“I can’t believe we’re dealing with this bullshit just to watch someone turn the sun off for two minutes,” my dear friend Jeff crackled over our walkie talkies. It was 11:30 PM on Wednesday August 16th. My caravan of friends, spread out between 4 vehicles, had been sitting in line to get into the Symbiosis Eclipse Festival in Big Summit Prairie, Oregon since roughly noon that same day.…
This was my second year at What the Festival with the same wonderful Struggle Crew. Yes that’s what we’re called because the struggle is real. We don’t have elaborate totems or camps set up. We’re just there to dance, drink and have a good time.…
Where is this year going? I feel like I’ve been saying the same thing for the past 3 years. I can’t believe it’s August already. I love August though. I can always sense a change in the air, summer is still present but I can feel autumn creeping in, and I adore it. We celebrated the meltdown of summer by heading to Darrington, WA last weekend, camping, and rocking out to music at Summer Meltdown Festival. Nothing beats a small festival. I’m officially hooked again. A good group of our friends were there, there were good vibes all around, good music & river floating. And of course, I saw Slow Magic again, and was right smack in the middle of his drum circle when he got off the stage. I touched him, I was that close. So my happy self danced back to the tent and collapsed. It was a wonderfully adventurous weekend & we made new friends who live in the Seattle area. I can’t wait for next year! Have a fabulous weekend, xoxo, Steph…
It feels like such a long time since I’ve done a festival recap. Paradiso seems so long ago (2 years ago). At the last minute I bought tickets to What the Festival?! in Oregon. Two of my favorite people in the world told me to come and as an early, joint-birthday bash with one of those favorite people, I went. Me & said favorite people 🙂 And I don’t think I’ve ever been happier about a decision. What the Festival is small, 4,000-ish people, and a combination of art installations and music, in the shadow of the cascades. Literally. Oh hey there Mt. Hood. Four days of music (if you arrive early like we did), and a generally rad time with a group of really chill, positive festival goers. I haven’t had this type of experience since Re:generation in 2011. This is the type of festival experience I’m after now. Paradiso is too big, too overwhelming, and despite a stunning venue, there is no shade, a lack of respect to festival goers and vice versa, a lack of respect to the venue by the festival goers. There is none of this at WTFest and it makes for a much more enjoyable…
Paradiso was a much needed break from the month of June, which has been given unflattering names due to the amount of work everyone in my company has to finish before the end of it. June was such a blur of 50 hour work weeks, leaving work only to come home and work more, much needed dinners and drinks with friends on Capitol Hill, and weekend escapes to the other side of the mountains. alcohol + glow sticks + black milk skeleton leggings = awesome ideas. Avicii & Knife Party & Above&Beyond were the highlights of it all for me. There was a beautiful moment when Above & Beyond was playing. A remix of Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’ blared from the main stage speakers, and nothing in that moment could have been more perfect. I was exhausted from dancing for 8-9 hours, curled up next to my boyfriend, surrounded by all of my lovely friends, in a state of bliss. Work was nowhere in my mind, just the present and what was happening then. It is more than the music at these events that I care about. It’s the people I care about that I get to share it with.…
The past two weeks I have had quite a lot going on, so I’m going to start with the most recent and go from there. My birthday was on Monday, and we celebrated by leaving the previous Thursday and spending 4 days in the middle of the woods in northern Oregon at a place called Horning’s Hideout. It’s a beautiful venue with one stage right on a resevoir, and wild peacocks wander around the area, fluffing up their beautiful feathers. Camp sites were tight, tents right on top of each other, but it made for an interesting experience, and unlike at Sasquatch, we actually interacted and chilled with our neighbors when we weren’t asleep or at one of the shows. People had driven from Santa Cruz, and even as far as Chicago. We really didn’t know what we had walked into, I thought it was going to be like Sasquatch but it became apparent that we were surrounded and immersed in counter culture. This has been by far the most hippe, for lack of a better word, fest I have ever been to, but I say that with respect. I have never been to a music event where people aren’t…
Memorial weekend was my first official music festival. Four days of camping and raving out at the Gorge Amphitheater in the middle of Washington, along the Columbia River. I have only been to the Gorge once before, 5 years ago when I went to Pearl Jam with some coworkers from Camp Reed for our weekend off. I had forgotten what a truly breathtaking view there is from the hill around the main stage. It is a beautiful venue, but also extremely hot in the summer, it is in the middle of a desert/farmland. I got sunburned and was wearing my sunglasses too long over the weekend. I look like the coon. Over the course of the weekend, I saw these artists play: DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid The Head & the Heart Local Natives Pink Martini Washed Out The Glitch Mob Sleigh Bells Bassnectar Fitz & the Tantrums Tokyo Police Club Beach House Cold War Kids Flogging Molly Gold Panda The Flaming Lips Flying Lotus MSTRKRFT Ratatat Young the Giant Old 97’s Chromeo (Bolded artists were the performances I really loved, but ALL the performances were amazing) And then the Trailer Park Boys made an appearance and it was…