Here’s my hot take on what went right and wrong at Lovin’ Life Music Fest
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Weekend of music: Lovin’ Life Festival and Kendrick Lamar in Charlotte
Enjoying tremendous success as a brand-new musical festival presents an inherent challenge, one that the Lovin’ Life Music Fest now must confront: Can it meet the high bar it established in its debut?
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I can’t even begin to imagine the intricacies that go into planning a music festival — especially one in the heart of a city like Charlotte.
When word got out that a three-day “Charlotte-flavored Lollapalooza” would be coming to uptown last year, no one really knew what to expect. Or if the team behind other sell-out music festivals, like Carolina Country Music Fest, could even pull it off.
In its second year, you could argue Lovin’ Life Music Fest had even more to prove.
With mixed reviews on the lineup, conflicting competition with a highly anticipated Kendrick Lamar concert and warnings of severe weather all weekend, some wondered if this year would be as successful or memorable as its inaugural debut.
If you ask me, I’d say it was. But there are some things that could use improvement when the festival returns May 1-3, 2026.
As a fairly newbie festivalgoer (I’ve now been to three), here are the biggest things Lovin’ Life got right and wrong this year:
Top-tier sound quality
For Lovin’ Life to be in the middle of First Ward Park and surrounding streets of uptown, the makeshift festival area with three stages is pretty impressive — particularly the sound quality.
According to my colleague, Théoden Janes, who has spent more than 18 years covering entertainment and pop culture for The Charlotte Observer, it’s some of the best sound engineering he’s ever heard.
If that doesn’t sell the festival, I don’t know what does.
And he’s right.
Whether you’re at the main Miller Lite Stage near East 9th Street or the smaller Happy Thursday Spiked Refresher Stage closer to the Spectrum Center, the sound quality at each one was extremely clear and clean no matter where you were positioned — even for those who weren’t face-to-face with artists from the front row. The distances between all three stages were just right. Not too much of a hike from show to show, and unless you were in the absolute middle of the festival grounds, you were never distracted from surrounding sounds that bled into each other either.
Festival fun for the whole family
While a music festival is obviously all about the music, there was plenty to do if you had some downtime between shows, which made Lovin’ Life all the better for those who wanted to stay all day.
Once again, organizers had a long list of food, drink and vendors for fans to eat, drink, shop and play. This year, on top of the local businesses you could shop and photo booths to strike a pose in, there were more hands-on experiences and activities throughout the grounds, like a mobile video gaming rig and a pop-up mural that fans got to help paint in the Culinary & Arts Village.
All of these elements drew in fans both young and old throughout the weekend, making it really feel like somewhat of a mini-festival within a festival.
Communication with fans
Like any typical Carolina spring, it’s not surprising that Charlotte was hit with some seasonal showers. Marketed as a rain-or-shine event, like last year’s downpour during Stevie Nicks’ set, many fans were prepared and willing to party through any potential storms.
However, I think fans could’ve benefitted from knowing the proper protocol for lightning ahead of time — which wasn’t actually shared until the evacuation order was issued, sending soaked fans flocking to fend for themselves in the limited spots to dry off nearby.
But as one of the lucky ones who was able to squeeze into the Market at 7th Street before it reached capacity, I do think organizers were diligent about sending out updates on social media and their festival mobile app. This meant fans were eager and ready once gates reopened after the delay to party for what I’d say was one of the most vibrant and varied portions of the entire weekend.
Lack of lineup diversity
With a lineup as large as Lovin’ Life’s, you can’t please everyone. Intended to appeal to multiple generations with multiple genres, I understand why you’d have a Gen Z singer and ’90s rock bands headline the same weekend.
But you can’t deny that a festival’s lineup is a reflection of the fan base it’s going to attract, and outside of age and genre, I don’t think there were nearly as many Black, Indigenous or other performers of color that the festival could or should have had among nearly 50 artists.
Truthfully, it wasn’t until Saturday that I felt the draw of diversity that I so desperately wanted for Lovin’ Life — when rappers Petey Pablo and Ludacris hit the stage with their most popular songs and features. And then again in international superstar Pitbull’s incredibly energetic show with the best of his Latin hip-hop discography.
At one point, he took the time to share a message that’s stuck with me since the festival ended. Something along the lines of: “A lot of y’all speak English. A lot of y’all speak Spanish, but there’s also another language: music.”
And what a beautiful reminder it was that — no matter where you are from — music can be the one thing that connects you to a stranger in a concert crowd through the rhythm, melody and magical feeling of just simply having the shared musical experience of an artist’s creativity.
Like I said, I obviously will never fully understand all of the behind-the-scenes plans necessary to pull off an event of this size, especially in its second year.
Just like this year’s lineup brought together preteens for Benson Boone and older fans, including some parents, for Dave Matthews Band and Weezer, I hope that next year’s festival will have even more stars that appeal to different music fans of all ages and backgrounds around Charlotte.
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This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
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