In it’s 14th year, the Sweetwater 420 Festival has grown from a small beer and music festival in Candler Park, nestled in-between cozy bungalows and the Little Five Points business district, to a full-on world-class music festival at Centennial Park in the heart of Downtown Atlanta featuring some of the best of the best blues, Americana, roots, hip-hop and jam bands around.

The String Cheese Incident were Friday’s headliners, but they were just one of fifteen bands today, in addition to a ton of comedians, beer tastings, podcasts, charity auctions, food trucks and arts and craft vendors that covered the park from one end to another.

Atlanta 4-piece jam band, Bird Dog Jubilee kicked things off on the Lyrics and Laughter stage with a fantastic blend of blues and psych rock, which got the early crowd moving.

Next up on the main stage was The Motet from Denver, out supporting their newest and seventh record, Totem. Frontman, Lyle Divinsky led his seven-piece, powerhouse band though killer set of up-beat funk, with soulful vocals and playful instrumentation. They really kicked the party into high gear from the first tune and kept it rolling the entire set.

One of the day’s biggest treats was the band Southern Avenue from Memphis, TN. At first glance, the band appears to be in their early 20s, but their sound is firmly planted in gospel-tinged, Memphis soul of the 50’s and 60’s. Out supporting their new self-titled debut on legendary Stax Records, Southern Avenue played a wide selection of songs from the record and were an absolute powerhouse live.

Los Angeles based 3-piece The Record Company took to the big stage and brought the rock and blues swagger to the festival with big beats, fuzzed out bass, ripping harmonica, guitar and lap steel guitar all backing the gritty vocals of Chris Vos. Think amped-up roots rock with a swagger and you can see why the crowd was loving it.

Building on last year’s excellent record, Give It Back to You, one of the band’s latest singles is called “Baby I’m Broken” and they really rocked it live.

Self-described as “electron therepy,” Arizona band Spafford drew a great crowd of devoted fans that danced and swayed to the bands wide-variety of influences. You could hear snippets of soul, rock, funk and a healthy dose of electronica. The band’s newest record, For Amusement Only is out on May 4th and should be a good one.

Of the most anticipated and talked about sets of the day was by Sturgill Simpson. It was like being shot out of a cannon as Simpson strapped on his Telecaster and blasted into the first song, “Brace for Impact (Live a Little).” The band seemed to be having a great time and the crowd responded with a roar after every song.

Just before the band Stick Figure was getting ready to hit the stage, their dog, Cocoa, came to the front of the stage to have a look at everyone and put a big smile on everyone’s face. Once the band kicked off their set of laid-back reggae tunes, Cocoa roamed the stage, occasionally laying down and soaking in the tunes.

If you couldn’t guess by all the people that we wearing little orange “cheese” stickers all over them, tonight’s headliners were The String Cheese Incident. The band played 2 incendiary sets to close out the night and brought out some special guests to help, including Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, the 14-year-old guitar wizard (and a featured performer on Saturday) who joined them for “Close Your Eyes” and with Rhonda Thomas on the final encore, “I Saw the Light.”

All photos by John McNicholas, check out more photos from Friday’s first day of Sweetwater 420 Festival 2018: