July 2025
The inaugural Brighter Daze Music Festival saw crowds attending the brand new outdoor Festival Grounds at downtown Reno’s J Resort from all over and had locals so excited for the weekend to begin! Good Vibez Presents and JMF Presents collaborated to bring this festival to Northern Nevada, and man do they know how to throw a party?! In addition to two days of music, good food choices, cold drinks and awesome vendors lined the grounds for attendees to enjoy. The crowd looked out for one another and making sure that all stayed hydrated in the summer heat.
A solid crowd showed out at J Resort to start the festivities on Saturday. Although the day was a bit hot people still enjoyed all the daytime performers, which included styles spanning dub, reggae, rock and hip hop such as Fia, Eli Mac, Artikal Sound System, The Movement and Pepper. Pepper brought a young fan on stage with them to sing a song. Large beach balls bounced through the audience, building upon the fun atmosphere. The crowd definitely had their favorites they came to see. Wyclef Jean absolutely crushed it. He entertained the crowd as he did a good run through his many hits. The talented musician played every instrument on stage, showing his dexterous skills. He brought out four very beautiful Passistas (Carnival) dancers. Both young and old in the crowd could be noticed singing and dancing along with him as he fed off that crowd energy. Rebelution, a definite crowd favorite, closed out the first night with a stellar performance. Lasers, smoke filled bubbles and crowd participation erupted through the festival closing out Night 1.
Sunday had a lower temp throughout the day and lots of wind that helped keep the heat much more manageable. Even the mayor of Reno came down to welcome all the locals and visitors. Mike Love, Denm, The Elovaters, and Tribal Seeds all were so good. The musicianship was so inspiring, here’s to hoping that some of the many youngsters in the crowd took the performances as inspiration to start their own bands. E-40 & Too Short tore it up. Too Short reminded everyone these fellas’ musical output is in our DNA as they ran through decades of hits and each had their own time to shine as well as come together. People went crazy. Slightly Stoopid closed out the festival strong with the crowd singing every word. They played into the evening which concluded with a firework show!
Brighter Daze was a party! Good crowd, lots of love, friendships made and strengthened. Thus is the beauty of this music scene. Lots of coverage for this event so concert goers will have so much to share. Everyone worked very well together. I’m sure the crowd and crew are already ready for next year can experience the high from this year’s festival, and hope to see it all again next year!
