Post-Festival Blues

LCD Soundsystem on the first night

Today's post is brought to you by my the giant balloon of pain and snot that my head has become — thank you so much, six-foot-four man who blocked my view of the Killers while periodically sneezing in my direction.

I went to the Wayhome music festival in Oro-Medonte from July 21-25 (the festival itself was 3 days but we got there the day before and left the day after). It was my second ever music festival, and the first one I had to camp at because I was there for more than one day (the first one I ever went to was Field Trip which was at Fort York in Toronto last year). It was absolutely incredible and I had such a good time, but let me just say, music festivals are nuts.

I mean honestly I don't really have any complaints other than the general physical discomfort of seeing The Killers on the last night, but damn there were a lot of people there. Food lineups were the worst — not to mention expensive...

I would go further here to make some kind of poetic point about the communal atmosphere of festivals and how incredible music is but I'm way too sick to do much of anything at the moment. As of right now I am eating curry soup and a heroic quantity of rice crackers and trying to pretend that I don't have to go to work this evening. My cold and working are the main reasons I took so long to write about Wayhome, but I also think I just had no idea how I could possibly express it in writing. If you've never been to a music festival, I highly recommend it (obviously they're quite expensive but if you consider the amount of concerts you're technically getting out of it, it's a pretty good deal). I also highly recommend seeing Arcade Fire live — they're not really on tour anymore so that advice is a little late but at the very least listen to some of their music. They are 100% my all time favourite band ever, and seeing them live was, pardon my language, fucking transcendent. They are so good I cannot even use all caps to fully capture how I feel about them holy shitting shit.

I saw a lot of artists/bands, most of them only partially as I went from stage to stage in between the acts that I really wanted to see all of, but the following is my sketchy unofficial list of my top 10 favourite acts:
**Note: this order isn't necessarily reflective of which bands I like the best, it's just a rating of the ones I thought were the best live (of the, admittedly limited, ones I saw)**

1. Arcade Fire

2. LCD Soundsystem

3. Stars

4. The Killers

5. Patrick Watson

6. The Paper Kites

7. Foals

8. Half Moon Run

9. Beirut

10. M83

Honourable mentions:
- A Tribe Called Red, who were amaaaazing but I only got to see for a few songs because they played during the only time I had to get dinner before going to see Arcade Fire.
- Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who were also terrific but I also only saw a few songs from because they played until 1:30am and I was exhausted and standing way too close to one of the speakers which I was pretty sure was going to kill me

AND NOW, PICTURES!!

The only picture I got of Arcade Fire because I spent the whole rest of their set trying not to die because of how good they were

Brandon Flowers of The Killers, while he was singing a cover of I Can't Help Falling in Love With You 

The crowd at Patrick Watson with sparklers during his last song

The Paper Kites <3

So yes, it was incredible, I got to spend time with a bunch of awesome friends of mine and see some stellar performances, and I do not regret a single second of it — even though I got sick.

The worst part, of course, is the week or so after it's over where you're still reeling about how great it was and how sad you are that it's over, but damn I'm glad I went.

Not sure where to from here. I'm hoping to get better soon so I can actually get on track with my whole sorting my life and routine out thing, but that's being put on hold for a bit while I get better. Sometimes the best way to take care of yourself is to let yourself off the hook.

Until next time,

- Ella