Festival Snacks

Okay. Festivals are an interesting experience at the best of times. A quick walk through the crowd and you’ll find all sorts of interesting things…

• People dressed up in an array of wacky outfits, ranging from the funny to the bizarre.
• Die hard fans waiting up the front all day, enduring shitty weather and being pushed around by the rest of the crowd just to catch a glimpse of their favourite band(s).
• The occasional idiot trying to work out how to remove his/her own shoe so that they can send said projectile maliciously toward stage, only to realize that their feeble attempt to shorten the set of their least favourite band has left them looking like a hobo and treading the dirty festival grounds in one shoe for the rest of the day.

Then of course, there is always that section of the crowd that think the earlier they start drinking and getting stuck into it, the more fun they will have. This, however, is generally not the case and sees most making an early exit.

So, most bands (and the people in them) playing at festivals have usually had their fair share of experience at these things and should know what to avoid.

Perhaps our most eye-opening incident involved two bands, an early finish, and a bag of “festival snacks”. Now, this is something most of us knew we should avoid at such an early point in the day, yet most of us decided not to.

Sharing a room with another band (who shall remain unnamed) that happen to be our friends is nothing new. Catching up over a couple of drinks and deciding what to do for the rest of the day, again, is nothing out of the ordinary. Not until divvying up and eating the contents of a bag labeled “festival snacks” did things begin to take a turn for the worse. To cut a long story short, many of the band members ended up having to make an early exit.

This was due to reasons varying from, anxiety, tiredness, paranoia, and the general inability to continue functioning as a normal human being in the given environment. I actually had to leave the grounds to go and ‘sleep’ it off before deciding to come back, only to end up leaving again 5 minutes later.

Yet it was the sound guy for the unnamed band, let’s call him Mr. X, who ended up at the top of the scrap-heap. Mr. X first lost all ability to converse with those in the room. Then standing became a challenge. He then managed to throw up within the confines of our band room, the tub containing our rider to be precise, all before practically passing out.

At this point I should mention, we all bounced back a few hours later, but I learned a few valuable lessons:

• The earlier you get stuck into it, the more fun you’ll have is generally still wrong.
• No matter how much experience you’ve had at festivals, you can never stop learning.
• Don’t eat what’s in the bag!!!

Karnivool
January 2010

Karnivool’s record Sound Awake is due out in the states 2/16. Catch them at SXSW and when they’re on tour with Fair To Midland.

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