Can You Hear me Now?

By Hayley Barrett, Assistant Account Executive

In 20 years--maybe less, I will surely be deaf. I know this to be true because my headphones are constantly vibrating so loud that anyone near me could make out each distinct word. But for some peculiar reason, I crave the loud volume. I blame music festivals.

Each year I pine over the lineup at Coachella. Like most young people with a flair for music, fashion and celebrity sightings I scour the Internet to find any image of the experience. I gasp at the ridiculous outfits of the celebrities. Of course, as every music lover will say, I am in awe of the selection of bands. I begin to rationalize with myself about why yet again I am not attending this epic event. I balance the pros versus the cons. A pro is that this festival is a three-day collaboration of artists and an escape from the mundane. A con is that it is 12 hours away and I am broke. 

Although, for now, Coachella is out of my financial reach, I can thankfully still attend Outside Lands, or Bottle Rock. Bottle Rock is Napa’s first three-day music festival.  Anyone who is interested in an introduction to festival fun will find these two events to be an unparallel experience. 

Outside Lands is hosted from Aug. 9-11 in San Francisco. I have attended this event twice. This short weekend gives me a sense of peace and a yearlong soundtrack. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time in front of the metal grate fences engaging in an unofficial arm wrestle between avid fans. Possibly because these festivals are reminiscent of a freer time, I discover myself erratically swaying to the beat as if I was a modern day Janis Joplin. My outfit is expertly crafted to look as if I spend five minutes getting dressed instead of five days carefully collaborating. Groups sit intertwined together in the grass musing inaudibly. On the off-chance they begin to get too rowdy, someone will shout over the noise, “Shut up! I can’t hear the music.”

I wonder what people will say about this generation of festival lovers, but I figure by this point we won’t be able to hear them.