Southside Music Festival: January in June

 

What can I say. I’ve never seen anything like it. Imagine 50,000 people, if you can, packed into a refugee camp on an abandoned air strip. Then, pop random hundreds of porta-potties, fair food stands, and huge stages packed with all day long obliteratingly loud bands. Then, down pouring rain resulting in literally 6-8 inches of mud EVERYWHERE with a touch of winter, and you have Southside Music Festival.

I’m totally glad I did it, but was certainly not expecting the frigid wet weather I had to endure! It’s June, yet I could literally see my breath for the better part of the concert festival. In fact, it was so cold and miserable that four out of the seven of us that went as a group (taking two separate rental cars) returned before the festival even ended, although we all feel as though we got our money’s worth even without seeing the final bands.

I got back to Trier from Rome around mid-day on Thursday the 16^th, and by 5pm we were on the road for the four hour drive to the site of the festival near Stutgart, Germany. Talk about a quick turn around! It was slightly complicated by the fact that the rental car agency, whose agent spoke no English, would not accept my Georgia driver’s license due to its issue date showing last October. I could not convince the lady that the issue date simply meant that was when the piece of plastic that was my new license was issued and that I had been driving for seven years plus, but no matter; one of the Californians I went with took the wheel, saving me from driving.

After waiting in line to park for 45 minutes, then close to an hour just to be admitted to the festival, we met our friends (already there) and, as we did over the next two nights, camped in a huge tent a British friend of ours (also attending and in charge of organizing the event for us) got on eBay the week before. It certainly was close quarters, dirty, and cold most of the time… but fun nonetheless!

I won’t bother naming all the bands I saw, but I must say… seeing the Foo Fighters in action for the first time, even if it was in the rain, was AWESOME. Sublime was my other favorite over the course of the three day festival.

The festival had four separate stages going on simultaneously, each with different lineups. It was neat to have so many bands in one place, but I must say: I prefer buying tickets to a dedicated concert with bands I know for a day rather than hit-and-miss bands I may or may not have heard of. Even so, considering a ticket was 125 Euros for the 3 day festival, camping and parking included, I’d say it was worth it. 

If only the weather had cooperated.

There’s really not much else to say. I was so cold most of the  time, being wet and without a jacket (it’s June, after all), that I didn’t even feel like drinking at ALL Saturday or Sunday. That’s saying a lot, especially considering everyone around me was good and toasted the whole time. After all, what else is a German music festival for?

But, as I said, it was awesome nonetheless.

Upon my return to Trier, thoroughly tired, I did laundry (long overdue), then was up bright and early for classes Monday morning. Fun fun! I somehow managed to lose the student card I had been using for the bus and laundry (hey, the dude looked somewhat like me, and I had lost my own card weeks ago) as well as my keys, so after a short night at Zapotex (a nearby pub), I slept on the couch in the TV room of Martinskloster.

Luckily, I found my keys this morning, and was able to finally order a new Tunica (student card) after fighting through my terrible German with the secretaries who spoke little English at the university. They were quite sweet!

So, two classes today and beyond, I find myself sitting almost in Paris. I’ve caught up on the better part of the travels I wanted to discuss, so I feel quite productive!

Seven or so of us are on this trip, including my West Virginian friend from my Rome trip along with a Hungarian, Bulgarian, two Turks, a German, and two Japanese. We’ll see what Paris has to offer… we have roughly 3 days here, longer than any other city I’ve visited! And, promptly upon our return this Saturday the 25^th of June, we go straight to class for a weekend “block seminar” on creativity. It only meets four times the whole semester, so our Saturday and Sunday this weekend will be consumed by 6 hour classes directly after a trip to Paris. 

Hey, you only live once, right?

So, for now, Aurevoir!