The Waverly Boogie is a well-known outdoor music festival just north of Auburn University. It’s held in a grassy area, decorated with minimal string lighting for nighttime. The already-existing rustic buildings around the area provided the perfect ambiance. The Boogie was on April 19th this year from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM and was not short for a big crowd. Blankets and folded chairs casually set up around the lawn matched the laid-back feel of the event. Tickets were $20 ahead of time and $25 at the gate and canned alcohol was welcome.
The music line-up this year was an eclectic mix of folk, bluegrass, and country, including the artists Shivering Timbers, Have Gun; Will Travel, Rayland Baxter, Pine Hill Haints, Lydia Loveless, and Junior Brown. Shivering Timbers opened up strong with a classic folk sound, while Junior Brown gathered a sizable standing crowd for the finale. Pine Hill Haints’s performance ended up being quite a favorite with the concert-goers. In addition to music entertainment, plenty of local and regional vendors came out to sell their wares. Some of the more notable booths including natural beeswax lotion and cigar-case banjos.
Food also exceeded expectations, with everything available from the standard pizza to Mediterranean pasta salad to organic carrot paste. Jim N’ Nick’s barbeque provided fresh pulled pork and chicken barbeque sandwiches, as well as roasted corn on the cob—a real crowd-pleaser. Hot Damn jellies provided unusual free samples, including their scorcher Two Seconds from Tears jalapeno pepper jelly.
The Waverly Boogie carried on rain or shine as promised, but most of the day was sunny and bright. If you love folk culture and casual times, kicking back with good friends, don’t miss the annual Waverly “Old 280” Boogie next spring at Auburn.