The warm weather is officially here to stay, and that means music festival season is already in full swing.
Music festivals are an event that have the potential to be an incredible weekend with people you care about watching dozens of bands you love. Or it can end in being lost, dehydrated, and exhausted surrounded by people you don’t like or recognize.
This begs the question: what are music festivals worth going to?
There’s a lot of factors to consider. First, realistically, music festivals are harshly different from the pictures you typically see of girls in flowing dresses wondering through a field with Beyoncé preforming just over their shoulder.
In most cases, festivals have a lot more sweating, pushing, and watching the performers than that.
For the layout, there is typically a main stage in the center of the venue where the headliners and a handful of relatively well-known bands preform.
The main stage is surrounded by a couple smaller stages that the smaller acts cycle through.
Near the entrance there’s a large sign with the times and stages in which each act will be preforming and scattered in between are a bunch of tents with merch and (if you’re lucky) overpriced food and water.
The first thing to consider when choosing a festival is the lineup, which is most important because it is the backbone of the whole event.
Some of the best sets coming up this summer are as follows: Lollapalooza’s headliners are Childish Gambino, Ariana Grande, Twenty One Pilots, and Kacey Musgraves.
Firefly will have Panic! At the Disco, Travis Scott, Post Malone, and Vampire Weekend.
The one I’m going to is Boston Calling, which features Twenty-One Pilots, Tame Impala, Travis Scott, Hozier, and Greta Van Fleet.
While the headliners serve as the face of the event, most of the time the smaller acts are playing because there are so many more of them, so it’s even more important to check out new artists you might love.
Another factor that usually stands in the way of going to a festival is the price and location.
Festival tickets usually range from between $40-600 per day and $200-1000 for a three-day pass, depending on which festival you go to.
However, you also have to factor in the money it will take to travel there and lodging if necessary. Hence, the whole experience will never be cheap; it’s just a matter of evaluating if the bands and experiences are worth the cost.
But at its core, the how day goes comes down to who you surround yourself with.
Some festivals have a great feeling of community and safety, while others are poorly organized and more stressful than anything else.
If you are comfortable being by yourself, which I would highly advise against because it is relatively dangerous, or with a group of people you genuinely want to be around, it totally changes the experience.
No matter which festival you pick, if you go with people who you enjoy being with, to see bands that you like, and don’t spend every dollar you have; music festivals can be an incredible and worthwhile weekend.
However, if you’re the type of person who isn’t interested in sweaty crowds and giant speakers blasting the bands on the set list, there’s nothing festive about it.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM CNN
