Another festival season has come and gone and what have we learned?

It’s that time of year again. 

We all feel a little less excited than we did three months ago. Some of us aren't as quick-on-the-draw as we were back in May. A few of us look a little lighter, the one-meal-a-day diet slowly starting to pay off. For others, fall brings with it a heavier look, those early morning "beers for breakfast" adding a little cozy cushion around the belly. 

Either way, whoever you are and however you look, you know the time has come to kiss this summer goodbye.

As the sun begins to set on an easier, often-times happier lifestyle, we see the ending of our beloved festival season as well. Sure, there will be shows throughout the year, but it just won’t be the same. For me, summer festivals are inherently better. I feed off the sunshine; I live for the cool breezes and the warm night skies. Being outside is better in every respect. I’d fight a million mosquitoes and suffer through that many more sunburns if it meant another night of dancing in the great outdoors.

My festival season started in June. I hit the ground running, choosing Las Vegas's EDC as my launching point (also making it my second time at that particular festival). It was a trip built by fate, luck and spontaneity, all of which helped contribute to it being my best time yet. I met a generous stranger on a Monday night at work who offered up a free VIP pass. On Tuesday, I had amazing coworkers help cover my shifts and by Wednesday I had found hotel accommodations with great new friends. By Thursday morning (with a backpack loaded with shorts, shoes and shades) I made my way to the city of sin.

You know, we spend a lot of time preparing for these things. For women especially, we work on costumes for weeks. We pour over every intricate detail, comparing ideas and designs. For us, an event like EDC can take months upon months of elaborate planning. So for me, taking off to Vegas with less than a weeks notice left me feeling hopelessly unprepared. No outfits planned, no flowers glued, no jewels sewn.

I think that’s the magic of spontaneity however – the less prepared you are the less expectations you hold. With this, comes a greater allowance for fun and adventure. I went in with no preconceived idea of what my trip would entail; I didn't plan a schedule for show times, I didn't run around trying to catch every person I thought might be important. I let myself enjoy new sounds, new performers and allowed myself to mellow in the relaxation of ‘going with the flow.’

Next on the agenda: Boonstock. Looking back at that weekend, what I think made it so great were all the beauties I got to spend it with. Every single individual brought something amazing to that party. It was a perfect blend of new friends and old, each person brimming with charisma and personality. For me, Boonstock was a reminder that it doesn't really matter where you are sometimes, its WHO you're with that makes any time worth having. 

Center of Gravity (COG) and Shambhala were the two festivals I chose to end my season with. Rainbows and butterflies aside, COG will go down as one of the most poorly organized parties I've ever attended. Line ups were long and finding direction from staff was next to impossible. The sound quality was miserable; I think at one point during Kaskade’s set I heard one of the hundreds of under-aged children roaming the grounds flush their porter potty, 30 feet away. 

They must have saved thousands of dollars on production – give me 30 bucks, some glowsticks and a cardboard box and I could probably mirror their stage in my own backyard. It’s got to be pretty difficult to mess up a festival that’s in the heart of such an incredible city like Kelowna, but somehow it was done. I will go on the record and say that in no way, shape or form do I recommend Center of Gravity to any of my friends. That being said, a time was had and once again it was because I surrounded myself with the absolute best people and was able to enjoy their company all weekend long.

I could speak on Shambhala for hours but I’ll leave it at this: there aren't a lot of places left in this world where you can live as freely as you do within the confines of that festival. Love is unreservedly exchanged, generosity (the kind without expected reimbursement) is easily given and all of that is felt within a landscape that mirrors the unquestionable beauty of our natural earth. I do believe there are cons to Shambhala (as there are with ANY festival) and I do believe that some of us have a hard time acknowledging those negatives....but I will always walk away from my time in the Fractal Forest feeling blessed to have been apart of something so great.

So, as I stop and reflect on everything I've done this summer; every light show, bass drop, fist pump and airplane glide I think to myself…..what did I learn this year? What did I take from all of this? And most importantly, what will I remember for next year?

These are just some  of the thoughts I came up with.

1. Do your research

We all watch those festival promotional videos and imagine ourselves feeling the advertised euphoria. But everyone needs to stop and take a quick second before they buy their summer tickets. Take a second and ask yourself a few questions. What is it that you hope to gain from your festival experience this season? What are your likes and dislikes? What's your comfort bubble and how far are you willing to stop outside of it?

The experience you have at a place like EDC is on the opposite end of a completely different spectrum than the experience you will have at Shambhala. Some of us aren't cut out for camping - two hour sleeps in 35 degree tents are not for the faint of heart. 

You might be the festival soldier that needs to be able to order room service after a night of dancing. You might be the girl that lost her shoes in Shambhala's Village on Wednesday night and didn't realize until Friday. What one person needs to have a good time will never be exactly the same as someone else's requirements and that's OK. Do your research, ask your friends, get online and look things up. Buying a ticket because all your friends bought their tickets doesn't ensure you a good time anywhere. 

The number one disservice you can do to yourself is to not own up to what you like, what you dislike and what you're looking to get from an experience. If you don't like camping, find a festival in a city with lots of nice hotels. If you need to shower, find a festival that makes that easy. There's more festivals than there are cities, so finding something perfectly suited for your specific needs is not difficult. You can have a spiritual experience with music anywhere; in your car during rush hour, in your tub with a loofah or in the middle of a Wendy's line up, waiting for your JBC....anyone that says otherwise is just being a snob.

And most importantly, you need to be self-reliant. We're all going to be first timers at one point or another and again, that's fine. A lot of enjoyment for a veteran raver comes from the sharing of their knowledge and advice. However, you have to be able to supply yourself with the essentials; a good head space, a willingness for new experiences and the capability to have your own back out there. 

There are mentors but there are NO babysitters.

2. There’s still real life after the weekend ends.

When you walk into a festival it’s kind of like you get to play pretend for a few days. I've been saying this since my first Shambhala and its truer now than ever before. One of the most compelling and wonderful elements of festival life is one’s ability to be their weirdest self in a make-believe, fantasy world.

When we slide our costumes on - be it the animal ears or fuzzy boots, the plastic kandi’s and the flashing masks - we enter a world that’s make believe. But as fun as that is, there’s something we can’t forget. There is a world outside of those festival grounds, one of which we are all apart of. The actions we take within those gates will have real consequences outside of them.  

We all have to go back to work on Monday, we all have families who love us and friends who care about us. We’re all good at something and we ALL have dreams for a future. All of these facts don’t just disappear when we step into a massive. Every action has a reaction, regardless of where you are.  Keep that in mind and party responsibly. People care about you and its selfish and reckless to act otherwise. 

3. Nobody's perfect. 

After Electric Zoo a few weekends back, everybody's got something to say. DJ's are shocked and appalled people are getting high at their shows. Everyone's preaching about the music being enough and the atrocities of drug and alcohol abuse. The hypocrisy runs rampant. 

Let me just say this: not one of us is perfect. 99% of us at one point in our lives have been curious about drugs and the powerful effect they can have when paired with music. In the end, it doesn't matter if its a 15-year veteran raver or a 17-year-old, impressionable young girl whose friends all just dropped and now its her turn - it someone sells you rat poison masquerading it as Molly, you're going to die. Playing the blame game doesn't get us anywhere. Nobodies without mistakes (myself included) and people need to stop acting like they are.

Be smart. Most shady drug dealers trying to pass their garbage off on you don't give two shits about what happens after they walk away.  Don't let drugs become a vice and never let listening to music sober become an uncomfortable, foreign feeling. That's when somethings wrong. 

4. Have someone’s back out there

When you step into a festival, show, concert or even just another Boodang massive, you are not only responsible for yourself but for everyone that’s dancing beside you. Too many times now I've seen someone go down beside me and the party just rages on.

People dance over collapsed bodies, friends move their shuffle circles to the side and some even turn their back as to not ruin the sweet vibe they've got going on. We’re all in this together and the time for staring blankly at a fallen comrade is over. 

I appreciate the fact that seeing someone collapse, for whatever reason, is overwhelming. Especially when it’s someone you know. I appreciate that for most of us, it’s frustrating seeing someone not know or understand their limits and take it too far. No one wants their evening ruined or their night ended early by some stranger who acted irresponsibly and put their life on the line for a “good time.” But in the end, we’re all in this together. If we don't have one another's backs out there, who will?

5. Water should be the most important and valued part of your festival gear. 

Water should be free. Plain and simple. The reality of our current environment however dictates that this will never be. In fact, I foresee a day where 10, 12, even 15 dollar water bottles will be the norm for any given music festival. So instead, we as attendee's need to make sure a budget for water is a priority. If you have X amount of funds for your ticket, flight, accommodations  party supplies, costumes, food, taxis and the like, then you had better make sure have cash for water. 

H20 is your lifeline. It's what keeps you going after three straight, 16-hour days of dancing. Water keeps your muscles moving, your brain thinking and your heart pumping. It keeps you sane in crowds of thousands on 30 degree days. It helps calm your nerves when you've lost your dance family and suddenly find yourself cruising around alone. 

Water keeps you alive, it keeps you well and it keeps you happy. If you have enough money for every other item you consider a key ingredient in your festival weekend, then you have enough money for water. Make sure you, your friends and the sweaty guy in front of you are all staying hydrated. 

I know we've all had googly-eyed, half staggering rave monsters walk up to us in the crowd, hands outstretched, asking for "just a sip" from our personal water bottle. Some of us have even been those zombies. You don't have to share your hydration with every random stranger that comes stumbling your way, but you can definitely point out the nearest watering hole. And if someone beside you looks like they may not make the journey, make it for them. 

6. Be the person who thinks about tomorrow's smile rather than today's laugh. 

A quote from an article Wade Davis just wrote, following those two deaths at Electric Zoo. A quote I appreciated a lot after reading it. He's making reference to two events that, after being snapped by cell phones, immediately went viral: the girl who blindly humped that poor, unsuspecting tree two Ultra's ago and the two pre-teens caught pelvic thrusting one another on Ultra's final night this past March. 

What Davis so aptly put is that that girl humping the tree eventually needs to find a job one day. That little girl who let her prepubescent boyfriend take her pants off in the middle of the festival grounds, with hundreds upon thousands of people scattered around will eventually grow up and start a family. And although we've all heard the stories - the ones where someone's past transgressions come back to haunt them online - no one really things that that person will be them. But the reality is it can and will be. 

This summer I saw pictures on my Facebook of kids face down in  sand piles, garbage hills and lawn chairs. I saw videos of jaw-clenched, pupil-less maniacs cruising the grounds of festivals all over the world. It's gross, its not funny and its potentially detrimental to these people's futures. 

Not only should these individuals figure it out, the dickheads snapping videos need to as well. Stuff like this not only threatens someone's future but it threatens their emotional and mental stability in the present. Your laugh today may irrevocably ruin the smile of that person tomorrow, and that in my opinion is fucked up.

7. Let the haters hate while you go out there and have a good time

A bunch of people say it's cool to 'Get Weird,' so everyone does, but the moment someone gets a little too weird, no one's got their back.  

A bunch of people like to run that trap, so a hundred other people decided their going to like it too. Apparently it's not cool to listen to trance anymore, or so I've been told. So I've been faced with the choice of either hiding my love for 140 BPM or opening myself to public shaming from my peers. 

There's a shit pile of hypocrisy in our scene and we're all guilty of perpetuating the bullshit. This is what I think: 

- Love what you love. If you love brapping imaginary guns and kickstepping to heavy bass than love that. If you love putting your heart-hands in the air to slow, progressive melodies than by all means, love that. Recognize your likes and dislikes and once you do, treat others choices with taste and RESPECT. Music is power, regardless of genre. 

- Understand that a good time can be had almost anywhere with the right attitude and right friends. I might not enjoy trap music, but some of the best times I had this summer were with good friends, circle-shuffling to DJ's like Excision and Datsik. 

- Treat others how you'd like to be treated. We all know what it's like to be dying of thirst, separated from our friends or feeling a little too weird at the wrong time. I'm pretty sure most of us watched the video of that girl humping the tree at Ultra and thought "thank GOD that wasn't me." And if its the one time you make a bad choice and end up hitting the ground, there isn't a doubt in my mind that you wouldn't want someone to come to your rescue. Prohibition doesn't solve anything and pretending drug use doesn't exist doesn't work either. If we don't start being honest, people will keep buying into the bullshit and more people will keep dying at the festivals we love. 

Anyways, these are just my opinions. I really love to party and I really love to travel. And above everything else I really love music. It makes me who I am. Festivals have been a way for me to combine all of these things into one and in doing so I've met some of the greatest people in the world. 

I'm starting to get a little older and the priorities I hold for the money I make are slowly changing. But know this - I'll never stop listening to live music and I'll never stop seeing the world in order to do so. So regardless of how old I get, how much the scene changes and who changes with it, I'm going to keep doing what I love the most, and that my friends, is dancing.