What will I remember most about Lovin’ Life? Probably when Stevie Nicks made it rain.

There was a moment on Saturday night, shortly after Stevie Nicks took the stage at the Lovin’ Life Music Fest in uptown Charlotte, when I suddenly thought to myself, STEVIE, what in the world are you doing?? Stop it!!

To that point, the festival had weathered 18-1/2 hours over two days and nights without encountering more than a couple of gentle showers despite ominous forecasts. But then the witchiest member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame got just one song into her highly anticipated set and went ahead and said this:

“We have prayed for no rain all day — and every day for the past week — and look! There’s no rain right now.”

I knew, immediately, what was going to happen before the night was through. When the drenching downpour was unleashed over the inaugural outdoor festival a little over an hour later, however, the outcome took me by genuine surprise.

It was not something dismal. It was something divine.

Stevie Nicks performs at Lovin’ Life Music Fest in Charlotte NC, May 4, 2024.
Stevie Nicks performs at Lovin’ Life Music Fest in Charlotte NC, May 4, 2024.

I’d say the same for Lovin’ Life as a whole, frankly, after patrolling the vast majority of its perimeter and soaking up at least a few of the sounds of almost every musical act it had to offer over its three-day run. The event was sublime in its execution, all things considered, and in its ability to create a consistently safe and immensely pleasurable experience for the roughly 28,000 fans who passed through the gates each day.

And although thunderstorms were in the forecast all three days, creating the specter of an evacuation at any moment due to lightning, there wasn’t a single crack of thunder ... while the only flashes in the sky all weekend were light patterns bouncing off the clouds over Bank of America Stadium during Saturday night’s Charlotte FC game.

The only way Lovin’ Life could have been better is if Tayl — er, never mind.

(I vowed to multiple people that I wouldn’t mention that name anymore. So I’m gonna keep that promise. And yes, I do know I owe you an explanation about Stevie Nicks, and her jinxing of the weather, et cetera. I’ll get back to that in just a sec.)

But seriously, the sole suggestion of consequence I’d make — the only one that I believe would have a meaningful impact on everybody — is for the organizers to thoughtfully consider ways in which they could further diversify the lineup of artists down the road, in the interest of further diversifying the makeup of the crowd.

In other words, to make the crowd look just a little more like Charlotte looks.

Those organizers will get their chance, by the way: As you may have heard at some point during Sunday’s Lovin’ Life proceedings, the event has officially announced it will return next May 2-4.

As such, for the next several months I’ll be dreaming up a wish list of artists for fans to make memories with in 2025. An R&B/soul legend would be welcome, maybe Mary J. Blige, or Usher, or Boyz II Men. How about a Latin megastar, too? Shakira, or Bad Bunny, or Ricky Martin? And then if we could throw in a K-pop star along the lines of, say, Jungkook, or, perhaps BTS, or even BLACKPINK — I mean, the possibilities for heavyweight names to book in genres that weren’t explored this time around aren’t necessarily endless, but they’re awfully exciting.

Not that the the artists who Lovin’ Life booked for Year One weren’t, I should say. Quite the contrary. I saw dozens of thrilling performances from artists both familiar and unfamiliar to me.

What I want to do to close the book on the festival for this year, though, is winnow down everything I saw happen across the two big stages over the weekend to just a handful of highlights that stand out as moves that I truly believe were unique to Lovin’ Life (as opposed to focusing on beats these artists have often hit at past live shows, and will hit repeatedly during future concerts).

It wasn’t easy; but I managed.

So without further ado, here are the handful of moments I think festivalgoers will be telling their friends about for weeks, if not months — moments that rise above and beyond what’s typically expected from a performance of a song in a set list.

Feel free to agree to disagree.

1. Petey Pablo promotes the Panthers

Petey Pablo at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.
Petey Pablo at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.

It’s not at all unusual to hear the Greenville (N.C., not S.C.) rapper’s 2001 hip-hop hit “Raise Up” piped through loudspeakers and used as an anthem at Carolina Panthers games and its Fan Fest pep rallies.

But it’d been 4-1/2 years since Pablo had stepped onto a stage to perform in Charlotte, and even prior to his Saturday set, I believe zero was the number of times he’d previously rapped that anthem and its triumphant lyrics with a cadre of backup dancers that included the TopCats Cheerleaders and Panther mascot Sir Purr.

Those lyrics being, deliciously, these:

This one’s for North Carolina! Come on and raise up

Take your shirt off, twist it ‘round your hand

Spin it like a helicopter

Oh, and for those keeping score at home, the 50-year-old Pablo did twist a red tee ’round his hand and spun it like a helicopter, but he did not remove the Bryce Young jersey he had donned for the occasion off of his back.

In his stead, several young men — all less than half his age — were happy to do the shirt-stripping and -whipping honors.

2. Boys make it rain on behalf of DaBaby

The sight of the Charlotte rapper’s pint-sized nephew wearing a scowl while rapping the uncensored lyrics to his uncle’s songs on Saturday was bonkers enough. Toward the end of his frenetic set, though, DaBaby doubled down on the insanity.

After his tiny nephew was joined by his not-much-bigger stepson on stage, DaBaby produced several fat stacks of dollar bills that he handed one by one to the two boys, who busted DaBaby-like dance moves while flinging the money as far as their little arms could throw them into the crowd — meaning only about one to two rows deep. Meaning roughly the same nine people probably collected about 90% of the cash.

Bass and “Ball If I Want To” blared. Plumes of pyro shot up from the floor. Female dancers gyrated and twerked. As little kids made it rain onto the pit.

Did I mention this was bonkers? I was cringing and laughing. I’ll let you try to guess which I was doing more of.

Da Baby at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.
Da Baby at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.

3. Noah Kahan gets ahead of himself, twice

After headlining the Shaky Knees Music Fest in Atlanta on Friday night, the “Stick Season” singer clearly couldn’t wait for his chance to get on stage and do the same in Charlotte on Sunday night.

First, he jumped on stage with Maggie Rogers on Saturday night — more than 24 hours before his scheduled performance — and sang a verse of her new song “So Sick of Dreaming.” Or, well, more like talked it. With a goofy grin. As if he was telling a story during a stand-up comedy show.

“So he calls me up 15 minutes before the reservation, and says he’s got Noah Kahan tickets instead,” he said (not sang), subbing in his name for her original lyric: Knicks. “I mean, I was at the restaurant. So I took the steaks to go, I had two martinis at the bar, and went to meet my friends down the street. What a loser.”

Then right before departing, he cracked, “And by the way, Noah Kahan is f------ mid!,” as Rogers laughed and vigorously strummed the chords on her guitar.

It was weird. But it was also weirdly hilarious. At any rate, the crowd ate it up.

He wasn’t done there. The next night, an hour before his festival-closing set began, he caught the 25,000 fans waiting for him totally by surprise when he came out and sang “Highway Queen” with Mt. Joy. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a headliner be a surprise guest for his own opener.

Both of those unexpected guest spots painted him as game for anything, and prove that Noah Kahan is, in fact, not at all mid.

Noah Kahan at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.
Noah Kahan at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.

4. Stevie Nicks finishes in a downpour

Like I said, she jinxed it.

Less than 10 minutes shy of 11 p.m. on Saturday — as Nicks charged through an encore that started with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” and continued with her appropriately witchy rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” — a spitting rain turned into a spouting rain, then a steady one.

Anyone who didn’t have a poncho was drenched by the end of “Rhiannon.” It wasn’t letting up, either. Yet she refused to rush things.

“For this last song,” she told the huge crowd, which was sticking it out through what had become a monsoon, “I would like to tell you that usually right now I talk a little bit about Christine McVie, my friend that I lost awhile ago. ... But tonight, I’m gonna change it up. ...

“I would like to dedicate this song to the four officers that were lost,” Nicks continued, referring to those killed in Charlotte last Monday. “We came in just about when it all happened, and turned on the television and there it was. And I just want you to know — from the bottom of my heart — how sorry I am.”

Stevie Nicks at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.
Stevie Nicks at Lovin’ Life Music Fest.

There were other tributes from other artists throughout the weekend, but she’s the only one I know of whose voice started shaking as she delivered hers.

In the audience, rain surely camouflaged some tears. And for the next 3 minutes and 20 seconds, as the drenching continued, Nicks beautifully warbled through one of Fleetwood Mac’s most emotive hits: “Landslide,” with its timeless message about the changes and challenges of life.

I took my love, I took it down

I climbed a mountain and I turned around

And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills

‘Til the landslide brought me down

Friends and couples and singles danced in puddles like they hoped it would never end — this moment, this song, this rain, this show, this night, this festival. When it was over, they went home wet but happy.

Then they returned the next day, and against some odds, it never rained on Lovin’ Life again.

Fans at Lovin’ Life Music Fest bounce around beach balls between sets.
Fans at Lovin’ Life Music Fest bounce around beach balls between sets.

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