Music Festivals

moohoohahaha said:
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Advice Request: I love live music and I go to a lot of concerts, that said, I intentionally avoid festivals. I just don't imagine it being my thing, in terms of duration, and I find the idea of seeing multiple artists I love in a single day, never mind over multiple days, overwhelming - so I prefer the single show headliner/opener situation. Anyway, I'm putting myself out there this summer! I'm gonna be in Western MA, so I'm starting small to get my feet wet. Heading to Field Day and then Green River. These are both so close to me that I don't need to camp over.

If I enjoy these maybe I'll graduate to Solid Sound next.

I don't have any specific questions, I'm just curious if you festival goers have any sage advice on how to best take in the experience.
 
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blenoxsmith said:
Advice Request: I love live music and I go to a lot of concerts, that said, I intentionally avoid festivals. I just don't imagine it being my thing, in terms of duration, and I find the idea of seeing multiple artists I love in a single day, never mind over multiple days, overwhelming - so I prefer the single show headliner/opener situation. Anyway, I'm putting myself out there this summer! I'm gonna be in Western MA, so I'm starting small to get my feet wet. Heading to Field Day and then Green River. These are both so close to me that I don't need to camp over.

If I enjoy these maybe I'll graduate to Solid Sound next.

I don't have any specific questions, I'm just curious if you festival goers have any sage advice on how to best take in the experience.
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I am tempted by Saturday of Green River since that's like 1 hour 15 minutes from me but I've seen the few bands I'd want to see before (FF, BLH, Speedy Ortiz). If it had a slightly better lineup and I wasn't trying to save money I'd probably go. I've seen a National show at MassMoca where Solid Sound is like 8 years ago and it was a very cool venue. I'd try and make it there at some point if you can.

Some advice - You have to realize that you'll not see everyone you want to and that's okay. If you want to be close-ish for some bands you'll have to be at the previous band's set at that stage and try and weasel your way towards the front when those fans disperse after the set. If you don't care about that it's fun to hop around to different stages and discover some new bands.
 
blenoxsmith said:
Advice Request: I love live music and I go to a lot of concerts, that said, I intentionally avoid festivals. I just don't imagine it being my thing, in terms of duration, and I find the idea of seeing multiple artists I love in a single day, never mind over multiple days, overwhelming - so I prefer the single show headliner/opener situation. Anyway, I'm putting myself out there this summer! I'm gonna be in Western MA, so I'm starting small to get my feet wet. Heading to Field Day and then Green River. These are both so close to me that I don't need to camp over.

If I enjoy these maybe I'll graduate to Solid Sound next.

I don't have any specific questions, I'm just curious if you festival goers have any sage advice on how to best take in the experience.
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I haven't been to a festival in a few years but one of my favorite things to do was arrive early and just catch random acts that were playing early (like before noon!) I saw Maggie Rogers basically open Outside Lands one year in front of like 30 people, and also saw Kamasi Washington play to a largely empty field once.
 
blenoxsmith said:
Advice Request: I love live music and I go to a lot of concerts, that said, I intentionally avoid festivals. I just don't imagine it being my thing, in terms of duration, and I find the idea of seeing multiple artists I love in a single day, never mind over multiple days, overwhelming - so I prefer the single show headliner/opener situation. Anyway, I'm putting myself out there this summer! I'm gonna be in Western MA, so I'm starting small to get my feet wet. Heading to Field Day and then Green River. These are both so close to me that I don't need to camp over.

If I enjoy these maybe I'll graduate to Solid Sound next.

I don't have any specific questions, I'm just curious if you festival goers have any sage advice on how to best take in the experience.
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Solid Sound is a *great* festival. Very low-key, kinda like a festival for people who don't like music festivals. If you like Wilco at all, do not hesitate, but you could still enjoy SSF if not a huge fan. The crowd is never overwhelming, and they have a limited number of bands for a festival lineup. My best advice is to download the Solid Sound smartphone app. It has great info on the venue (Mass MoCA is amazing), the bands and where they are playing. The best feature? If you allow notifications, it will let you know when and where there are pop-up shows happening - usually somewhere in the art galleries. A few years back, Waxahatchee played a surprise pop-up show, and she wasn't even on the lineup!

We've been to Solid Sound 4 times, but we can't make the trip this year. If you go, be sure to catch: Wednesday, Mikaela Davis, Ratboys, Water From Their Eyes, and Etran de L'air.
 
wokeupnew said:
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maybe lacking a really exciting headliner...but...if I can put together a festy LIVE schedule of Sturgill, Khruangbin, Pretty Lights, Leon Bridges, Norah, Jungle, Porter Robinson, Orville Peck, Still Woozy, Vince Staples, Elderbrook, Hermanos Gutierrez, Santigold, Glass Beams, Bob Schnieder, and Mannequin Pussy...over a weekend, I'm A HAPPY FELLA
 
wokeupnew said:
I had no idea this was a thing. It's the inaugural fest so that makes sense. Not enough to get me out the door but I'm interested to see what happens with this in the future.

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I drove through Hartford last night and did a double-take when I saw a billboard for this. with you...not enough to get me to go, but hopefully has some staying power and could be interested in future line-ups
 
cbl said:
I drove through Hartford last night and did a double-take when I saw a billboard for this. with you...not enough to get me to go, but hopefully has some staying power and could be interested in future line-ups
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I don't necessarily need to go to music fests anymore. The last one I went to was Waking Windows 2022 which is a very, very small music fest in Winooski VT. But I do get excited about the possibility of some in the future! Sound on Sound 2022 had a few bands I might have gone to see, but future lineups got too "music fest-y" with the band lineup. Green River Fest in Greenfield MA, Wilco's one at MassMoca, Boston Calling is usually hit or miss but they had a killer lineup a few years ago. This one in Hartford would be less than 20 minutes from where I am now so I'd absolutely love to be able to hop down and see a single day if possible.
 
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