Music Festivals: Not Just For Hippies

I found this week's video about coffee, and the culture that surrounds it, quite fascinating. On the surface, coffee seems so simple-- but the small variations in each person's relationship with their java (flavor, temperature, vendor, container, etc) are what fuel the nationwide obsession with the beverage. Music festivals are similar in that, to the untrained eye, they're all the same-- until you dig a little deeper.

Firefly Music Festival in Dover, DE. Photo courtesy of Firefly Music Festival

Festivals first gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, most famously with Woodstock in 1969 in upstate New York. More recently, they've experience a renaissance of sorts that began around 2010. Coachella, held annually in southern California, is the most well-known American festival, with Bonaroo (rural Tennessee), Lollapalooza (downtown Chicago), and Burning Man (desert Nevada) rounding out the Big Four. Besides these, there are hundreds of music festivals that occur throughout the country every spring and summer. Each festival provides its own unique experience, but the two most important factors are lineup and location. Different types of crowds populate different festivals based on lineups and vibes: ravers run to Electric Daisy Carnival and Camp Bisco to see Zedd and Major Lazer; hipsters head to Austin City Limits and Firefly for Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys; pop fans party at iHeartRadio Music Festival and Made in America to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.

Because festivals are multi-day affairs, location really matters. At a city festival, like local favorite Boston Calling, concertgoers can stay in hotels, which adds comfort and cleanliness as well as cost. More remote festivals, like Bonnaroo and Firefly, require music lovers to pitch tents and camp out, rain or shine. Camping fests have a tendency to get a little more rowdy, not to mention, well, gross.

Despite their differences, all festivals provide the unique opportunity to mingle with people who love music, but not necessarily the same music that you love. Lineups at larger festivals are often so stacked that it's easy to talk to someone who hasn't seen a single one of your favorite sets of the weekend. That's the beauty of music in general-- it brings people together. So book your hotel or pitch your tent, grab your best friend's hand (and maybe a beer), close your eyes, and feel the music.