CLEVELAND, Ohio - On Feb. 18, Brite Winter continued in its eighth year of supporting Cleveland music in the winter months.
The festival, which is unconventional in its nature, was doubly unconventional due to the day's events.
Watch the video below for a taste of the event, and then read about the highlights after that.
Brite Winter 2017 coverage by cleveland.com
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Temperature
Throughout the day, temperatures peaked at around 60 degrees. Ice sculptures, many of which were made at live demonstrations, survived only a few hours in the heat. Attendees and bands wore t-shirts and left their coats at home.
Bands, especially those who performed at the outdoor stages, seemed to appreciate the warmth. However, many indoor attractions like the heated art tents proved to be less popular without bitter temperatures outside.
Local focus
Brite Winter zooms in on Cleveland's local scene not only with its music selection, but also with beer and food. The beer tents sold Platform beer, and food options were available from Cleveland-based restaurant food trucks.
No national headliner
Unlike last year's festival, which brought the Mowgli's to the main stage as the headlining band, there was no national headlining act at Brite Winter 2017. Although there was high attendance at the local concerts, there wasn't a huge difference between the standard day's crowd, and the crowd for 2017 headliner The Lighthouse And The Whaler.
Crowd management issues
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Although crowd management is always a potential problem with a large audience, Brite Winter had a complete lack of seats available for audiences. There were small huts set up to seat four people at a time, and some art installations included seats, but they weren't enough for huge groups of people.
Plus, smaller indoor venues like McCarthy's became congested quickly with audience members during the concerts.
Games
The game selection at Brite Winter seemed to expand this year, with both a disc golf and ping-pong set. There was also a skee-ball course and an Angry Birds-themed game that kept visitors of all ages busy.
Hip Hop on main stage
Archie Green and Uptown Buddha are the first hip hop act on @britewinter's stage! [?] [?] @annienickoloff // #uptownbuddha #archiegreen #musicfestival #festival #clevelandconcert #cleconcert #clevelandmusic #clemusic #britewinter2017 #britewinter #brite2017
This was the first year in Brite Winter existence that a hip hop act took the main stage. Archie Green and Uptown Buddha performed a combined concert to a massive audience, throwing green glow sticks to the front row.
Dogs
This year proved to be a particularly dog-friendly iteration of Brite Winter. Dogs were walked through the crowds, and they also stood patiently in the audiences during performances. At points, it seemed as though every 50 feet, there was a dog in sight.
Watch more of Brite Winter's events in the video below:
Brite Winter 2017 highlightsOur editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
