via mike’s® Hard Lemonade
Presented by mike’s® Hard Lemonade
Things I Often Forget:
– My debit card PIN
– My dad’s birthday
– Any and all anniversaries
– Removing the size sticker off new jeans
– Pittsburg has an ‘h’ at the end
Things I Will Never Forget
– No one showing up to my 7th birthday party
– Intricate details of every music festival I’ve ever been to, dating back to 2008
For those who have been injected with festival fever, you already know. Let this article serve to drum up memories of drinking ice cold mike’s® Hard Lemonade around your fondest friends and 15,000 watt speakers while the summer sun disappears into cotton candy clouds.
For those who have yet to experience the transformative qualities of a summer music festival, allow me to be your sage, for I was once unenlightened just like you.
If you asked my unenlightened self in 2007 to go to a music festival, I would have overwhelmingly denied on three counts.
1.) I can’t dance
2.) Standing for long periods of time feels like an extreme sport
3.) See #1
Now, I will attempt to pass on to you the data I’ve gathered over a decade to form my very scientific hypothesis: A Squad Trip To A Summer Music Festival Is The Highlight Of The Year.
1. “Great things never came from comfort zones.”
Stop me if this sounds familiar: Go to nondescript bar, do some drinking and some standing around, tip bartender 20% for popping the top off your drink, consider talking to a group of girls but fail to think up a strong enough opening line, close your tab, go home, cry into your pillow, repeat until death.
This is no way to live, my friends.
I can’t promise you much, but I will promise you that in 40 years, you won’t be boring your grandchildren with uninspiring tales of all the watering holes you visited, but you will be fishing from a sea memories involving bands in the primes of their careers providing you with an unexpected religious experience. Why do you think Baby Boomers won’t shut up about Woodstock?
All you need to do is take the plunge.
2. “Put music to our troubles and we’ll dance them away.”
Have you ever caught a certain whiff of perfume and been immediately transported to sophomore year of high school when you were dating Cristina Romano and she would spray your locker with her perfume every day before home room?
That same phenomenon occurs when a song comes on your headphones that you first heard through booming festival speakers. The relationship between music and memory is so powerful that it’s been used to help dementia patients, the elderly, and for those suffering from depression.
I’ve been in instances when a particular song comes on and I feel like I stepped into a time machine that takes me back several years to an open field around my close friends. It’s like I’m a drone hovering over my younger self, cringing at dance moves I believed to be suave. I can’t decide if I want to cherish or burn that footage.
3. Festival friends are forever friends.
At the risk of sounding like an 8th grade girl’s AIM profile, I have never believed anything more. I’ve thought deeply about why I value the friendships of my festival crews more than some of my more present friends, and I’ve arrived at this conclusion: festival friends can be likened to teammates in that we’re all sharing in something bigger than ourselves. Egos, agendas, and business cards serve no purpose in the pit–they are traded for frosty mike’s Hards and good vibes, providing fertile ground for the deepening of bonds.
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Habits are hard to break, especially for creatures of habit. Gathering at a bar is always the easy choice, and will never tell you that there isn’t a time and place for the bar life. But, I hope this article at least gave you reason to consider that there are elevated forms of entertainment that will stay with you long after the stages are disassembled and the speakers are packed into trucks. Float the idea to a group of friends, and if they scoff at the idea, ditch them and meet a better crew at a summer festival.
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