Iron Blossom returns to Richmond for second year

One of last year's most popular events is returning for a second go-round.

The Iron Blossom Music Festival is set to take place Saturday and Sunday at Midtown Green (formerly the Bon Secours Washington Football Training Center). The festival’s lineup, including headliners of Caamp and Mt. Joy, will draw in concertgoers from Richmond and beyond.

As a music festival, Iron Blossom is still in its infancy. The inaugural festival in August 2023 drew a crowd of nearly 14,000 attendees, a number that forced the festival to move from its original site. 

Originally slated to take place at Monroe Park in downtown Richmond, concerns of pedestrian traffic and transportation logistics forced the festival to the training center. Though the festival’s name is inspired from the iron fountain in the center of Monroe Park, Iron Blossom has flourished away from its intended space and carries the namesake with it. 

This year, attendees can expect a cooler atmosphere compared to that of the previous year's August heat, which led to on-site issues. The festival promises to have a larger food vendor area with free water stations, shaded areas, and additional festival activities. 

There is also an emphasis on adding local bands, with Dogpark, Jack Wharff & The Tobacco Flatts and Kenneka Cook getting invites.

Headliners Mt. Joy will end the first night of the festival with their familiar pop-folk sound and seasoned discography. The five-piece band most notably speaks on the hardships of tragedy and finding solace amidst loss in their certified platinum single “Silver Lining” from their self-titled album.

While translating these complicated emotions into lyrics, Mt. Joy makes a genre of gritty, yet easily digestible rock-folk. After they close out the first half of the festival, fans can expect another day with a diverse lineup of supporting acts leading up to the last set of this year’s festival, played by Caamp.

Caamp is an American folk band, with their most popular release being the brief and foot-stompy exclamation of “Vagabond” from their debut self-titled album. Caamp finds a sweet spot in melting together simple strings and percussion for rhythmic melodies that inspire a kind of catharsis of joy and nostalgia. These instrumentals support lyrics that are thoughtfully candid and sung with a bard-like presence by the band’s frontman, Taylor Meier.

Though it may not take place in the presence of Monroe Park’s iron fountain, the festival will honor the city as a safe space for music lovers of all kinds.