Grand Point North Festival

This past weekend was the first ever Grand Point North music festival. Every year Grace Potter & the Nocturnals play a show during the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. This year she put together a music festival within that, which had many new and local acts. I chose to go on Saturday since Chamberlin, a Vermont act that I've recently become obsessed with (check out this post for more), was playing. I was also excited to see that Fitz & the Tantrums would be playing that day as I recently fell in love with their song "Moneygrabber."

Long story short: it was an incredible day. We got there a little late after having an early dinner on Church St. and got there in time to see Rubblebucket and then walk around for a bit before Fitz & the Tantrums started. FATT were incredible. I would pay to see them as a headliner any day.

Immediately after FATT Chamberlin was playing on the side stage. We ran over in time to hear most of their set. After being obsessed with their album for a few months it was great to see them again and know all of their songs. They also played one or two new ones, which was awesome.

As soon as Chamberlin ended we ran over to the main stage and waited a few minutes for Grace to start. As usual she was absolutely amazing. My feet and back were killing me from standing all day, but it was totally worth it in the end. I'll definitely be hitting up Grand Point North again next summer.

Check out videos from the day below:

Top 4 Favorite Places in Burlington

I've decided on writing a new string of blog posts about places in Burlington. Based on the Class of 2015 Facebook page there are a lot of people that are insanely pumped for the fall. Many are excited to explore the area around SMC. I figured I'd write about my favorite places to give a preview of the area.

So here they are, my top 4 favorites:

1. The Waterfront

Burlington has a great location. At the bottom of the hill sits Lake Champlain. The waterfront is a great place to go to grab a bite to eat or a creemee (yes, get used to it, you're in VT now...it's a creemee NOT a soft serve) at Burlington Bay Cafe, walk down the side of the lake, or just take a seat on the swinging benches.

2. Church Street
One of the main attractions of Burlington is Church Street Marketplace. It's an entire street closed off to traffic with shops and restaurants. A lot of people will head there just for an afternoon to wander around and get away from SMC for a bit. It's also nice to go out for dinner on the weekends since there are so many delicious restaurants. My favorite is going shopping at the mall and Church Street shops, get dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (blog post to come) and grab ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.

It doesn't look like much on the outside but it's a great
addition to the Burlington area.

3. Higher Ground

SMC XC taking a pic on a beach not far from North Beach.

The big place for music around Burlington is Higher Ground. It's a couple minute drive from SMC and has tons of great shows though out the year. It's a pretty small venue which makes for a nice small show. The tickets are usually pretty cheap. Check out the calendar for upcoming shows.


4. North Beach
As mentioned, Burlington is located next to Lake Champlain. While Vermont might not get to enjoy the ocean like the rest of New England, we still have some sandy beaches on the shores of the lake. One of these is North Beach. I love going with friends during the early fall semester when it's still kind of summery.

So there you have it, the top places around Burlington (other than SMC of course.) Be sure to check back in a week or two for my next post, Top 5 Favorite Places on Church Street!