Ok..self indulgently, self reflection on festivals. An introduction?, prelude? preamble? Just ramble? ;-) -- (edited)
Posted by
JD (aka Jason Dean)
Apr 24 '17, 18:30
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I shared a condo with two 30 year olds. I believe literally, not thirty something but like not twenty something anymore. Like, if I'd been a teen age father, I could've been their father.
And each day/night we talked for a bit and it made me think about my Coachella history and festivals in general.
So festival history
Coachella 2008 (Prince!)
Lollapalooza 2009
Outside Lands 2016
And then all the Coachella's since 2008 with the exception of two years ago (life was a bit complicated...)
Some smaller scale one day fests as well
It has made me realize that I've evolved my Coachella going from two plus days (arrive Friday, leave Sun) to arrive Friday, leave Monday, to arrive Thursday, leave Monday
I've gotten more experienced and older. The older part was in full effect last night watching kids dance around as I was death marching my old ass out of there around 11. The kids were going like it was their first hours of Friday.
So I've kind of step by step worked my way into this craziness. Cause here's the thing, for some of you going to something like Coachella would probably be a bucket list type of thing to do and for some of you, it would be hell on earth. I'm like music loving version of that frog who's in the pot with the water with the slowly increasing temperature
So I spend more hours at the festival but I've gotten smarter about it so the overall toll seems proportionally the same. And the last two times out, I'm still having a different overall experience.
I had historically stayed in Palm Springs and drove in every day (about a 40 min drive without traffic). Last year, camped offsite (about 10 min drive) as well as took shuttle one day. This year, stayed in a condo 10 min from a shuttle stop, never drove to the festival
If there's a point to all of this, if you ever had an interest in going to festival. Go! However, do your research. There's definitely an easier way to do things or at minimum a definite way not to do things. Veronica and I definitely just kind of went to our first festivals. Initially with the only planning going into the lineup. We learned to plan better with regards to hydration and nutrition. Learned to budget better over the year so could have additional hotel nights. Figure out alternate driving routes.
And so on.
Another way of framing it would be, it is like a Disney trip. One can just go but there's so many stories about what does and does work, why not take the effort to read and do some planning.
But isn't it just about having fun? It is and it is amazing but it is even more fun, when you're not stuck in traffic, you're not completely exhausted, you don't need medical attention.
But still fun and there's no musical experience quite like it. So much live music, so many great performances, so many opportunities to see acts, one may not have taken time and effort to see on their own.
I've only got the one destination festival story (Lolla 2009) but if you have to travel, then there's the possibility of checking out a new area or if you're not from a major metropolitan area, then there's the access to the bands that never make it your area
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