We spend months and months planning and getting excited about our next festival. Preparing our outfits, listening to playlists and picturing what our experience is going to be like. Then the fated day comes when the set times get released and 9 times out of 10 your heart breaks. All your favorite artists conflict you feel like your world is spinning. You start googling how to clone yourself, so you can be in multiple places at once. Trust me I’ve been there.
If you’ve run into this problem, here’s my best advice for choosing which sets to see at a music festival. Some people say don’t make a schedule it isn’t a big deal, but this is for my Type A people who can’t go with the flow and need a schedule (me included).
When I go through choosing what sets to see here is what I think about:
Have I seen the artist before?
I’ve been going to events since 2015 so I’ve seen a lot of artists in my time. More times than not I will go see an artist I’ve never seen before that I’ve been wanting to. This could be someone that’s been around forever that I still have never seen (Swedish House Mafia, Disclosure, Daft Punk) or someone that’s an up and comer. When I’ve seen an artist a ton of times or a similar genre, the sets can start to sound the same. I like to see new and exciting up and coming talent because they’re challenging the status quo.
If I have seen them before, when was the last time I saw them?
If I had seen an artist more recently, their set might be very similar to what I just saw. It might’ve been the best set ever, but if it’s going to be the exact same it’s not going to give me that same feeling I felt seeing it for the first time.
If I have seen them before, are they debuting a new set/album/music?
Illenium is a good example of this where he’s had two different sets from the same album, Awake. He had Awake tour set then Awake 2.0. Sometimes artists will tweet or post on social media if they’ll be doing a new set or debuting new music, so I try to keep my eyes peeled for announcements like that.
Will I get another chance to see them?
If I have multiple festivals in a year, I’ll compare lineups for if an artist might be at another festival I’ll be at. This makes it easier for me for if I don’t get to see them then the next festival is like a second chance. I’ll also check their tour schedule in case they’ll be coming through to Austin anytime soon.
Are the set times offset?
If I’m conflicted between two sets, I’ll look at what times they start or end at. If one starts earlier and the other ends later, I’ll try and catch both.
When in doubt, split the set.
Some people are against this, but if after going through all those steps listed above I still can’t decide. I’ll split the set.
All in all, don’t STRESS. Some of the best times were when I didn’t stick to my schedule. Go with the flow you never know what may happen. You can create a schedule but don’t get married to the idea.
