Survival of a Punk Rock Festival

  3. When You Get into the Venue, Check Out Everything

            Festivals are always held in huge venues. So once you arrive to the venue you should check out everything. Check out where bands have their merchandise tables, concession stands or food places and where the bands are performing. Mapping out the venue when you first get in can help you find things easier instead of asking the security guards who always try to imitate people for fun.

           The main thing that keeps a lot of bands going now days is the selling of merchandise. You can buy T-shirts, CDs, Live DVDs, and such. This helps them to keep bringing music to the people. Knowing where this merchandise is can help you purchase the good items first. For example like a T-shirt with their band name and logo. Bands usually sell out of the good sizes first, and are stuck with the bigger plus sizes. You don’t want to wait till the festival is over and try to buy shirt that is a 2XL and have to shrink two or three times in the dryer. Personally, I have done this with an Underoath shirt and it wasn’t any fun when I was trying to shrink it.

          Most venues always have some sort of restaurant or concession stands placed around the venue. When you map out the area in your head, you’ll know where to get food. A lot of festivals will last for a whole day, so knowing where you can get a bite to eat can help you refuel for more jamming out. Most venues also have a free water station around their venue as well. So if you don’t want to spend your money on a bottle of water that is $1.50 to $2 dollars per bottle this can help save money for food and more merchandise.
           It’s kind of hard to miss knowing where the bands are performing. After all the roar of the music and the crowd gives it away. What some festivals do though is host smaller bands that come in and do acoustic sets in another part of the venue. This allows festival goers to go and chill out with acoustical performances. You and your friends may get tired, or not like a band that is performing at the moment. With the smaller band sets you and or friends can go chill out and jam to acoustic bands for a while till the next major band takes the main stage.

Survival of a Punk Rock Festival
2. Get to Your Concert Early

            One of the most important things of surviving a Punk Rock Festival is getting to the venue early. This is for several different reasons, such as parking, getting a good standing spot in the crowd, and knows who is performing when. Knowing these things can make your festival more enjoyable.
             Lot of concert venues has huge parking lots like Wal-Mart. We all hate the long walk into the store because we had to park in the very back of the parking lot. With arriving to the venue early you can get a good parking spot and not have what feels like to most is trekking over a million miles. Also never forget to bring 10 to 20 dollars for parking. This is one of the ways that concert venues can hire bands to come and play and also keep their place nice for potentially clientele of concert goers.
            With festivals of any sort of genre, will always draw the biggest crowds you’ll ever see in your life. When it comes to favorite your band you want to get as close the stage as possible for maxim jamming out. Knowing when the venue opens for concert goers to go in will help you and or group you’re going with know when you want to arrive there. Arrive early can help you get a good standing spot to see your band as well as the other bands. Some people at festivals don’t want to stand forever and jam out which is never a bad thing. People who jam out and mosh hardcore always deserve a break. Concert venues will always have a free printed out schedule of who is performing and when as well. You just take one and decide when you want to break for food or whatever.
           Some festivals goers don’t this some of the time but knowing when you favorite band is performing next this can help you. Most festivals will have what is called a set change. This is where a band who has just got done performing will switch out with the next band. They do this by having their road crew come in and tear down their band set from drums, guitar pedals, and etc. Usually this takes about four to five minutes and with this the crowd disperses a little bit allowing you and or group to come and grab a good standing spot to see your favorite band.

Survival of a Punk Rock Festival

1.   Get plenty of sleep

     

     Going to festivals is always an amazing experience for all Punk Rock concert goers. During the few that I went I have developed new ways to make my experience more fun and exciting. I also plan on making sure that I am safe while having a good time. The first thing I would recommend to everyone going to such a festival is that they need plenty of sleep the night before since some festival can last from twelve hours to a couple of days. Trust me you want to be awake to get the most out of a festival.

      An average sleep cycle for adults is 8 hours, and if you are between the ages of 11 – 18, then 9.25 hours is the desired length of sleep time. You need to get all the sleep that you can so you will be wide awake on the road. You do not want to get into accident on your drive there and miss out on what could be one of the best days of your life. This really does happen, nearly 45,000 are killed a year due to falling asleep at the wheel.

      If you are attending with a group of friends, you need to discuss the importance of sleep for many reasons. Sleep deprivation can cause a lot of issues, especially mixed with a lot of nonstop activity and junk food. One person getting ill could ruin everything.

      If the festival lasts more than a day or two, it would be a good idea to find a hotel and get some sleep for a little while when you start to lose your energy. Check into a hotel that is close to the festival as possible. This way you can sleep more and not have to drive back when it is very late at night. This is a good idea especially when you might be drained from jamming for a hot minute.

      Also getting a copy of the entire schedule of bands of who is performing and what time. Lot of concert goers love to check out new bands and figure out when their favorite one is about to perform. By getting a band schedule, you can decide on when to go to be so you can get plenty of sleep for the long day of jamming out. This is a good tip especially if you are at festival this is a couple of days or more.

The last festival I went to was the All Stars Tour festival in Dallas at the Palladium Ballroom. This festival lasted from 12 noon until 12 midnight. My girlfriend and I planned on leaving at 10 in the morning so I chose to pick her up at 9:30. I went to bed early and got plenty of rest the night before the festival and this was out of character for me because I’m usually up playing Xbox or studying. I wanted to follow the advice of one of my professors who once said, “Be awake, aware, and attentive.”  If you take this motto to heart, you will have a more enjoyable experience.  Trust me!  Going to a punk rock festival is worth every minute!