After years of hoping, I was finally able to attend Audiofeed Music Festival for the first time back in 2022. Not quite knowing what to expect, the experience was more than I had hoped for, and I fully intended to make it an annual tradition (Lord willing). I even brought the wife and kids out in 2024. After sadly missing last year's event, I was blessed to be able to make it back out to Champaign-Urbana for the festival's 12th season.

For the uninitiated, Audiofeed is a 4-day music festival held every July at the Champaign County Fairgrounds in Urbana, Illinois. But unlike most music festivals, Audiofeed is affordable, accessible, and family-friendly. That's not a knock on other festivals, by the way. But here, you get full, 4-day access for $100 (kids under 12 are FREE), you're allowed to bring in your own food and drinks as well as backpacks and wagons, you can camp for no additional charge, there are air-conditioned rooms for recharging your batteries, and there are activities for the kids who don't care about all-day live music. It's just win after win after win.

Normally, things get started around 5pm on Thursday night, but this year, fest-goers were invited to a special kick-off event at 3:30 to get to meet some of the folks in charge and get a feel for the spirit of the event. It was great to see so many familiar faces before the festival even got into full swing. I'm not much for buzzwords, so forgive me for a second, but the community aspect of the festival is unmatched. As an introvert, I came to Audiofeed my first year just for the music, not too concerned with making new friends. Too bad for me, though, as I now look forward to seeing my fest buddies about as much as the music now. Oops!

That being said, the quality of the live music is imperative to justify the 7-hour drive from Kansas, and this year's line-up was looking good. This year, the line-up was once again spread out across five different stages. There's not really a main stage, either - it just depends on what your taste is and what artists you're looking forward to the most, as each one had quality artists playing, and I eventually made my way to all five at some point. First is the Bloodline Stage, which would host mostly alternative rock and pop punk bands, with a few outliers in the mix; The Subculture Stage would be where most of the heavier bands could be found, as well as some of the more niche artists like the industrial / synth band Angel Machine; Burningtown/Impact would be home to more of the folky, acoustic, and Americana sort; and Upper Kessler Hall was the place for some unique offerings, from acoustic sets to poetry readings to ballet performances to praise and worship offerings (also shout out to Loyd Harp's Call and Response Records, who had set up shop in there and hooked me up with some sweet tunes from Broken Curfew Records, as well as an early copy of Starflyer 59's new EP). The fifth and final stage was the Front Porch, an impromptu stage where anyone can sign up for time slots throughout the day to set up and perform, regardless of genre. But wherever you want to be for whichever artist, you could be at the next stage in a matter of seconds, so it's easy to catch as many sets as possible, which is great because night 1 asked me to bounce back and forth a lot.

Over at the Bloodline Stage, Thursday was Small Step night, with several members of the Small Step Records roster joining in on the fun. Sam Hauge (more of a Small Step affiliate) got things started, playing a solo acoustic set for the first time ever. Though I love his great pop punk / easycore sound, he still absolutely nailed the performance with his acoustic renditions of "Going In Circles," "Too Late For Second Guessing," "Teach Me To Be Wise," and more. Once he finished and I got a chance to catch up with him, I took the 15-second walk to see our boys in Rusty Shipp. The nautical rockers covered all four of their albums, from bangers like "Devil Jonah" and "What's Kraken?" to newer songs like "Neck Breaker" and "Sinners in the Hands." They also announced that they had CD copies of their new live album, Live & Salty at Audiofeed, featuring a live recording of their great 2023 performance. It doesn't look like it'll be on streaming services, so I imagine the remaining CDs will go up on their online store soon.

I snuck back over to catch the last bit of The Caballerials, who had flown in from their home state of Hawaii to play their first ever mainland show! Their fast-paced punk sound is infectious, and I'm looking forward to their next release. The boys from Homeplate then took the stage, all two of them, and proceeded to put on an energetic show. They played songs from all three of their EPs, and lead singer David Newman even pulled out an electric ukulele to cover Relient K's "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" and Lifehouse's "Hanging By A Moment." They then unveiled a brand new song, which I hope will be available to the public sooner rather than later. Afterward, it was time for a fest favorite of mine, the good ol' boys of Ravenhill! I had planned to split my time between them and Cold Streets, but Ravenhill is always so good live, and I couldn't bear to break away. Focusing on their 2014 album Soul, they ripped through "You'll Go Far Boy," "Witches," and the epic closer "Blood on the Church Floor." After catching up with vocalist Josh Clifton again, I ran over just in time for Cold Streets' last song of the evening, "Over and Over," which couldn't have worked out better, as that's been one of my favorite songs of 2026 thus far.

It was about this time that I was reminded of how old I am. As an out-of-shape 42-year-old in the middle of a Midwest heatwave, I needed to take a break. Unfortunately, this meant opting out of seeing Audiophile like I had planned. But it gave me a good opportunity to peruse the commons area of Lower Kessler Hall. In previous years, this was the home of the Tuned Up Stage (a stage that has featured artists like Citizens, The Myriad, With Blood Comes Cleansing, and Joy Electric), but it had been repurposed for 2026. It was still the home of the Tuned Up Lounge, which featured a merch table full of shirts, hats, CDs, cassettes, and art, as well as a GameCube for recreational Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. There was also a free coffee bar and an assortment of art displays and stores as part of The Novelty Collective, a group of artists whose mission statement is to "restore creation to its Creator." It's one more thing that sets Audiofeed apart and makes it a unique destination for music and art lovers.

Now I had also wanted to catch newer indie pop act Pomegranate, as I've enjoyed their debut single "Enough Is Enough," but I was still in recovery mode and didn't make it. But as 10pm rolled around, I was ready for the evening's headliner, Run Kid Run. They were meant to play Audiofeed in 2022, but one of the band members couldn't make it, so it ended up being a Side Walk Slam set instead. This time, RKR was in full force and it was a blast. It was a "20th Anniversary of This Is Who We Are" show, so there was a lot of emphasis on that album. "Sing To Me," "The Modern March," and "The Call Out" all made the set list, and they were joined by songs from their other two albums, namely "One in a Million" and "Back to the Basics." They announced a three-night run of shows in September with The Fold, Ravenhill, and Grace Graber (who had also come out for the evening to hang out and sing a song with Audiophile). I was hoping to hear that new music was on the way, but sadly there was no such announcement. As the night came to an end, they whipped out two of my favorite RKR songs, closing with "I'll Forever Sing" and "We've Only Just Begun." The whole set was nostalgic, but the songs have held up so well and the band hasn't lost a step.

If I had forgotten how much I love Audiofeed (which I hadn't), night 1 was the reminder I would have needed. A packed and loaded night of great music, new and old, and a bunch of awesome people to enjoy it with. And we've only just begun!

(A quick note: normally when we post concert reviews, we include a whole bunch of photos of the event. Lately I've been taking more of a "live in the moment" approach to concerts. I find that the shows are far more enjoyable when I put my phone away and just experience it. I did take a photo or video on my phone of each artist I saw just to capture the memory, but that's about it. So these reviews will have no photos attached to them.)

Click here for day 2!

-- Scott Fryberger, 7/8/26