Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Festivals, Festivals, and more Festivals... Is it worth it?


I go to a ton of festivals which I love and hate. My whole life revolves around music, now whether or not I'm a HUGE fan of some of the artist that I see is a completely different story. I do have a huge soft spot for indie hip hop, so going to some of these festivals are not really appealing to my so-called preference. But as I love to say I don't discriminate and I'm always down to check out new music, especially live music. So in the past few weeks I've been really lucky to go to 3 major festivals (2 for free!!!). These 3 festivals have nothing to do with each other, so it's pretty funny to think about the crowds that go to them. Every single festival I've been to has douche bags and slutty girls but I guess that's inevitable. These youngin's that go to festivals are not about the music. It's a status thing, they want to dress up and look like they're being part of something "cool" so they can post it up on their social media sites to let everyone know that they're doing something interesting and popular. 

At EDC most kids dress up like crazy, cracked out blow up dolls that are so out of their mind that they don't know if they're on the same planet as everyone else. I get it, I was a "party kid" back in the day, but seriously? I loved the music and I didn't have to be on crazy amounts of drugs to enjoy myself. I wanted to dance and be part of the culture. I hung out with the crazy street party kids in NYC and went to underground shows that no one heard about. I loved listening to beats and feeling it through my body, that's why I went to these "parties".  Plus I love hard beats that are closest to the hip hop sound that I can bounce around and dance to, so I'm all about drum and bass. For EDC, I was really excited to see Bassnectar, who fucken KILLED IT but after a little while it started sounding the same, as it usually does. Anyways, now you go to a rave it's not the same the culture, it's not about the music, it's about what you wear or what you seem not to wear. 

Keeping in line with women wearing scantly clad outfits, Summer Jam wasn't any better. I know mainstream hip hop has this "ghetto fabulous" mentality AND shit it was showing at Summer Jam. I love that women have self esteem and think they're the hottest shit around but GOD DAMN some of these women looked ridiculous. Their heels were so tall they couldn't walk, their pants were SO tight that their muffin tops were out in all their glory, and there were boob to stomach ratios that favored the stomach rather than the boobs. It seems that this also wasn't about the music it was about saying you were there. While I was there I got a chance to talk to this very young girl who I believe might of been drunk or just really stupid. I couldn't tell but she told me she wasn't even interested in the music she just wanted to be there because she thought it would be cool. That in itself made me sad. I know I said I don't listen to the music but I was excited to check out Action Bronson, The Roots and of course see what Nicki had to bring to the table. The sound system was SO WHACK that I couldn't even hear anything. The mic's were fucked up and since it's at a football stadium there was a lot of echoing. It was horrible, and during The Root's set the mic cut off and they didn't fix it in time so I could hear the rest of the set. I was really disappointed especially since they got the money and they've been doing this at this venue for years now. SMH! Not what someone who's there for the music wanted to hear or better yet not hear. 

I've been to a lot of festivals in and out of the tri-state area but never in a different country. So going to NXNE in Toronto was pretty exciting for me. I didn't go to a lot of the shows at the festival but I like the fact the festival was to promote more independent artists. Unfortunately, the showcase that I did end up going to (El Da Sensei, Soul Khan, Audible Doctor, and Mecca Godzilla), the crowd did not know how to act. The artists that were on the showcase handled the crazy and rude crowd with ease and some hilarity. The sound system was also shit and even with all the mess that the artists had to deal with they all killed it. This is the first time I've been to Toronto since I was a child and I obviously never went out during that time. So I have no idea what the deal is with the people there. I'm not sure if this is the regular thing or it was just that night. Everything that night blew my fucken mind. There were people that thought in America you can sleep in your car and then get rich the next day... and gave an example of Tyler Perry... umm... NO COMMENT. There was also a chick that was so drunk and going up to people and asking them crazy questions (are you Italian to a Jewish guy) or trying to give girls money and hugging them (she was asking to get abducted). There were people dressed in leather shorts with a leather jacket in 70 degree weather. It was just crazy. People were definitely nice but it was seriously the weirdest place I've visited and I've traveled the world so it confused me. Then it hit me... Toronto's mayor is a crackhead... So yes the people in the city would be CRAZY. The only thing I had a problem with was that there was one showcase that got shut down and the poor artists that were there for that one show were shit out of luck. And it wasn't like they were from Toronto, they had to fly out and stay in a hotel. It was fucked up. I don't know what happened with them but I hope that NXNE did something for them. At least at this festival the people were way more into music and not trying to be sexy and cool. I appreciated and respect that. So I would definitely go back, it was pretty awesome for music lovers.

All in all I love going to festivals and I'm going to keep going regardless of all the young people I have to deal with. I love the music, dancing, and experiencing all the craziness. It makes me feel some sort of way and I don't think I can describe it, but I'll try. It's like being on a drug, there's a high I get listening to really dope music and seeing others enjoy it as much as I do. All I know is that the feeling is the reason why I'm in the music industry. So shout out to all the artists and all the people that put these festivals together because that shit is not easy.  To wrap this post up, go to a festival with your survival kit out and get ready to spend a whole day sweating, sitting on grass or concrete and hanging out with douche bags. BUT  remember that you're there to see your favorite artist KILL IT on stage, which makes it all worth it.