I’ve attended tons of music festivals including multiple years of SummerCamp, Wakarusa, and 10,000 Lakes, and many smaller, regional events. I record live music audio as a hobby and festivals give me the chance to capture the sounds of many bands in a short amount of time. In fact, I attended my first post-quarantine fest this past weekend: the Pickin’ On Picknic. It was loosely bluegrass oriented. Headliners included Dale Watson, The Dillards, Leftover Salmon, and Jerry Douglas Band. I now have a bunch of audio files to play with, and pics to sort through, which I enjoy very much. My recordings of bands that grant permission end up on the Live Music Archive at Archive.org for free (and legal) streaming or download.
The fest worked out great since it was relatively close, a reasonable size, a sweet venue, and the weather worked for the most part. Actually they had a crazy storm, but it began after Friday’s headliner finished. By that time we were already on our way back to the hotel. I’ve got a great setup for camping but now require AC power to run a CPAP machine and all the sites with electric were already taken before I bought my tickets… I’m actually glad we had the hotel this time due to the weather, though it did mean we needed a sober driver and of course we missed the late night shenanigans with our crazy friends.
I don’t have any other fests on the horizon, but am looking forward to the next one!