BUMBERSHOOT (We Are Not Festival Girls)

Labor Day Weekend. 2013.

Attended first music festival.

Sunday morning, I hopped in my best friend's car at 7:30 in the blasted morning and we made our way up to Bumbershoot in Seattle to see some of our favorite bands. I had high hopes, people. Too high. Unfairly high. In my head, we were going to see Tegan and Sara, fun., Mates of State, a forum with the writers of Parks and Rec, Death Cab for Cutie and possibly the tail end of Matt and Kim. SO MUCH MUSIC FOR A MERE $55! We would wander the grounds, eating delicious yum yums, people watching, relaxing in the grass as the music played, WE WOULD BE FESTIVAL GIRLS, DAMMIT! 

we forgot our flower headbands and wore too much clothing, as it turns out

Everything on the interwebz about music festivals is a lie. It's a lie, people. Okay, I'm being dramatic. Here's the conclusion I've drawn: festivals are not the way to see your favorite bands. If I wasn't so attached to seeing my favorite bands, who happened to be the headliners and playing the main stage, it would have been a different experience all together and probably closer to the one I had in my head. But that wasn't the case. There were three bands out of a bajillion thousand playing that day that I HAD to see. Tegan and Sara, fun., and Death Cab. All three headliners playing in an arena that had a capacity. This was the problem. Had they been on a stage outside like the other bands, we would have been able to do our thing on festival grounds wandering booths/food/other music until maybe 30 minutes before these headliners were going on. But because Bumbershoot has their heads up their collective asses changed things a while ago, headliners play in Key Arena. So you have to line up hours before to assure you get inside to see them and don't end up in the nosebleeds. 

As it turns out, we would spend many more hours standing in line than we would listening to music. We did, however, get to see the three bands we came to see, plus Ra Ra Riot who was playing just before Death Cab. We ate greasy chicken strips for lunch while waiting in line for Tegan and Sara at about noon and then were starving by the time we got back in the arena for Death Cab so I waited in line for 40 MINUTES OF MY LIFE for a mother loving burrito only to receive nachos and be too exhausted to even give a hoot. "I actually ordered a burrito...you know what? Nachos are great. Give me the nachos...DO NOT START MAKING ME A BURRITO, KID, HAND OVER THE CHIPS!"

Greasy food and shot expectations aside, the bands we came to see absolutely kicked ass and that's all that really mattered at the end of the day.

tegan and sara

fun. 

death cab for cutie playing Transatlanticism in it's entirety. life changing.

So after waking up at 6am, driving three hours, last show ending at 11:15pm, driving to Kristin's brother's to crash for the night, showering, and finally getting in bed at almost 2am, it made for a near 20 hour day for approximately to see less than 5 hours of music. In short, I'm getting too old for this shit. 

I got to spend the day with my bestie listening to music that speaks to my heart, though. And I mean really, am I seriously complaining that I got to go to a music festival? No. I'm very fortunate to be able to do these kinds of things in my life. This is a mere cautionary tale...if you're over 25, you're going to spend a good part of your day asking, "WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER?!" to the hooligan children roaming the grounds, cutting in lines, shoving you, wearing no clothes and being utterly gross. To be fair, while waiting in line for hours for Death Cab, we did meet three lovely young girls standing behind us who might have restored my faith in the next generation. All in all, glad I went, not sure I'll be back. Bumbershoot, it's been real.

me and one of my best girls, kristin