Music festivals - the preparation

I go to two large music festivals a year, Lollapalooza and Riot Fest. Both are held in Chicago, one in August the other in September. I love going to music fests, they are awesome, intense, overwhelming but fun.

There is tons of preparation that goes into attending a music festival and I'm here to discuss some of that. (I can only imagine what goes into putting one together, but luckily I don't).

Getting tickets:
These two festivals are currently very different in how you obtain tickets. For Lolla you watch Facebook/Twitter/Website to see when the tickets will go on sale. There used to be a "secret sale" in which we got tickets one time at the low, low price. Now, tickets sell out within an hour of going on sale. I have tons of opinions regarding this, but I will not express them in this blog at this time (I've expressed it plenty to the lolla people via Facebook and Twitter). Tickets go on sale prior to the line up being announced, so you're buying tickets without knowing who you are going to see.

Riot Fest is much more laid back. You can buy your tickets stupid early (Black Friday) for super cheap. Then they stay off of the market until about May when they release the line up and tickets go back on sale. Here you have the option of waiting until the line up is released to purchase regularly priced tickets.

The schedule:
After the line up is released, the schedule comes out. For lolla they give you a bit more time than Riot Fest does. Lolla released the schedule today (May 15, 2014) for the fest that begins August 1. The initial time you look at the schedule there is tons of excitement and frustration. I always have one day where I need to be there at noon...and sometimes my next band isn't until 4pm...but always one day at noon. We are typically there until 10pm at night so we have two meals there and use the port-o-potties numerous amounts of times. After the initial review of the schedule, you have a couple of months to start to listen to all of the other bands on the schedule that you had no clue who they were. This then creates a multitude of conflicts because you want to be in two or three places at once OR one band ends at 3:15 at the north end and the other band starts at 3:15 on the south end. It's a mile between the two places...with 100,000 people in between.

Riot Fest (last year) had some issues releasing the schedule and I believe we had approximately a week to review the schedule and plan. I'm hoping this year they don't have those issues. Here, the area is not nearly as big nor are there as many people, that is up until the evening performance where if you didn't setup a picnic spot you aren't getting into the sea of people. Since there are only 3 stages (well sometimes 4) there are not nearly the number of conflicts here, and the stages are closer together so you don't have that issue. Plus if there is a large amount of time in between sets of bands you do want to hear, there is a carnival!

The bag:
Water, water, frozen water, frozen water, sunscreen, hat, bandana, poop bags, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, camera (though now I think we pretty much just use our phones), copy of schedule.

Transportation:
This is where it all depends on where you live. In the city? CTA baby! In the suburbs: drive to a CTA stop and pay to park there for the day and take the CTA into the city; take the Metra (commuter train) into the city; drive and park downtown; stay at a hotel downtown; pay for a car to bring you and pick you up.

For Riot Fest we drove last year and parked about a mile away, no biggie. For Lolla we'll be driving this year (I'll be 6 months pregnant) and I'm a little bit nervous about that. It's still cheaper than getting a hotel room. If we were drinking, we would have done the hotel room this year I think.

At the fest:
Wear comfortable shoes and clothing and drink lots of water. Yes you will need to use the port-o a little bit more, but you will be better off for the entire weekend if you drink lots of water. No one wants to go to a 3-day music festival hungover...especially when it's in August! Riot Fest isn't as bad but still drink lots of water. Keep checking your schedule, you don't want to miss anything!

Recovery:
Each night, eat something when you get home and drink more water. Sleep! Take the next day off to sleep if at all possible.

This year specifically:
The Riot Fest line up came out the other day, and now I'm way more excited about that than Lolla (even though I'll be 7.5 months pregnant at that one). Looking at the Lolla line up and schedule I'm more "meh" about two of the days than I would have liked. The good news is, I have time to learn more of these bands and start to like more and want to see more.

Yes, I am starting to feel old, but at least Riot Fest tips their hat to me on that and gives me my old music mixed with my new stuff.