Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park & Campground

Their event planner really missed the mark on this one. We came out for the weekend specifically for their “BBQ, Beer and Country Music Festival,” and the experience was frustrating from the start. We arrived the night before and there was no one available to check us in. RVs were lined up along the road with owners wandering around trying to figure out where to go. After waiting and getting no direction, we eventually just drove through and located our campsite ourselves after a bit of a goose chase. The next day, after searching the website and Facebook page for details with no luck, I called the front desk to ask about the event schedule and when the festival actually started. I was told it began at noon, with final BBQ competition votes going in at 5:00 p.m. at the Music Hall. We walked up at noon and were told we needed to purchase tickets at the front desk. We paid $20 for two tickets and were then informed it actually started at 2:30 p.m., and that we would receive samples at each pit before voting. Since we had originally been told voting ended at 5:00, we went down around 3:00 to avoid the initial rush. When we arrived at the “festival,” there was no ticket booth and no signage. We saw the same front office employee and asked where to turn in our tickets. That’s when she informed us the competition had already ended at 3:00 — it had only lasted 30 minutes — and we had missed it entirely. We also asked about the beer portion of the event. Apparently, there had been someone earlier selling beer from a barrel, but she was gone as well. I’m not sure what their definition of a “festival” is, but a 30-minute BBQ competition with no signage and no coordination doesn’t quite meet it. We were told live country music would begin at 8:00 p.m., so we decided to give that a chance. To our surprise, it wasn’t on the outdoor stage as expected, but inside the Music Hall, which felt more like a retirement home recreation center than a concert venue. On top of that, the bath houses were never cleaned during our stay. They were filthy and smelled awful. I will say the campground itself was pretty and the sites were decent overall but the lack of organization, communication, and basic upkeep made what was advertised as a “festival weekend” very disappointing.

We love this park for horseback riding. We go every year in February to get away from the cold wet weather in Georgia. Great horse camping destination.

My husband and I absolutely loved the park. It was beautiful. The lights and the shops were so inviting. We camp alot in GA and this was our first time bringing our camper to FL. Would definitely recommend. The restaurants lack of staffing kind of put a damper on our visit. On Friday, we stopped at the small lunch spot and there was only one lady working. She let us know she was alone and it would be a while. There were ten people ahead of us so our party of ten left. The next day, Billy Smith was singing and he was wonderful. There were about 100 people in the venue with about three servers. They were working so hard and I felt so bad for them. They were kind but set up for failure. We waited over an hour and my husband never got his food or drink. Five people in our party got part of their food, five never got any. It’s a shame because people were ready to spend money but the severs could not keep up. At one point, my husband went up to the ONE bartender to get a drink and she told him we had to go through our server. We are still waiting for the drink. It’s such a great campground but my understanding is the restaurant is always short servers. We went back to our camper and cooked when we left. I appreciate the hard work that the servers did but they were not set up for success.

Excellent venue for music festivals. Local community is encouraged to attend their weekly shows and events that aren't the camp wide concerts. Cabins are available to rent, but most accomodations are primitive camping or motorhome camping. There are playgrounds for children. Great location for family reunions to rent cabins, explore the park, and the ave fun down at the river. Golf carts available to rent. Depending on the concert production and if they segregate by the haves... VIP status and the Have Nots... General admission.. will determine if you have access to frigid cattle car showers or enclosed heated showers. There's are limited flushable toilets. During concerts bathrooms are portapots, but they do a good job of cleaning multiple times a day The campground is vast and for the smaller family friendly concerts like Spring Reunion it is easy to camp within a half mile of a stage. However on the large concerts like #Hulaween & Resonate... It is easy to be over a mile from the stage. In the past they had teams for the outlying area but the new event managers chose to only provide transportation across the miles for VIP & ADA.

We've been going to this campground for 10 years for a kids music camp they host 3 times of year. We've never actaully been when the park is at its max for a festival. Its usually pretty empty other than the long term residents and the 100 or so campers. Its a lovely location. We love the park itself with how much space there is to explore. Renting a golf cart for $60 for a day and going on the trails while the kids are in music class helps kill the time, especially when its hot and there's not much else to do in the park. (We camp a lot but usually go to campgrounds that have lots of nature etc to explore and this campground doesnt really focus or offer that, understandably). Overall its a great park. My issues which have stayed consistent over the last 10 years are the following 1. The bathrooms. They finally updated them during covid, which was huge as they were pretty awful before that, but I honestly never see them get cleaned when we are there for the weekend. Whatever is there when we got there friday is still there on Sunday when we leave. I don't know if they only clean them once a week, but it can get really gross in there after a weekend. There is rarely ever soap by the sinks. They have added AC. This time one of the showers was unusable in both men's and women's because the hot or cold handle was gone (hubs said the men's had a vice scrip someone put on it so they could at least use theirs, but their other one was out of order torally) 2. The picnic tables really need to be replaced. I've been saying this for 7 years. Most are falling apart. They are chained to a tree that's on an incline. It just makes so sense why a park that brings in that much $ from their very expensive sites, can't start replacing picnic tables 1 by 1 at the very least. If I were paying $15 a night I think I would let some of these things pass, but its not a cheap campground and I dont see why they cant take care of things a little better. I get that they have a different system because they normally do festivals but it just doesn't make sense to me. Check in staff has always made me feel like I'm a bother or an annoyance. General store staff is always lovely. We love this park for all the memories and great wide open spaces. I just wish they cared about the campers experience a little more. And CLEAN THE BATHROOMS!!!