Festival season is coming around again and with it many a memory to be had. The indie music festival is an interesting place. It started out as a few small festivals across the country. Each festival had its own genre and stuck to it. Over the years, however, as festivals have grown in size and in popularity, festival culture has become much more diverse. Lineups have become more and more similar; the food stands have gone from bad and mediocre to foodie-gourmet; and hipsters have turned from subculture into popular culture.
That’s the beauty of it all; the American indie music festival has become about as diverse as our country. Not only will you see your generic, cookie-cutter hipsters and indie music fiends, but you will also see your fair share of over-the-hill dead heads, hippies, druggies, tree-huggers, partiers, wannabes, and people that “go for the experience.” There are people of every age, size, shape, gender, religion, and orientation. Everyone is there to listen to some good music, have a good time, and enjoy the people watching. That’s it.
We all know that festivals never stopped being cool, but why is it that there was such a large gap between Woodstock and the likes of Lollapalooza? Festivals started to come back with a vengeance around the beginning of the millennium, but it’s not as though anyone ever stopped listening to live music.
As life gets hectic, music libraries get out of date. Many people, like myself, rely on festivals to revamp their libraries and once again feel like a hip, music savvy youth. One of the best parts of a festival is the down time between sets. You get to take a break from the bands you already know and love and wander off on an investigative adventure. Just pick a stage or two at random and you may very well discover your new favorite band.
Over the last fifteen years festivals have become increasingly more successful and accessible. In the past, going to the folky, blue grass centered Bonnaroo over the alt-rock, EDM centered Coachella left a person feeling like they were missing out on something, missing a certain vibe, a certain energy, not to mention missing certain bands.
As the technological revolution in music came about with mp3s and iPods, CD sales began to plummet and it got a whole lot easier for people to get their music fix and not have to pay for it. It has become nearly impossible for non-Top 40 bands to make a living off of record sales. This is driving bands to rely on touring for a living and has made festivals an integral aspect of the American music industry, bringing festivals across the country closer to each other and forcing lineups to overlap.
The thing is, there isn’t a whole lot of money to be had for the smaller bands working the festivals. The market is seasonal, their pay is less than mediocre, and they can’t sell nearly enough merchandise to support themselves. So, why do they do it?
Simply put, the advertising is priceless. Landing a gig like Coachella or Lolla isn’t actually that hard and it ensures that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people will see your name and have the opportunity to see you perform. People are dropping hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to party with you and your peers. Not to mention your band will get free passes and have the privilege of being in the presence of the artists you idolize, the artists who influence you, the artists who inspire you.
by Rachel Cohen
