The Magic of Music Festivals

Even though we live in a world where you can stream any song you want anytime you want, sometimes what you really crave is a real-life experience.

“Magic may be a weird word,” says Melinda O’Connell, “but there’s something electric about people coming together, all to listen to music. Everyone loves everyone.” She’s not alone in feeling that: According to a survey of music-festival fans, 80 percent said going to festivals gives them a sense of connection and community.

This year, Melinda, 64, will have attended five festivals (and about 10 other concerts).

There are two aspects to festivals, she says. “There’s the good show – and it’s always good music,” she explains, “and there’s the good experience.”  People don’t know, she says, how easy it is to have a good experience at a music festival.

She has been doing this for the last 10 years because she has found that music has a more profound impact on her than just fun.

Eleven years ago, Melinda’s younger son, Brendan, died suddenly at the age of 17.

“Music helps keep me going,” she says simply. “I needed music.”

Research into the effect of music supports Melinda’s experience. In one study of people receiving bereavement counselling, 95 percent reported that music helped them with their grief. Music, particularly live music, soothes preemie babies in neonatal intensive care units. They sleep better, eat better, and their physical signs of stress (such as blood pressure and heart rate) are lower. By the way, those physical signs of stress are lower in their parents as well. And music reaches so deeply into our memories that sometimes patients with late-stage Alzheimer’s who have lost the ability to communicate can still sing the lyrics when they hear a song from their childhood.

You know that tingle down your spine you feel when you hear particularly beautiful music? That’s the music flooding your brain with dopamine.

Sometimes the feelings stirred can be cathartic. Buzz editor Joni Hoffman remembers a moving moment at Sea.Hear.Now, an oceanside music festival in Asbury Park, NJ, as legend Stevie Nicks performed the classic song Landslide (“Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’/‘Cause I’ve built my life around you/But time makes you bolder/Children get older/And I’m getting older too”). “I was crying,” she remembers. “Everyone around me was crying happy tears. Literally, live music, being there, does something to you.”

Music is so linked to our memories and emotions that music therapists speculate it gives us a safe space to process our deepest emotions and, as one put it, “tame the overwhelming.”

“I probably cry at every single concert I go to,” says Melinda. “I’ll be teary for 10 or 20 minutes, and then I’m okay.”

Janvi and Hina Pandya, Namrata Khotari, Renu Roy, and Nirja Aiyer at Austin City Limits.

And of course, music festivals are fun, fans say.

“Who doesn’t have fun at a music festival?” asks Seema Mir, 44, who has been going to ACL pretty much every October since 2008.

Me, maybe? I haven’t been to a festival in years.

Perhaps I am becoming a party-pooper as I age. (Here my smart-aleck husband would interject, “Becoming?”) These days, when I see an advertisement for a music festival, one part of me is noting all the bands I want to see, but I also think, “It’s going to be hot, and crowded, the parking will be impossible, there will be lines everywhere, and don’t forget, the bathrooms will be porta-potties.”

Melinda loves music festivals. 

“You’re listening to good music while you watch the sun set,” she says. “You get to be outside in a pretty place. It’s a chance to act silly.”

What are music festivals? They are events, usually held outside, featuring several musical acts. Some festivals feature more than 100 different performers, from the very famous (Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Coldplay, Willie Nelson, Foo Fighters) to the (as yet) not-well-known, performing on different stages. Other festivals are smaller. One of Melinda’s favorites is the Cherokee Creek Music Festival, held in May on a private ranch outside the town of Cherokee, Texas (population 200), near Llano. Attendees can camp onsite; the musicians stay right on the ranch. “Kids can run around; you can walk; you can fish,” says Melinda. “It’s so easy and fun.”

Some festivals focus on a particular genre of music; others present a wide range. They are often multi-day affairs; some are scheduled for a couple of consecutive weekends.

Music festivals have become increasingly popular. According to Music Festival Wizard, there will be 310 in the United States this year. According to Nielsen Music, 23 percent of the U.S. population attended a music festival in 2018. In consumer surveys, people are increasingly reporting that they prefer buying experiences over things. Also, the business model for the music industry has changed. Since the early 2000s, with the advent of streaming services, musicians don’t make their living from selling records or CDs anymore. Now, the bulk of musical groups’ income comes from performing and touring.

Festivals attract all ages. When Melinda and her friend, Karen Burns, 66, went to the Telluride Jazz Fest, they met an 80-year-old couple going to their first music festival (who were having such a good time, they plan on attending more) and a young family attending with their 1-year-old. (The baby wore ear protection.) Joni Hoffman said she had no idea how much she would love the music festival experience, especially at her age (her first music festival was ACL in 2019, at age 58). She’s since attended several festivals.

Festival attendees seem to fall into two camps. There are those who love to get right up front. That would be Melinda. “I like to stand and to dance and to be close. Sometimes you can hear the performers talk amongst themselves; sometimes they talk to the audience,” she says. Others, like Karen, like to hang back. “I like to sit down, be comfortable with my vodka tonic, and not be jostled,” she says. “There are people who will dance and really let go, and there are people who will sit and bob their heads, and the sitters are getting just as much out of it as the dancers.”

A few music festivals have been the sites of horrendous tragedy, such as the Astroworld Festival here in Houston in 2021, where 10 people were killed in a “crowd crush,” and the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2017, in which 60 were killed and approximately 867 injured.

Hence, all the rules and security measures at well-run festivals. Hina Pandya and her family have gone to ACL every year since 2015. She, like other attendees, says she has never felt unsafe there. “The lines can get pretty long, but that never bothers me,” she says. “I feel good that they are being so thorough. Security is pretty tight; they examine everything.”

Despite a rainy day, Melinda O'Connell, Karen Burns, Jan Cobden, and Dana Townsend are all smiles at Telluride Jazz Festival.

Tips from Festivalgoers 

Make your plans early. Tickets do sell out. And so do hotel rooms near the festival.

Though it may be more expensive, many veteran festivalgoers opt to stay at hotels or Airbnbs within walking distance. That way, they don’t have to deal with parking or with ride-share companies, given that cell-phone reception may be jammed and Uber will probably institute surge pricing because of the crowds.

For ACL, Seema points out, some hotels, like The W and The Four Seasons, are where the performers stay, so the chance to see some of them might be a factor when deciding where you’ll stay. One year, Seema got to take a picture with LL Cool J at one of the hotels.

Review a festival’s rules on its website. Often, any bag you carry must be clear and limited in size, for example, and most often, outside food and drink are not allowed. But do bring a refillable water bottle. 

Then there’s the question of what kind of tickets to buy. Tickets range from general admission all the way up to VIP and Platinum packages, which can cost thousands of dollars per person and can include amenities such as complimentary dining, an open bar, even on-site complimentary salon services and chauffeured golf carts to bring you to reserved space at the front of the stage. Consider what you can and cannot live without. Melinda says her sweet spot for festival tickets is General Admissions Plus. “They have some perks but are not the ‘perkiest,’” she explains. “I want air-conditioned bathrooms.” 

It helps to have a plan for the festival itself. Festivals release their line-ups ahead of time. You can see when and where the bands you know you want to see are playing and plan accordingly, although you might still be conflicted on which performances to watch. Seema once split her time between watching Haim and Young the Giant because both were performing on different stages in the same time slot.

A large part of the fun of a music festival is discovering new bands. When you get the line-up ahead of time, you can stream the music of bands you don’t know and decide who you want to see of them as well. 

Many music festivals have their own phone apps. Seema has used the one for ACL. “You tap the bands you want to see and it will auto-generate a schedule for you,” she says.

At the festival itself, people tend to bring lawn chairs and blankets to sit on, and they establish their “base camp.” Surprisingly, these chairs and blankets, though maybe not valuables like your wallet or phone, can generally be left unattended without problem, these veteran festivalgoers say. “Music festivals are a trustworthy type of climate,” says Melinda.

Try to travel light, though. Seema doesn’t bring chairs, just a waterproof tarp she got at a camping store that folds up to the size of a rain poncho and fits in her small backpack.

Wear comfortable, weather-appropriate clothes and comfortable shoes, “with closed toes,” suggests Hina Pandya, for when you are walking near the porta-potties. (Yikes.)

For Hina and her family, ACL has become a family tradition. Pro-tip from Hina’s two daughters, Janvi and Shivani, both alumna of the University of Texas, Austin: Check the football schedule. The weekend of a big game will be less crowded.

And still, things will not always go according to plan. When Karen, Melinda, and their friends went to the Telluride Jazz Festival in 2022, thunderstorms rolled through on two of the days. “We sat in our chairs, pulled our tarp over ourselves, opened our umbrellas, and put on our hats,” says Karen. Likewise, when it became very cold at night at the Innings Festival in February, held in the desert town of Tempe, Arizona, they went back to their hotel rooms and put every piece of clothing they had on.

“You just roll with it,” says Karen. “Even if it’s cold or rainy, I don’t ever regret going. It’s all part of the experience.”

Seema sums up: “Keep an open mind, wear comfy shoes, and put your reservations aside.”

Music festivals are the chance to have an adventure.

GOLDEN HOUR Country star Kacey Musgraves performing onstage at ACL in 2019. Lucky festivalgoers may get to see their favorite artists perform at “golden hour,” as the sun sets. (Photo: Sydney Gawlik for ACL Fest)

Near and Far: A Partial List of Music Festivals

Editor’s note: See musicfestivalwizard.com to search music festivals by location, month, genre, venue, or size. 

Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL)
Austin, TX , Oct. 6-8; Oct. 13-15, 2023

VetsAid
San Diego, Calif., Nov. 12, 2023 

Innings Festival
Tempe, Ariz., February (2024 dates have not been announced); Tampa, Fla., March (2024 dates have not been announced)  

South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW)
Austin, TX, March 11-16, 2024 

Big Ears Music Festival
Knoxville, Tenn., March 21-24, 2024

Ultra Music Festival
Miami, Fla., May 22-24, 2024

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Indio, Calif., April 12-14; April 19-21, 2024

Old Settler’s Music Festival
Dale, TX, April 18-21, 2024

Stagecoach  Indio, Calif., April 26-28, 2024

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans, La., April 25-May 5, 2024 

Shaky Knees Music Festival
Atlanta, Ga., May 3-5, 2024

Electric Daisy Carnival
Las Vegas, Nv., May 17-19, 2024

BottleRock
Napa Valley, Calif., May 24-26, 2024

Boston Calling Music Festival
Boston, Mass., May 24-26, 2024

Cherokee Creek Music Festival
Cherokee, TX, May (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Movement
Detroit, Mich., May (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Hangout Music Festival
Gulf Shores, Ala., May 17-19, 2024 

Governors Ball Music Festival
New York City, N.Y., June (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Manchester, Tenn., June (2024 dates have not been announced) 

SummerFest
Milwaukee, Wis., June 20-22; June 27-29; July 4-6

Pitchfork
Chicago, Ill., July (2024 dates have not been announced)

Lollapalooza
Chicago, Ill., August (2024 dates have not been announced) 

WonderBus Music & Arts Festival
Columbus, Oh., August (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Outside Lands
San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 9-11, 2024

Telluride Jazz Festival
Telluride, Colo., Aug. 9-11, 2024 

Telluride Blues & Brews Festival
Telluride, Colo., September (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Life Is Beautiful Festival 
Las Vegas, Nev., September (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Farm Aid
2023 venue: Noblesville, In.; locations vary, September (2024 dates have not been announced) 

Sea.Hear.Now
Asbury Park, N.J., September (2024 dates have not been announced)