Pleaser Planet In Paradise: Briston Maroney’s Animalistic Music Festival In Nashville,TN

Photo by Sierra Sevier
Graphic Edit by Anna Van Marcke

You know the song “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses? They actually made that song in preparation for the third year of Briston Maroney’s Paradise Festival, because even in 1987 they knew a young fella named Briston Maroney would need it to rock off the proverbial socks of his fans. (Please don’t fact-check that…) 

Team Pleaser :) (missing Zayne!)

If you don’t already know, this specially curated festival is a three-day event at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee and we were lucky enough to be invited to host our Fan Mail activation (and more) for the second year in a row! At Pleaser’s activation, we had jungle-themed temporary tattoos and stickers, and fans had the opportunity to write fan mail to their favorite artists playing at the festival. This year we also had a photo opp set up with balloon animals, my personal favorite being the koala. Last year, Paradise was our Superbowl and this year, we decided to play off the concept of Animal Planet, and thus, Pleaser Planet was born! (Definitely not PP for short.)

Graphic by Shamma O.

The Brooklyn Bowl stage transformed into a jungle-of-sorts, courtesy of Caleb Gentry, Maroney’s lighting director and man-in-charge-of-all-things-bizzare-animal-combinations, becoming home to different creatures and artists for the weekend. The first to take the stage on Thursday, Clover County, subdued the eager crowd with soothing guitar and beautiful, melodic vocals. The lull lasted until Krooked Kings took the stage, bringing the crowd to a feverish roar— preparing them for what was to come. When Gus Dapperton hit the stage, the crowd was mesmerized by him moving across the stage like a prancing (or dancing) gazelle–which is definitely a jungle animal (again, please don’t fact check that…) But as we know, the jungle has a delicate food chain, so when the absolute king of the jungle–Briston Maroney–graced the stage for night one, the crowd had no choice but to submit to the frenetic fervor, with Maroney announcing night one of year three his favorite show so far.

Photos by Zayne Isom

The jungle vibes flowed effortlessly into day two, with amazing performances from Hana Eid, BNNY, Yoke Lore and, of course, Briston Maroney. As for night three, and, in my opinion, the best night of the festival, the crowd was spoiled with performances from Noah Pope, Sun June and The Moss. Not that Pleaser plays favorites, but The Moss won us over when they brought our beloved Martha Marsha Moss (our inflatable crocodile) on stage with them during their set, giving our queen her stage debut! And not to brag, but Pleaser did, in fact, open the pit during Maroney’s “Sinkin”, only to be beaten by Maroney’s father opening the pit a few songs later for “Steve’s First Bruise”. Martha, our inflatable crocodile, was thrown in the thick of it— she’s lived so much life in just a few short days.

To be read in an Australian accent:
Well, that’s all I’ve got for you all for now. Thank you so much to Briston Maroney and his team for having Pleaser back this year, and thank you to everyone who stopped at our table, you all made the weekend special. Paradise forever!

Photo by Sierra Sevier
Graphic Edit by Anna Van Marcke