Floydfest 2025 Aurora
–The Following first appeared in The Floyd Press on July 31, 2025
Eleven miles of string lights were added to Floydfest Festival Park at 5826 Floyd Highway North in preparation for the annual festival, held from July 23 to 27. The lights are a fitting addition for 2025 festival’s namesake, Aurora.
There are new sidewalks, improving the walk down from the festival entrance to the main field, and the Oasis stage has been relocated to a shady nook that reduces sound overlap from other stages.
Festival-goer John Womeldorf wrote on social media on day two of the five-day festival, “What a difference a year makes! The setup, the weather, the vibes, everything’s an upgrade.” He elaborated on what brings a lot of festival goers coming back every year, “The music is top-notch as always, the people are even better, and the moments — like catching a surprise set in the beer garden or watching the sun set behind the stage — are what keep us coming back year after year.”
Thursday afternoon, Chief Operating Officer Sam Calhoun reported, “Right now there are no lines, no waiting at our box offices. The systems we have put in place are working.” Remarking on the good weather, he added, “Our hearts could not be any fuller with how things have gone so far.”
Floyd County was well represented at the festival from the Chamber of Commerce tent to the bands and vendors. Floyd vendors included Bootleg BBQ, Dogtown Roadhouse, Red Rooster Coffee, Green Label, Fit to be Tied, Phelps Pottery, and County Line Carvings.
Performers based in Floyd and the surrounding area included Father Sun, Chris Link, The Jared Stout Band, Blue Mule, Solacoustic, Mountain Walrus and Mac Traynham. Coffee Morning Jam Bands consisted primarily of Floyd Countians.
With 100 bands on 7 stages there was something for everyone. Thursday night’s headliner Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule, and a past member of The Allman Brothers Band, opened with War Pigs, a song by Ozzie Osborne, to honor the musician who died just days before.
The Black Crowes gave a high-energy headline performance on Saturday.
The Main Stage light shows at night were impressive.
Maggie Rose, whose performance last year was rated by The Rolling Stone as one of the high points of Floydfest 2024, returned this year.
“A lot happened since last year. I had a baby who is three months old now. It could have been a Floydfest baby,” said the country and soul singer in the first of her two performances. She led an overflow crowd in a sing-along with the chorus line, “What are We Fighting for?”
Floydfest is a family festival where even the kids get in the act. At the Children’s Universe on Friday young Gibson Edwards played keyboard on the CU stage. Susanna Smith, a teacher at Christiansburg Primary School and Floydfest’s Director of Information, took a break from her duties to watch one of her students, Yvonne Taylor, do stand-up comedy with her dad.
Along with daily Open Mics for kids, there was music performances, Juggling with Geoff and Magic with Hunter Rhodes. The Children’s Parade on Saturday is always a big hit.
A Saturday highlight was a performance by Floyd Countian Chris Link, (accompanied by Shane Edgell and Will Norton) at the Canopy Grove stage. Head of The Deer Run Drifters, Link closed his set with the song that recently won him first prize in the Sounds of Skyline songwriting competition, Family Name. As part of his winnings, Chris will be going to Nashville to professionally record the song.
At the end of a weather alert shutdown Saturday afternoon (that resulted in only a sprinkle of rain) and before the stages got up and running again, Hippies and Cowboys did a welcomed impromptu acoustic set in front of the Oasis stage, which prompted a sing-along.
There was another weather delay Sunday evening, but not before the Original Wailers performed a Bob Marley song set and a dance party on the grass ensued.
The lineup of performers went on with a short delay in scheduling after some light rain passed over and the weather alert was lifted.
Throughout the festival and for days after, the Floydfest Family group on Facebook filled with shared photos, videos, community connections and rave reviews, giving testament to Floydfest’s mission statement: “to be the best music festival experience of our time, to sell a limited quantity of tickets to the highest-quality event experience, bar none, celebrating music, art and life in an intimate, visually stunning environment.” – Colleen Redman
