Since the time I have started covering music festivals, I have realized what a tough job it is: you have to go from one stage to another, try to see as many bands as possible, take pictures, shoot videos, take notes of course, and eventually remember about the sound of this specific band after having seen ten other ones afterward…. It’s very different from covering one show, it’s like covering twenty shows or more at the same time, and if you can’t expect to remember the same amount of details, you have to do your best.
I actually prepare for a music festival as I prepare for a marathon, and I run marathons! Festivals are that tough for the body as they are an all-day event for all senses and body parts, your eyes are constantly stimulated, your ears are ringing from being too close to the amps, your feet are on fire from all that standing, and your neck hurts from all this stretching to see above the crowd. Plus I have seen more bad sunburns than at the beach! So there are a few things to expect at a music festival:
Expect to be very, very tired: It’s a challenging and exhausting day and I have only done relatively small festivals, although the FYF fest is growing every year and has become a small monster of two full days. Honestly, how do people cover Coachella? Last Friday and Saturday I went to the Jubilee Music and Arts Festival, which is a tiny thing compared to the colossal Coachella or Bonnaroo, and I am already exhausted. Each day was about 8 to 9 hours of walking and mostly standing, and this is without talking about the constant fighting with crowd to get in the front.
Expect to starve: I never eat much at a festival, I have no time, that’s how crazy I am! Festivals make you pay a fortune for a small anything, plus outside food is generally not allowed – hey they didn’t bring all these food trucks for nothing! However this hasn’t prevented me to sneak some basic survival needs (apple, protein bar), as there’s no way I am gonna be in this long line to buy greasy food and miss a band!
Expect to be thirsty all day long: At the Jubilee, the beverages were offered by Perrier (not bad) which was probably a sponsor of the festival and free cans were distributed all day long. I remember doing the same thing when the Sunset Junction Fair was still operating, the fair was much more spread out than this one, and I was surviving for two days on free samples offered by the sponsors. But these are street fairs, surviving major music festivals is tougher, since they don’t offer anything for free and make you pay $5 for a small bottle of luckewarm water. Plus it is always very hot, so camel genes or camel backpack help a lot.
Expect to be amused: I know that fashion is part of festivals but I honestly don’t understand what some people are wearing at these festivals! High heels, open shoes that make your toes very vulnerable in the middle of a crowd, and high boots by 100ºF! Girls you have to give a rest to your feet, wear comfortable sneakers! Plus, I am starting to become tired of all these Black Flag t-shirt parodies… do these people actually know Black Flag?
Expect to be smoked out all day: I don’t smoke, never have but I am apparently one of the few at these festivals. At the Jubilee, people were smoking more smoked joints than at a hippie convention or at a reunion of the Grateful Dead! I am still coughing.
I wonder why the popularity of music festivals is increasing that much, they are torture for the body. I take back my comparison with marathons, they are actually more exhausting since longer! They have become social (and also corporate) events, and people think they have escaped reality for a day or two when they attend festivals, they feel part of a new community which only survive on the internet until the next year… But today I just feel the soles of my feet.