling into the area. We started chatting with him for 30 minutes about social media, he’s contemplating on starting a Twitter, and life in general. It’s always good to see the celebrities you admire as humble & regular human beings.
Outkast finally hit the stage at 11:35 pm and pandemonium ensued. The duo came out to “B.O.B” and energized the ENORMOUS crowd. All the mud & rain delays were immediately forgotten. You could tell the duo was happy to be back in their home state with people who truly understood and appreciate their catalog (ahem Coachella). “It’s good to be back in the dirty, dirty,” said Big Boi. They then proceeded to go over the vast hits in their catalog ranging from “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik” to “So Fresh, So Clean.” Every album was covered and sounded great with the live band. They even performed a couple cuts from “Speakerboxx/The Love Below.” Big Boi ran through “The Way You Move” and “Ghetto Muzik” while Andre 3000 did “Prototype” and “Hey Ya.” Janelle Monae even joined Andre to shake it like a Polaroid picture.
All in all, we walked away from the performance and entire weekend satisfied with the product. With Outkast’s 20th anniversary celebrated over the weekend, and a great collections of artists and performances, I realized I just watched something special.
