Every year WiLD 94.1 kicks off spring break with a festival style concert at Clearwater’s Coachman Park. Almost a dozen food and drink vendors served a sold-out mass of people who packed the Charles Wharton Johnson Pavilion to be entertained. On this day, the musical performances seemed to turn into a competition, where each of artists attempted to out-do the last in terms of engaging fans and getting the crowd going.
Ty Dolla got the party started by pushing up as close to the jammed crowd as possible without getting pick-pocketed.
Far East Movement broke through that barrier by stage diving directly into the crowd at the end of their heavily electronic-influenced set of party anthems.
[More after the jump - text, photos and even a video recap...]
Kid Ink showed off some impressive energy as he hopped from speaker to speaker during his set, but it quickly turned into an impromptu meet-and-greet session, as half of his allotted time was spent signing autographs for the people in the front rows while his DJ and hype man sang along to his back track.My surprise highlight of the day came in Sage the Gemini. I'm not a fan of either of his radio hits ("Red Nose" and "Gas Pedal") but he handled his business on this evening. He did most of his work on stage, until technical difficulties gave him an unplanned two-minute break that he spent getting up close and personal with Splash attendees. Before that, the Northern Cali native commanded the stage without needing a bunch of hype men or pre-recorded vocals to back him up.
Rich Homie Quan was extra brave and performed his verse from YG's hit single (the title includes a racial slur) from the other side of the barricade. Security literally had to snatch him from adoring fans and carry him back to the stage.
As highly entertained as the crowd of mostly college- and under-aged spring breakers were, the event MVP award goes Clearwater Fire & Rescue. By the time B.o.B. and Wiz Khalifa closed out the show (the latter cheeching up the place straght away), the rescuers saved what seemed to be a never-ending parade of "dehydrated" patrons. The only people busier than these medical staffers were the beer vendors.
I'm no EMT but apparently dehydration and inebriation are synonyms.
WiLD 94.1 definitely knows how to throw a party, even if their guests haven’t yet mastered the art of surviving it.
Video recap below, as promised.