This weekend the Download Festival plays host to some of the best bands on the planet:
- ACDC
- Them Crooked Vultures
- Rage Against The Machine
- Megadeth
- Aerosmith
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Motorhead
- Saxon
- Bullet For My Valentine
- Stone Sour
- Killswitch Engage
- Lamb of God
- Five Finger Death Punch
- Atreyu
I've attended only two large music festivals and they were over ten years ago now, infact the Phoenix Festival as it was called only ran for something like 3 years. It did attract a lot of good bands though and I saw some great music. The experience has stayed with me. The first time I went with a friend and stayed in a motel nearby, driving to the site each day. The second time I went, it was alone and I took my tent and camped. It was quite a solitary experience, which was weird with so many other people around. The thing is, when you go to an event like a festival, you see people who are living the alternative lifestyle more than I ever could as someone with a job and responsibilities. You see people who have really long hair, tattoos, piercings, druggie trappings, wearing clothes that look like something out of the Mad Max films. They wear the badge of office: the signs indicate that they are of another class - a class I feel affinity with yet somehow a class I both aspire to and paradoxically one I also look down on. If I bought a death metal band T-shirt it would feel odd and I'd feel awkward and out of place. Even though, I might really enjoy listening to that music on my iPod. I also know that a proportion of those people attending have responsible jobs and families and go as large family groups - I miss that, I would love to take my family to a festival with a group of other families who also like rock music but the truth is my wife has made more social connections than me with other families - I talk to other daddies but they aren't interested in rock music and film and videogames like I am. My wife isn't interested in those things either and there's a limit to how much I can indulge my liking for those things in a family environment. I'd like to know of a club or community for other adults in my situation, does one exist?
2 comments:
What a great line-up!
I hear exactly what you are saying. In my mind, in my preferences, I would be like an old hippie or something. But really, I have had kids, a family, since I was 22 years old. So I haven't fit into that world.
LB: In our hearts we can be what we want!
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