Firefly

In my drafts folder I discovered this unpublished blog post from last summer documenting Firefly music festival. I can't believe this was a year ago! Four days of music definitely had it's ups and downs. The days were long and hot, but the music was so good! Among my top were some of my old school favorites like Weezer and Third Eye Blind. Of course, I also enjoyed bands I had only heard a couple songs by that totally rocked it — Cage the Elephant, Young the Giant, City and Colour and of course the major headliners: the Lumineers, Imagine Dragons, Outkast and the Foo Fighters. I've been to camping music festivals before and this time around I was determined to see as many bands as I could. When going with a big group, it's often hard to get everyone to agree on which bands to see, so I often found myself going off alone to sit in the back of bands like Ziggy Marley, Vance Joy and Shakey Graves. Music festivals are always a marathon of trying to see as much as you can while not getting too tired or dehydrated. While seeing bands alone, I would often put my backpack under my head, close my eyes and enjoy the music blaring from the speakers, taking these low-key performances as my breaks in between dancing and pushing my way through the crowds of the bigger shows.

Earlier this summer I went to the Gentleman of the Road stopover in Seaside Heights. A couple friends and I rented a houseboat through Airbnb complete with ocean kayaks (we crammed four people into two one-person kayaks). Over two days we saw the Alabama Shakes, Jenny Lewis, the Flaming Lips, and Mumford and Sons. The stage was set up right on the beach and it was the perfect venue to be able to dance around in the sand and look up to see all the rides just beyond the stage. Up next? Made in America right here in Philadelphia next weekend and after that I'm headed to Washington, D.C. for Landmark Music Festival!