When you read this I’ve probably only just come back from my favourite annual music festival. Having slept in a tent for three nights amongst people that won’t shut up during the night, I’ll almost certainly be very tired. That’s why I wrote this in advance.
This gives me an advantage, because it means I can’t be disappointed by anything of the festival yet. Yes, I’m actually quite excited to go there. Music festivals are my favourite place to go. No doubt about it.
Like Matt said to me this morning: I seem to light up by it. I feel like I’m in another world for a few days. I can see bands that I admire, enjoy bands that I didn’t know yet, eat disgusting things, drink too much, act silly and relax. I love it when the sun shines, I love it when it rains. I love the crackling sound of plastic drinking glasses under my feet. I love Matt’s face, slightly blue of the lights in the dark, when he’s a little intoxicated. I love trying to forget we spend a month’s worth of grocery shopping money in just three days. And, last but not least, I love to excessively plan the whole thing by studying the program thoroughly, drawing circles around the acts I want to see, and run around across the terrain when two of those acts overlap.
Yes, for me a music festival all comes down to frolicking around on a carefully thought through schedule. I’m used to that. All my friends are the same. I didn’t know there were other ways to enjoy such an event. Until… Well, until I met Matt to be honest.
The first time we went together I learned there is indeed a very different way to enjoy a festival. I learned that some people actually go there ‘for the atmosphere’. What the fuck?
Atmosphere-festival-goers don’t really care for the bands that play. As long as the band plays in tune and the sound doesn’t hurt their ears too much they are fine. They seek a nice spot on the grass in the sun near a place they can fetch beer from, sit down and spend the entire day… just chilling…
I was truly flabbergasted when I found out such people existed. But Matt has quite a few friends that actually match that description. Luckily for me, Matt is a bit of both worlds. He does bother to read the program and to see some of the bands, but doesn’t mind wasting a few hours of his precious festival on doing nothing.
Don’t get me wrong, in the end I’m just like Matt. Although I like to see as many bands as possible, I do enjoy sitting in the sun with a beer from time to time. And I don’t mind seeing (or rather hearing) some of the bands from a nice patch of grass fifty metres away from the stage instead of packed in the front rows. But people that spend 130 euros, food and drinks not included, on doing nothing but sitting in a field? They twist my mind.
In fact I find those people rather annoying. They buy the same tickets as real music fans, therefore making festivals sell out faster. I know many music fans that wanted to go to this or that music festival, but couldn’t get their hands on a ticket. Those tickets, they were bought by those damned atmosphere-bastards, who do nothing but cause disappointment for real music lovers. Can someone please explain to me what motivates the atmosphere-festival-goer? Why can’t they just sit in a park in their hometown with a transistor radio?
On the other hand… what if those tickets were indeed only bought by real music fans? What if actually everybody really wanted to see all the bands? Damn, that would make it even more impossible to get into the front rows… Yes, I might not understand their motives, but I do appreciate their existence. In fact, now I realise their purpose I would urgently like to request all the atmosphere-lovers out there to please feel free to come back next year. Because at least you aren’t blocking my view and stepping on my toes when I want to stand in the front row for my favourite bands…
Similar columns
- Trading parts of your history
- Eurovision Politics Festival
- With men it’s either sports or music
- 10 things I love about you
- Creating a bubble of enjoyment
When I went to `V’ with the chipster last year, we ended up running all over the place to catch all the acts we wanted to see. If we hadnt been so frantic about the whole thing we’d've missed seeing most of the bands … I therefore think these peeps who do just `chill’ in an effort to `soak up the atmos’ are just really there so that they can say to their mates afterwards that they went to such & such festival (even if they ended up missing most of the acts on stage by doing so) & that’s about it. Seems a bit of a big fat waste of time (& money) to me!
Left by London-Lass on Monday, August 18th, 2008