Life is Beautiful 2018 Review

By Jordan Hewlett (Follow her @jorrdychristina on Twitter & Instagram)

The Vibe

To anyone who has never been to a music festival, Life is Beautiful is the perfect one to lose your festival virginity to. Life is Beautiful is a three-day festival that takes over pretty much all Downtown Las Vegas. From the colorful artwork to the diverse lineup, to inspirational messages literally everywhere you turn, Life is Beautiful truly makes anyone who walks through the festival gates feel beautiful and invincible for the whole weekend. I had the pleasure of experiencing my second Life is Beautiful with three of my best friends and my younger sister.

Planning

After attending Life Is Beautiful last year, I knew that I had to go back and do it all over again. As soon as the line-up was released, I texted all my friends who I knew would be down for this crazy, eventful weekend and began to plan for it. My group included myself, 3 of my best friends, and I occasionally met up with my younger sister who was off experiencing the festival with her own group of friends. My family lives in Vegas, so we had  the luxury of not having to pay for a place to stay, which was great because nothing feels better than your own bed. Since the festival is in Vegas, there are  plenty of places to stay from hotels to Airbnb’s; just make sure you book ahead. We also opted to do the park and ride, so we wouldn’t have to deal with traffic from the festival. Completely worth it! The shuttle would run every 10 minutes and dropped us off right outside the gates to begin our beautiful weekend.

Day 1

Day 1, where the chaos of the weekend begins. The line for tickets and security moved way faster than I expected and faster than last year’s first day, which was a huge plus for me. For day 1, I decided to wear a black and grey pin striped dress, vans,

lots of glitter and of course had to have my 2.0L Vibedration backpack.  After being scanned in, we booked it to the Fremont stage, also known as the “rave cave” being as that’s where most of the DJs would be performing.  On day 1, we managed to see Young Bombs, Two Feet, Elohim, French Montana, Chvrches, DVBBS, What So Not, Daniel Caesar, The Weeknd, and RL Grime it was a long but worth it day 1. My favorite sets of day 1 includes:

• DVBBS: I was not expecting to love this set as much as I did, but it was one of the best sets I have ever heard. Everyone’s energy was on another level. I don’t think I ever stopped dancing throughout this set.
• The Weeknd: He is so good live, 10/10 recommend seeing him in concert. He will put you in your feels then have you wanting to party by the next song.
• Daniel Caesar: If you have ever heard a song by him, he sounds exactly like that live and it was truly unreal. My whole body had chills from how good his set was.

Day 2

I raced into day 2 with my speed racer bodysuit from iHeartRaves, black shorts, and again my vibedration backpack. Day 2 was probably the day I was most excited for because I was getting to see so many of my favorite artist such as Chet Porter, Party Favor, Miguel, Alison Wonderland, Galantis, and Travis Scott. I had never seen any of these artists live before, so I was fangirling very hard for all of them. The energy of day 2 was even better than day 1 which was incredible to see so many people having the time of their lives. My favorite sets for day 2 were

• Chet Porter: I only knew a few songs by him but decided I would still go and check it out and boy, I’m glad I did. I sang my heart out to pretty much every song he played which started my day 2 off on a great note.
• Party Favor: killed me and then brought me back to life. I don’t think there was a single person in the crowd standing still. SUCH A GOOD SET I can’t even put it into words.
• Galantis: One of my favorite duos to listen to and now watch perform. You could see the passion in their set of how they interacted with the crowd and enjoyed every minute being up there. Plus, a great visual which is always a plus.

Day 3

Finally, day 3 of the festival undoubtedly felt like we had been in Vegas for a week. Any 3-day festival will take a toll on you, but we knew that we could muster up the strength to conquer our final day. For day 3 I wore a lace white bodysuit and jean shorts keeping it casual for the last day. Day 3 we decided we really need to take advantage of all the dope food vendors such as After’s; a doughnut filled with ice cream (Phenomenal), King’s Sausage; a gourmet hot dog place (which you can never go wrong with) and Little Fatty’s; Taiwanese food (sooo good).  The artists we saw on day 3 included Graves, Bastille, Sofi Tukker, Slushii, Odesza, and Blackbear. This is probably the hardest day to pick my favorites just because I had so much fun at every single set but here it goes. My favorite sets of day 3 are

• Graves: for me I think graves is very underrated but should not be slept on. This was the biggest show he had ever played but you could tell he loved every minute of his time and so did the crowd.
• Slushii: let me start by saying that Slushii was not on the original line up, but due to something happening with another artist he was a surprise that we found out 4 hours before the time slot. BEST SURPRISE EVER. My group was on the rail and I’m pretty sure we all needed neck braces after the fact. It was so last minute, but he absolutely killed it and I’m so happy I got to see him for a second time.
• Odesza: I saw them in April and this was even better than that. Their stage production was absolutely everything. They brought out so many of their featured artists which was pretty dope. I love everything about Odesza and if you ever get the chance to see them do it, it’s magical to say the least.

That’s a wrap on my Life is Beautiful 2018 weekend. I wish I could do it all over again, but I’ll just have to wait until next year.

Advice

If you have ever wanted to go to Life Is Beautiful or any music festival at all, my advice is 100% do it. Spend the money, you can always make more but don’t miss out on the memories that will last you a lifetime. If you put in your all and surround yourself with amazing people, it will be so incredibly rewarding. You will fall in love with artists that you have loved for a lifetime and artists you have never heard of until they walk out onto the stage.