Kat's Tips for Festival Goers
What do I know?
I've been to many concerts in my day. Outdoor venues, small dives, and giant festivals as well. The first music festival I ever attended was Ozzfest 2002. I believe I was in the second grade at the time, and my mom went with me. I went to a few more rock festivals, either touring establishments like Warped Tour or Family Values, or various seasonal festival hosted by local radio stations in south Florida.
I switched things up for the first time when I was in the eleventh grade. Instead of the usual rock festivals, I had my first big rave experience at Ultra Fest 2005, held in Miami, Florida. I would return to Ultra again in 2007 and 2008, and by then the festival had grown to a two-day event.
Most recently I attended Lollapalooza in chicago in 2007 and 2009. Those have been my favorite festivals to date. it's very exciting to watch your favorite bands play live in the middle of downtown Chicago, with the skyscrapers surrounding you and Lake Michigan at your side. Lollapalooza is a festival that I would recommend to anyone.
These aren't the entirety of my festival credentials, but they should be enough to demonstrate the years of experience that I have, and therefor explain why I may know a thing or two about how to survive at these gatherings and how not to miss any of the action.
So, what should you do?
- Buy your tickets as early as possible
- Plan your trip to the last detail
- Schedule your days so you don't miss any cool acts
- Be ready to ditch your friends and have an adventure
More often than not, festival hosts will sell tickets cheaper the earlier you order them. Ultra Music Festival, for example, sells tickets at a greatly discounted price if bought before the official line-up is announced. Of course, the drawback is that you will not know exactly what you'll get before you put your money down, but regulars of the festival can usually expect certain acts each year, and are looking more forward to the experience than the line-up itself.
Who are you going with? How are you going to get there? Where will you stay once you arrive? For how long will you stay? How much is this all going to cost?
These are all questions that you should have answered months in advance of your trip. If you're going to a camping festival, like Coachella, Burning Man, or Bonaroo, you'll need to be sure you have the proper camping equipment, as well as supplies; like food, water, sunscreen, or toilet paper, to make it through the wekend. Don't ever rely on festival port-a-potties to remain stocked, or for food and water to be anywhere near reasonably priced.
As sad as it is, it's quite likely that two of your favorite acts could be scheduled for the same time period at different stages, possibly at totally opposite ends of the fairgrounds. For this situation you'll have to be prepared. Are you going to choose just one and enjoy the full show? Maybe you can rule out an act you've already seen, or someone you know whose live act is more suited to smaller venues. Or you could simply settle for seeing half of each acts set, and getting to see a little bit of both. This is something I've done many times. Know the path ahead of time, and get ready to run!
Alight, ditching your friends isn't totally necessary, but sometimes can be a lot of fun. One of things that makes festival such a unique experience is how open your fellow concert-goers are to meeting other travelers. Talk to people, ask them how far they came to be here, if they've ever been to this festival before, or any others. I know many people who have cultivated strong, long-lasting friendships with strangers they met by chance at a festival.