2016 marked the 7th year of Raleigh, NC’s Hopscotch Music Festival, as well as 6 years of my photographing the event. Over the three days, I photographed 38 different acts perform across multiple genres, from hip hop to psych rock to metal to funk to punk to the blues.

A long list of highlights from the weekend would include Boulevards, Birds of Avalon (w/ Future Islands’ Sam Herring joining), Rock*A*Teens, Pie Face Girls, Anderson .Paak, Television, Wye Oak, Beach House, Sylvan Esso and Gary Clark, Jr. I’ll also be checking out the catalog of several bands that I caught partial sets from, including Wing Dam and Diet Cig.

If I had to pick one clear favorite from the weekend, though, it would be Boulevards. I heard a lot of hype after his set last year and really regretted missing, so I’d made a point to try to get by his show. He fully lived up to the hype and then some. He owned the stage in the same way a James Brown owned a stage. Go see him if you get a chance, it was a real treat.

The back-to-back sonic goodness of Rock*A*Teens and Birds of Avalon was also a favorite part of the weekend even before Sam Herring (of Future Islands) got on stage to close out the B of A day party set with some tunes, including the finale of “Love is the Drug” that had many in the crowd (me included) singing along.