Other people really took the preparation thing way more seriously than I did. They listened to all the bands ahead of time to figure out which ones they wanted to hear, made careful schedules with each act ranked in a priority system, and had playlists built of everything they would likely hear at the festival.
I just showed up figuring I would listen to stuff that sounded good and go find something else if it sounded bad.
My strategy worked fine! I don't care that much about music so just wandering around listening to what seemed good to me was successful. You might wonder why a person that doesn't much care about music would go to a music festival, and the answer is that I wanted to hang out with the people I went with and I wanted to try something new. In the end my response was predictable - I thought the music was fine but no big deal, I quite enjoyed the company, and now I know what a music festival is like.
One thing that greatly surprised me was the amount of trash at the festival. I worked a couple of rock concerts as cleanup crew when I was a teenager and the result of those concerts was disgusting. I recall the floor of the concert hall being slick with goo composed of sweat, beer, piss, and who knows what else. The entire place was filled with sharp, shattered bits of plastic stuck to the floor by that tacky goo and it was revolting, as well as hideously difficult to clean up properly. That disaster was created in only a few hours so I expected a music festival that goes over three days to be much worse. I had images in my head of wading through drifts of trash and dodging puddles of vomit.
It wasn't remotely like that. Hillside is run by a bunch of people with serious environmentalist leanings so all the cutlery and plates were reusable and they had volunteers washing them. Everyone got a mug to use to drink with, and no disposable cups were available. At the end of the three day festival I looked under the tables as saw an average of one piece of trash per table, which is mind boggling coming from my experiences younger in life. I was extremely impressed with the operation, and surprised at what they had accomplished. It takes a lot of organization and will to make this sort of thing happen.
There certainly were people who were drunk and high but it wasn't a problem. Going back to those rock concerts of my youth, I recall drunk men moshing and screaming and trashing everything. It must have been terrifying for some people - I was big enough that it was bizarre but not frightening. But Hillside people displayed their drunkenness by asking lots of questions about my tattoos and being overly friendly before wandering off... hardly a problem.
At one point the sky opened and the rain came thundering down, forcing all the people to huddle under tents to wait it out.
Well, not *all* the people. I just walked out into the rain clad in just my kilt and stood there, arms outstretched, letting the fury of the storm slam into me. I closed my eyes and just stood soaking up the rain, feeling it hammer onto my body. When I opened my eyes I had acquired three disciples who were standing in a row with me matching my stance, enjoying the rain. They told me that they were hiding from the rain and when they saw me revelling in it all they realized I had it right, everyone else had it wrong, and it was time to stand in the rain.
Glorious.
I went barefoot throughout most of the weekend and ended up with a splinter in my foot. A quick trip to the first aid tent sorted that out, and I learned that the first aid tent was mostly a place for people with foot injuries to get help. I guess there are a lot of barefoot hippies like me at this particular festival - no real surprise there.
That photo is great.
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