Perfect Plain celebrates 5 years with Petals & Pulse music festival

From bar crawls to bridal expos, birthdays, and pop up parties, Perfect Plain Brewing Co. has been known to show the people of Pensacola a good time through its wide spectrum of events. But now, five years after opening and adding Garden & Grain to its growing roster of bars and venues, it's now their turn to have a celebration of their own.

"We're super excited," Perfect Plain Brewing Co. Events Manager Mae LeRoy said. "We've been wanting to bring something like this down to the downtown area. Nobody really cares about anniversary parties anymore, so we really wanted to come up with a unique way to highlight our local talent and show the heart of Pensacola."

Petals & Pulse Music Festival, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug. 31 at Garden & Grain, has been billed as 'summer's last hurrah.'

"We called it Petals & Pulse because we wanted to bring in the music aspect along with our garden bar," LeRoy said. "Garden & Grain is still so lush and vibrant in August, and we really don't lose our grand splendor garden vibe until the first cold day after summer. It's the perfect way to end the summer and spend the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, especially if you're tuckered out from the beach."

Garden & Grain: Outdoor cocktail lounge now open behind Perfect Plain

Petals & Pulse Music Festival’s inaugural headliner will be the John Hart Project. John Hart, a familiar face to Pensacola, has had a storied career as a guitarist and is best known for spending many years on tour with Sauce Boss.

"We're super excited because if Pensacola comes out to this event, we're hoping to expand it and bring in bigger headliners," LeRoy said. "We want to know what Pensacola wants, and give them what they're looking for. Our regulars know to expect the unexpected with us. They like what they like, and if they don't, they will let us know if they don't like it."

It's also an end-of-summer celebration that could not be done alone. Perfect Plain has teamed up with 850 Entertainment, Kulture Kreated, and local vendors such as El Camino in order to pull this off. Nick Stearns, also known as DJ HDYCVT (pronounced hoodie cat), has been working closely with LeRoy.

"I co-founded 850 Entertainment with my business partner, DJ dr0ne, who will also be one of the DJs there," Stearns said. "We got our start down at 200 (Palafox) South, doing the parking lot parties there. We both DJ'ed weekly at clubs, and for the past four or five years we've been pretty focused on putting events together for people and really giving local talent a chance to play a gig."

Stearns has been DJing at Perfect Plain for the past four years, and knows that local support and platforms for your music to be heard is essential as a rising musician.

"I know that when I started, it was really hard to get your foot in the door anywhere," Stearns said. "So I think giving people a chance to get the experience. Whether they're like, a month into DJing, or a year, it's always good to get stage time and feel recognized. So that's a big thing we wanted to do with this festival."

According to LeRoy, there will be plenty of surprises and pop up activities to enjoy. And even though they're keeping tight lipped as they make those final touches as Aug. 31 rapidly approaches, she says there's still quite a bit you can expect.

"We are going to have a pop up cocktail menu for easy service, and we're doing more festival food with El Camino," LeRoy said. "We brought hot dogs for 4th of July, and that was a great hit, so we'll definitely have festival food that you don't normally see on our menu, and we're working with a lot of different beverage brands so we'll have some sampling booths as well. As far as beer wise, it'll be a little surprise. Of course, we'll have a couple of different beer releases that will be coming out through the month of August, but we're not sure which one will be tied to the event just yet."

Tickets are $40 pre-sale, and $45 at the door if there’s any left.

“It’s an all-day pass, so you can come and go as you please,” LeRoy said. “As well as access to the bar services and food available for purchase.”

If you’re looking to get the party started and you’d like to avoid the will call line, be sure to pick up your passes at the Friday pre party from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 30. Festival goers can experience an exclusive ‘rave cave’ affair, with DJ HDYCVT, DJ dr0ne, and KHARMA each doing a set.

"My focus is specifically on house music," Stearns said. "And for the festival Saturday, the sounds will be centered around Deep House, Tropical House, more daytime type vibes, but we want people to come out and have open ears and an open mind. This is our passion project, and lot of time and effort has been put into this. We support local music and getting people to come out and support them too.”

For more information, visit www. perfectplain.com/events/ petal-pulse-music-festival

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Perfect Plain celebrates 5 years with Petals & Pulse music festival