I was expecting to go this year, but to my surprise I had won tickets from a local radio station at the last minute, so my best friend and I went for both days. I had won my tickets from 94.7 The Globe in case you're wondering. To be quite honest, I had a blast. I went to Sunday last year and had a lot of fun, but I think I had more fun this year. So here is my critique...
I thought the line up was pretty great. The whole entire weekend allowed me to check out more bands than I would even at an hfstival or a warped tour. The distance between the North and South Stages was pretty great by the way. I didn't feel like I walked all day just to see a band or two. By the way, I really loved the overall layout of the festival and I loved the free bike taxi dudes, they were a great help.
I saw the following on Saturday: Catpower, KT Tungstall, Duffy, Rodreigo y Gabriela, Gogol Bordello, The Swell Season, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Offspring, The Silver Beats (who were totally refreshing! and surprising), Chuck Berry and the Foo Fighters. I only wished I could've seen Lupe Fiasco, Wilco, and Underworld. Reason I didn't was because of scheduling conflicts.
I thought the diversity of Saturday was pretty great. Fantastic mix of indie, hip hop, main stream alternative stuff, and some other things.
I loved how the Foo Fighters played for a solid 2 hours and just killed it. I also loved how they were a lot of fun. It felt like a festival gig, but at the same time, they made their set feel like a good concert.
By the way, I thought it was pretty awesome how you got on stage and played drums with Chuck Berry. Now about the Silver Beats, I thought they were a cool twist to the whole evening. I never thought in a million years I would see a tribute band, let alone a really good tribute band. It was so cool how everyone in the crowd was singing along and it reminded me why I loved the Beatles so much as a kid.
My biggest complaint about Saturday was that the dance music tent was really loud, so loud that it bled into the swell season's set, which was a bit sad because they were fantastic. I'm not sure what you could do about that for next year, but I think something should happen for bands that might be all accoustic like that. Now that I think of it, I think the same thing that happened to the swell season, also happened during Rodrigo Y Gabriela's set too.
Aside from the sound overload from the dance tent, I honestly felt the sound on the main stages were fantastic. My kid sister made me promise to her that I would see Paramore and call her during the set. I was up front during their set and she could hear them loud and clear on my little old virgin mobile phone (yeah I use v-mobile from time to time). It impressed how good the sound was, so major kudos to your stage sound dudes.
As for Sunday, I saw BRMC, Shudder to Think, Andrew Bird, Paramore, She & Him, Taking Back Sunday, Iggy and the Stooges, STP, Bob Dylan and NIN. I also saw like a minute or two of Kanye, because my friend wanted to leave early. I thought Sunday was a lot of fun, and had some really great music. It too was an electic line-up. I have to applaud you for getting NIN and Kanye. It was great seeing bands who had incredible light shows and had some headlining command.
My complaints about Sunday is about the scheduling I suppose. First of all, I thought Hollywood Undead were awful. How they beat We Are Scientists is a bit beyond me. I'm saying this because the contest winnners didn't seem to match what I think the actual concert goers would've liked to have seen. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think that contest is a bit off. Okay second thing, it was really difficult trying to figure out who to see when it came to Bob Dylan, STP and Moby. That was for me the sophie's choice of the weekend, but I managed to catch most STP's set and a little bit of Bob Dylan's set. Also, I really don't get why you booked Lil Wayne and had him on right after She & Him. During She & Him's set, all the kids were being rude and trying to get good spots for Lil Wayne. I understand why they wanted a good spot, but it almost ruined my experience of watching She & Him, who I was really there to go see. I even explained to this one kid that most of the people watching the band would probably leave. I also saw something similar to this effect during Bob Dylan, because all these kids wanted to get up close for Kanye. It kinda hurt to see these kids complain about Bob Dylan. (By the way, is it true Kanye was late for his own set becuase he was watching Nine Inch Nails?)
As for other things... I loved the circus family with the trapeeze acts, the sword swallowing, magic shows and other side show acts. My friend and I watched them whenever they were performing and we were passing by. It was a great thing to see in between all of the bands. I really enjoyed the whole carnival feel to the festival with the different foods, booths, the skate park demos (which were really great) and other attractions.
The cooling and refreshing domes were good. I thought it was cool that there was a dome where people could get different hair styles done and even get their phones charged! The shade tents were a blessing, but I think the one near the North Stage could've been much much bigger or there could've been more shade tents! More picnic tables is a good idea too. As for the port-a-poties, a lot of them were disgusting after a while. Also, a lot of them were understocked with toliet paper. I remember Saturday morning using one right after the festival had just opened the gates and the port-a-pot was out of TP already or it didn't have any in there to begin with. So that's totally an area for improvement for next year.
As for the food, I thought most of it was reasonably priced and really good. (Ice cream for 6 bucks is a bit much, especially for good humor stuff so maybe that could change) I grew up with HFStivals and the terrible over priced food that they would have, so please know that the food overall was much better than that. On a similar subject, I do think the non-alcholic beverages such as the raspberry tea, lemonaide and soda could've been a little bit more cheaper like by a buck or two. Also, thank you for allowing water bottles to be taken in. The water spickets were once again a great idea again, but they were harder to find this year. Oh I almost forgot, the lines for food weren't too shabby. I think the one thing that would be great for next year is to be allowed to take in snack type items like crackers and chips and granola bars.
While I didn't like the t-shirts much this year, I really wanted a charcoal shirt because it was different looking than last year's tshirt. Wearing a V-fest shirt at my school (University of MD) is like bragging rights and plus, I collect concert and music festival tshirts that I have attended. Well, last year I was able to get my shirt (which I really loved the design for that actually) on Sunday afternoon. Well, for this year I figured I could do the same. So here I am Sunday afternoon, trying to get a shirt and I couldn't. I went to both merch booths. They had sold out of all the festival tshirts by noon or something like that on Sunday, which was super disappointing. I also thought it was a pain in the butt that I had to walk to both booths to get merch from different bands. I think all the merch should've been at just one big booth in the middle of the festival or something. It would've made finding the different bands' shirts and merch much easier. I really would like to get a tshirt, are any more going to be made? Please let me know!
About traffic...Traffic was really good. Didn't have any problems getting there or getting out, aside from Saturday night this one police officer almost got my friend and I lost with the traffic directions.
As for parking, I do have a question...Why 25 bucks for parking? I'm just curious. Over all, I thought parking was great though. I felt some of the staff could've been more helpful with parking because I have handicap tags, but there was one guy who did an awesome job. Both days we parked in the lot near the south stage, this guy drove around the lot in a golf cart and both days found us really great parking for our needs. I have asthma and can't walk too far of distances in the heat, and his knowledge of handicap parking spots was a great help.
Overall, I can't wait for next year. I'm really tempted into getting VIP tickets for 2009 actually, especially if AC/DC is a possible headliner (wishful thinking I know haha). But seriously, I loved the overall atmosphere. It wasn't a total party like the hfstival used to be. It's more like a musical carnival or a music geek's paradise to quote a friend of mine. Keep up the great work and I look foward to next year! Also, have more tshirts made for next year so I can buy some!
