Pros and Cons of the Festival World
Mentioning how R.E.M. headlined Langerado a few months ago got me thinking about festivals. First of all I would have loved to have been there to see them (of course), but I have tickets to catch them here in June. Naturally, I am really looking forward to it. Modest Mouse is opening, which makes it even better. Anyway, about those festivals…
First of all, I love live music, and I go to as many concerts as I can. This hobby does depend on available money and time, however, so it is impossible to catch everything I want to. A good solution to this problem is to attend festivals. Festivals are not only relatively cheap compared to purchasing a single ticket for a band, but also a chance to more than one of your favorite bands. Depending on how many stages are at the festival, one could feasible catch back to back concerts for a full day or more. With fewer stages, wait time between shows could be an hour tops. In all, the set up is not too bad.
For five years in a row I went to Music Midtown Festival in downtown Atlanta. This was from freshman year of high school in 2001 to Freshman year in college in 2005. The only reason I stopped going was because the festival was no more. Throughout all the years I was able to catch some great shows: Tom Petty, Foo Fighters, Counting Crows, Steve Winwood, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker, Buddy Guy, War, Jethro Tull, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult, Bush (when I listened to that…), Stone Temple Pilots, The Offspring, The Edgar Winter Group, etc.. For a three day pass to the festival tickets were generally between $45 and $75. For my Petty tickets this summer, I spent $55. Not too bad of a price, but my point is the whole Music Midtown weekend was about the same price. That’s pretty cool.
After Midtown ended, I decided to try another festival: Bonnaroo. Unlike Midtown, Bonnaroo is a camping festival (as I sure everyone knows) and that made things a bit different. But I liked the camping part. Although my friends and I had a bit of a walk, everything went pretty well. We had our own place to go back to, we could pack or own food, etc. and we got the chance to meet new people who were close by in our camp site. Like Midtown tickets were relatively inexpensive at about $180. They were more than Midtown, but the level of bands was much higher, and there more of them. In the years I went (2006, 2007), I got to see The Police, Radiohead, Beck, Tom Petty, John Paul Jones, The Roots, Bob Weir, Ben Folds, Ben Harper, moe., Oysterhead, Mike Doughty, etc. Among them were some of my favorite shows (Ben Folds was my favorite of the two years combined) and I had some pretty good times.
There are some cons to the whole festival atmosphere though. First, it’s hot all the time. Much of the space at Midtown and Bonnaroo is in the blistering sun. At Bonnaroo, the campround had no shade. No shade means that there is no more sleeping in your tent past about 7:00 AM because it is literally like 100 degrees in there. Music doesn’t start until after noon, so you have nothing to do until you that time. I mean you can’t sleep.
Also, as a musician I like to be as close as possible to watch the band. That is also just part of human nature, too. Either way, to get up front means that you have to get their early and wait through several of the bands before that band. As people leave, you can slowly make your way up to the front. This also becomes a weighing thing too, becuase if you do wait long periods to watch a band, you may end up missing other good bands on other stages. At Midtown I once waited six hours in the same spot, on my feet to watch the Foo Fighters. At Bonnaroo, I waited under the same conditions for Tom Petty. This was not uncommon at either festival. Also, crowds are so tight up towards the front are always so crowded and hot. It was once so compact at Midtown that I was able to take the weight totally off my feet and still stand. Of course, wanting to stand up close is totally voluntary and that is just the price one pays to be so close. Some call it dedication, some call it stupidity. Whatever it is, the crowd thing is not the festivals fault but just a whole bunch of people wanting to get really close.
While festivals are good, there are some other things that I don’t like about them. First, I have always enjoyed the feeling of an intimate venue. I often purposefully avoid large arena concerts because I love smaller venues so much. Shows with one band also have the benefit of having a like minded crowd. All the people are there to see the same band. There is probably much more in common in a crowd at a single show than in a festival, and that is part of what makes that experience so cool. The venues are also alot cleaner and the shows are less work to attend. At a small, closed venue you can walk in, sit down and watch the show. At a festival you have to plan for a whole day or weekend. You also don’t walk away dirty, which is always nice. Also, the most important, and possibly underrated things about a venue show is that they are mostly at night. To me, concerts only feel right at night for some reason. Perhaps becuase that is just the nature of Rock and Roll.
These days, there are not too many festivals that I would want to go to. Although I love the music, I find more pros in attending small venue shows. I may go to Echo Project this year though. That one is in October, its camping on the Chattahoochee, and its just 40 minutes or so from my house. Definitely worth a try.
Let me know what you think about festivals!
