Peach Music Festival 2023: Charleston’s Summer Road Trip (Preview)
Summer festival season is upon us, and there is one festival happening in the mountains of Pennsylvania that has caught our eye for a number of reasons. This is the Peach Music Festival, happening June 29 to July 2 at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA.
While it’s a long way from our hometown of Charleston, SC, this event has a connectedness with the music scene here in Charleston through a number of artists on the lineup. Since we’ve decided to road trip to this one, we decided to preview the event and share what we think is so special about it.
Peach Festival 2023 features four strong, jam-oriented headliners in Tedeschi Trucks Band, Goose, My Morning Jacket, and Ween, each compelling acts in their own right. In addition to the strong headliners, the whole lineup is packed from top to bottom with interesting and familiar acts.
Several artists on the lineup even call Charleston home, including Kanika Moore of Doom Flamingo, The Psycodelics, and Little Bird. Many more are regulars at the Charleston Pour House including Andy Frasco & The U.N., Dogs in a Pile, Ghost Light, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, Circles Around the Sun, Mo Lowda & the Humble, Brown Eyed Women, Kendall Street Company and more.
Not to mention sub-headliners Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, who blew my mind completely during a late night set at Bonnaroo in 2019, Ziggy Marley, Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, Umphrey’s McGee, and Mike Gordon from Phish.
Some may prefer a lineup with some more hip-hop or electronica, which is completely understandable. However, there is something primal about seeing a bunch of jam bands on a mountain that is difficult to replicate with other genres, and for that reason, we’re headed to Peach this year.
Montage Mountain
Peach Festival takes place at the prominent ski resort and waterpark, Montage Mountain — also the former site of Camp Bisco. In addition to three stages: Peach, Grove, and Mushroom — there is also a waterpark (with lazy river), ski lift, and zip line located in the festival grounds.
Camping is located a short distance from the main festival grounds, with a camping pass being a separate purchase from the 4-day event pass. As many festival-goers already know, camping allows for the full experience, and is always recommended over staying off-site when feasible.
Get info about tickets & passes here.
My Morning Jacket – Saturday July 1
My Morning Jacket have long been renowned for both their songwriting and musicianship, and are widely regarded as one of the best live rock & roll bands out there. The band is fresh off the release of a new live album titled MMJ Live Vol. 3: Bonnaroo 2004, along with the documentary film, Return to the Thunderdome, and released a self-titled studio album in late 2021.
MMJ is touring through the whole summer, including a stop on June 16 in Charleston, just one night before their long-awaited return to Bonnaroo on June 17 (first time since 2015). Their headlining set on Saturday, July 1st at Peach Festival is the final show before a monthlong break that leads into the next leg of their summer tour. The band will be hot off a busy month of shows and ready to deliver the goods.
Extremely excited to see this band at Peach Festival. Check out the recently-released video of “Golden” live at Bonnaroo 2004 below, and listen to the full 2004 Bonnaroo set below that. Also see our list of the best My Morning Jacket songs.
Goose – Thursday June 29
Returning to Peach for the second year in a row and for the third time overall, we have the hottest young jam band around, Goose. They have a special relationship with Peach Festival, as their performance in 2019 on the Grove Stage is the one that is most-often cited for kickstarting their career into the direction they’ve taken it. Now, four years later, Goose headlines performing 2 sets of music on Thursday night.
This comes after a stellar past two years for Goose that includes the release of their sophomore album Dripfield, a tour with the Trey Anastasio Band, and many more milestone performances that have them buzzing as we head into the heat of summer.
Watch Goose at Peach Festival 2022, and 2019 below.
Kanika Moore – Friday June 30
Friday night is Charleston night at Peach Festival 2023 (not to mention headliner Ween). In addition to Umphreys McGee, in which bassist Ryan Stasik of Doom Flamingo plays, we have all three Charleston artists on the lineup performing: Kanika Moore, Little Bird, and The Psycodelics, and Charleston-adjacent act Mo Lowda & The Humble.
Kanika performs at least two sets of music, including a TAUK Moore set with funk/jam band TAUK, and her own project called Kanika Moore Presents The Broadband.
We can also expect to see Kanika sitting in with several other artists on the lineup on Friday, including possibly: Umphreys McGee, Trouble No More (whom she just sang with last week in Charleston), Daniel Donato, Little Bird, The Psycodelics, and many more. It’s honestly harder to pick an act on Friday that Kanika wouldn’t possibly sit-in with than to choose one she would.
Check out Kanika singing “STFU” with TAUK last summer at Mountain Music Fest below.