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.