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Who doesn’t love live music? If you thought to yourself “Oh that’s me” after reading that question, I’m not sure if we can be friends.
Any opportunity you have to absorb visually and sonically positive vibes, you should take it. From dueling piano bars, jazz or blues lounges, to concerts and everything outside and inbetween; live music fuels the soul.
I will say, I am much more in favor of intimate, small venue concerts, opposed to large stadium concerts. It’s not as satisfying to view an artist from nosebleed seats and the price to pay for the up-close experience at larger venues will cost ya dearly $$$$$$$$$.
What trumps both small and large single concert venues, are music festivals. Music festivals are amazing to go to, because you get to consume dozens of artists and typically they will not be much more expensive than a large venue single artist concert. I saw Eminem at Lollapalooza (what an incredible show it was!) along with dozens of other artists and you really do just get so much more bang for your buck, opposed to if I just went to an Eminem stand alone concert. I’ll sign up for a music festival, even if I’ve never heard of a single artist playing; in fact I have. Discovering new artists live (that you enjoy) is a memorable experience.
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The festival I am referring to where I normally know none of the artists prior to attending, is the OTIS Mountain Get Down, which is hosted in Elizabethtown, NY every September. I have attended the past 4 years and it is a wealth of great food, killer music, friendly companions, tasty beer (of course), and the great outdoors; this year there was even a comedy show block (insert laugh track here).
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OTIS touches upon most music genres, catering to many different sounds; rock, reggae, funk, folk, and hip-hop, just to name a few. For food, I choose to be lazy and consume all my meals from the different food trucks; korean spiced broccoli (and like 4 other types of broccoli), yes please; wood fired pizza, I’ll take two; freshly prepared ramen, great on the chilly nights; and my favorite of the past few years, pulled pork sliders with Mac n Cheese, get in my belly!! All of these food joints are locally sourced, which is very cool to see.
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Being one with nature is another plus of OTIS. Cell service = non-existent. Getting cut off from technology is something we should all indulge in more frequently, especially with our phones. This was the first year I brought my camera with me, but I made sure to even put that down every now and then. The best decision I made this year was upgrading from a tent to a hammock (my back thanked me); but, sleeping under the trees and the stars is quite a beautiful and serene experience. Another plus, this was the first year I didn’t experience rain fall on at least one of the days; yes, this is a rain or shine event, people! And believe it or not, rain doesn’t really damper anyone's spirits; the party always goes on!
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I could keep writing about a lot of stuff from OTIS; people playing kickball, mountain biking, the beer vending machine in the woods (yes, you read correctly), the hula-hoopers, all the great moments with my friends, strangers and more, but I think you should just come experience it for yourself, or at least go experience any live music festival!
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Check out my full gallery of photo and video content from the OTIS Mountain Get Down 2018 here: http://sgalanteproductions.com/the-get-down/
Rock on people,
-Steve
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