Summer is just around the corner (for us still in high school that is), and that means music festival season has just started and is picking up speed. I have been lucky enough to attend two very different music festivals and my learning curve has been exponential.
Last summer I attended Watershed Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington (think middle of nowhere desert in Eastern Washington next to a river on a cliff). While the Gorge is hands down the best concert venue I have been to, it is also insanely hot, dry, and has exactly 2 trees to provide shade. I attended this country music festival with three of my closest friends with the intention of camping for three nights and four days. To put it bluntly, that’s not exactly what happened.
We drove over the mountain pass on a Friday to attend the first day of music and eagerly showed up for some of the earlier, yet smaller artists of the day. While this meant we could be in the first couple rows of the mosh pit, it also meant we had to have a lot of water in us to survive the 110o heat. I had thankfully brought my 2-liter Camelback, but even then I went through one about every two hours or less. By the end of the first day one of my friends had already practically fainted due to dehydration and another had a blistering sun burn on her back. Don’t get me wrong Sam Hunt was completely dreamy and Florida Georgia Line was totally worth getting elbowed in the ribs, but Watershed was not going according to plan.
Although the weekend did improve some, I had learned my lesson: my friends were not campers, and that’s okay because next time we didn’t camp, we stayed in a hotel. This past Spring, I attended Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and this time, I did it right. No sun burns were had, the music was beyond amazing, and I actually got sleep. Sure you get the full experience of a music festival if you camp on the grounds, but know your body, and more importantly your friends. Music festivals can be a ton of fun, but they are also exceedingly exhausting, and the first time around I underestimated how tired I would get from walking around all day in the blaring sun.
I would say that music festivals are a must do, and there are so many around the country (and really world) that there is definitely one for everyone. However, while going to multiple in one year sounds exhilarating, it turns out that most artists just bounce around festivals for a year, so you will more than likely be seeing a very similar lineup for more money in a different venue (Halsey, LCD Soundsystem, Lana Del Rey, J Cole, Major Lazer, etc.). With that in mind here are my overall thoughts for the two festivals I have gone to and where I want to go next.
Watershed:
Food: 6/10
Temperature: 2/10
Location: 100000/10
Music: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Coachella:
Food: 10/10
Temperature: 7/10
Location: 8/10
Music: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Future Expeditions Possibilities: SXSW, Sasquatch!, Pemberton, Outside Lands, Lollapalooza, Made in America