XPoNential Music Festival: Saturday’s Adventures.

Harper Blynn

Disclaimer: There was just TOO MUCH good music at the fest on Saturday.  The exclusion from this article of any artist is due to space limitation and not performance significance.

You hear the phrase “something for everyone” so often that – like most clichés – it eventually loses meaning.  But the XPNoNential Festival, like WXPN itself, does truly serve up a surprisingly wide range of music.  The festival, once called Singer Songwriter Weekend and located on the river’s west side, has been happening for a long time, and to my eyes and ears, just keeps getting better.

Even without the aural delights, the festival is a feast for the senses.  More often than not, there’s a breeze blowing off the river.  And the view – the Philly skyline, the Ben Franklin Bridge, and the ongoing parade of watercraft – is breathtaking.

The best part is that I always discover at least one unfamiliar artist that knocked my socks off and makes me want to immediately buy the CD (yeah, I still do that … buy CDs) and listen to it non-stop for a few weeks.  And, I’m also often reminded of how much I like an artist or band I know already after seeing a performance at the fest.

The XPoNential Music Festival 2010: Five Six Can’t Miss Acts

One of the best music festivals of the summer takes place July 16-18 in Wiggins Park along the Camden Waterfront area. Known as the XPoNential Music Festival, it has been held annually in Camden by the Philadelphia radio station WXPN for several years now, ever since moving across the river from its original home. It may seem a bit odd for a Philadelphia radio station to hold a festival in New Jersey, but WXPN is far from just a Philadelphia station. In fact, you can easily hear WXPN or one of its affiliates in parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland making it one of the most powerful stations along the east coast.

It’s also one of the best radio stations in the country.

Known for showcasing up-and-coming artists, WXPN uses this festival to bring artists that people should know about to the area. I was asked to write about the “five can’t miss acts from the festival.” Unfortunately (or fortunately for music fans) when I took a look at the schedule for the three days I realized that picking just five acts was going to be next to impossible.