Have no fear, Best Friends Day is here!
Attention people of Richmond: Best Friends Day is here once again and this year’s festivities promise to be more than just memorable with 30+ bands, a Field Day extravaganza, and one serious pool party.
Attention people of Richmond: Best Friends Day is here once again and this year’s festivities promise to be more than just memorable. Kicking off this Thursday and running through Sunday, Best Friends Day presents the traditional, extensive 30-plus line up of bands (now including Andrew W.K.) to serenade the masses attending the four-day event, along with a Field Day Challenge that will take the place of the traditional scavenger hunt.
For nine years now Best Friends Day has become a Richmond staple, taking off from its humble beginnings of 40 friends celebrating their lasting relationships for one day at a water park to attracting more than 2,600 people to Hadad’s Lake last year.
The BFD crew has released the official band line up on their website as well as some other helpful reminders for the highly anticipated end of the summer marker, some of which include the following suggestions and rules:
- The only events with pre-sale tickets available are for Friday Night at the Canal Club and Sunday afternoon at Gallery5.
- While capacity issues are not expected, showing up on time is advised just in case.
- Each event is individually priced and weekend passes are not for sale.
- All event costs will be posted before the weekend.
- All BFD shows day of are cash only, bring cash.
- To address your transportation needs, Best Friends Day, Mojos, and 821 Cafe are partnering with To the Bottom and Back. Free rides will be provided from the Fine Food parking lot to Hadad’s Lake and back, Saturday from 10am to 7pm. This service is for attendants’ safety and convenience. Please respect the buses.
- All events at Best Friends Day are all ages and everyone will be asked for a valid ID if drinking or buying alcohol.
- If choosing to drink, enlist a designated driver beforehand. Do not drink and drive.
- Underage drinking is not permitted in any venue.
- No pets are allowed at any event.
They’ll also have you know that Best Friends Day reserves the right to ask anyone to leave for breaking rules, disrespecting or violating the property of others, or for generally being on bad behavior.
Attendants are encouraged to join in the fun as well as follow the rules, which the BFD crew also presented in their recently released guidebook that can be found on their website.
Newcomers and repeat offenders might be wondering what this year has to offer during the back-to-back celebration. Good news, we can help with that too. Check out the list of events for Thursday to Sunday below.
Thursday August 19: Kicking things off
Location: The Bike Lot (ask around, they don’t make this location public)
Start time: 7pm
Line-up: Lemuria, Banner Pilot, Black Army Jacket, The Dopamines, Inter Arma
Cost: Free
Friday, August 20: Field Day fun and lots of music
Sign-up details
Sign-up location: Mojo’s Philadeli (733 W. Cary Street)
Sign-up time: 11:30am
Line-up: Field Day (music starts at noon)
Cost: Free
Field Day
Location: Holly Street Park (in Oregon Hill)
Show
Location: The Canal Club (1545 E. Cary Street)
Start time: 7pm
Line-up: Propagandhi, Andrew W.K., Municipal Waste, Deep Sleep, Savage Brewtality
Cost: $20 (tickets can be purchased online or at Vinyl Conflict, 324 S. Pine Street)
Saturday, August 21: Swimming and even more music
Show
Location: Fine Foods Market (700 Idlewood Avenue)
Start time: 10am
Line-up: Tim Barry
Cost: Free
2BNB buses will be providing free rides to and from Hadad’s Lake, from the parking lot of Fine Foods all day long.
Hadad’s!
Location: Hadad’s Lake (1140 Mill Road)
Time: 11am to 7pm
Line up: Negative Approach, Off With Their Heads, Brainworms, The Arrivals, Algernon Cadawallader, The Measure (SA), NO BS Brass, Sundials
Cost: $20 (cash only)
Sunday August 22: Finishing things up
Location: Gallery 5 (200 W. Marshall Street)
Time: 1pm
Line up: Government Warning, Grabass Charlestons, Cloak/Dagger, AmateurParty, Mouthbreather
Cost: $5 (tickets can be purchased online)
For more information on the jam-packed weekend, visit the BFD website.
(Head over here to see pictures from last year’s Best Friends Day. And if you happen to head out to BFD this weekend, make sure you add your pictures to the RVANews Flickr group. You just might see them on the site next week!)
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Erica Terrini
Erica Terrini is a contributing writer for RVANews and currently attends Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is also the executive editor for The Commonwealth Times. During her time in Richmond, she has gotten used to running around like a crazy person with a never-ending checklist in her pursuit to report the local news of a thriving, raw, and pretty fly city.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Can’t Wait For this Year. Here’s some footage from last year xoxo http://azaleafaye.com/2009/09/04/best-friends-day-8-video-diary/
I’m surprised by the amount of media coverage this is getting now. Used to be nobody would touch this. Now, everyone’s jumping on the bandwagon. Hell, Richmond Magazine told its readers to go. Don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.