“Come on, you’re coming with me,” says Illinois front man Chris Archibald, scooping up a small, wavy-haired child Saturday afternoon at WXPN’s Xponential Music Fest. It’s just minutes before the band’s 3:30 performance, and everyone’s getting settled into the grassy hillside.
“It’s a beautiful day, we have sunshine, we have beer, we have our lives!” exclaims Archibald a few minutes later to a growing crowd of eager festival-goers as he strums his banjo and lets loose a cavalcade of rambunctious, rollicking tunes.
“I know it’s hot and all, but can people stand up and move around a bit here?” asks the singer, clad in an oversized orange tee and knit headband. “I feel like we’re at a school assembly or something!”
The crowd gently chuckles—everyone’s in good spirits—and does as asked, small children, college students, and couples old enough to be their parents, all coming together to dance gleefully on the hillside…
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