So Moonrise was, like, almost a month ago but it’s taken me this long to stop living in the electric memory and come back to reality.
My first festival was Vans Warped Tour in 2008. I was 16 and went with my friends and one of their parents. I convinced my mom that we were going to be under adult supervision the wholeeee time so she let me go. She was always that mom in high school that needed to talk to other parents before I was allowed to go to a sleepover and made me call from a landline when I got there. Obviously I found ways around that.
Before last summer, I had been to shows but had never gone to an EDM festival. It changed my fucking life. There’s something magical about thousands of sweaty people gathering in front of a stage to see a DJ play. It’s unifying. It’s therapeutic. It’s a truly different experience than just going to a concert or seeing a band play and you won’t be able to understand what I’m talking about unless you buy a ticket and go to one yourself.
After having Warped Tour, one day of Moonrise, and two days of EDC Orlando under my belt, I took on Moonrise 2017 with the largest and most enthusiastic festie squad yet.
Day One
Saturday morning I woke up around 7:45 a.m., let Gatsby out, then started putting on my outfit and doing my make-up. Everyone had stayed at The Dollhouse (our house,) the night before and by this time they were up and moving as well. I mixed myself a bellini and started making french toast for the house. It was gonna be a long day of shenanigans so we were going to need something to coat our stomachs. Soon after, the rest of the squad got moving, and the adjoining group waded through the sea of overnight bags and glitter to pre-game with us.
We arrived at the festival in the early afternoon, exploring the grounds and familiarizing ourselves with the stage locations. All of the beer at the tent was $10, so for $12 we sprung for the strange Four Loco-esque drink that was 12% ABV. The first set we saw was ARMNHMR, (so I’m told), but everything after that was a blur. That’s the last time I trust a beverage just because it’s in the same type of packaging as coconut water. I’m pretty sure we were just galavanting around Pimlico like a gang of unchaperoned, misfit children at Six Flags. From my understanding, we ran around from stage to stage, catching tidbits of Louis the Child, Party Thieves, and RL Grime.
At Snails’ set in the evening, Moonrise evacuated the racetrack due to inclement weather and sent tens of thousands of reluctant (and trashed,) people into the grand stand. We sat on the floor under harsh fluorescent lights for a couple hours before finally calling it quits. When we made it to the car, Carnage, one of the Day One closers sent out a tweet saying the festival was opening back up at 9 p.m.
Because Moonrise doesn’t normally allow re-entry, we decided to just go home and re-group and ready to rage even harder the next day. Of course, as soon as we pulled out of the general admission parking lot, Moonrise sent out a notification via the app saying re-entry was permitted. We just kept driving. We missed Getter, Afrojack, Kaskade, Zeds Dead, Flux Pavilion, and Seven Lions to name a few.
*Before anyone starts talking shit leaving comments about the dangers of drinking and driving; yes, we had a sober driver.
Day Two
Even though I was asleep by midnight the night before, it was harder to get out of bed Sunday morning. Suz, Mo, Mollie, and I went out to get Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts for everyone in the morning. Don’t go to the Dunkin Donuts on Pulaski Highway near the city. They are complete ignoramuses, but you might luck out because of their incompetence and get two free breakfast sandwiches like we did.
Because of the clusterfuck Saturday was, Moonrise was honoring Day One wristbands on Sunday. The lineup was sicker, the grounds were muddier, the weather was better, more people came, and there was a completely different vibe to the day.
Set times had changed because Getter was squeezed in (BLESS,) but we were ready to throw down under the Solar Tent for most of the day.
Pretty sure we saw AFK, Getter, Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Joyryde, and Carnage back to back. My favorite part of the day was when Carnage opened his set with the emergency broadcast system clip from The Purge franchise. Suz looked at Mo and I with fear and asks, “This isn’t real right?!”
We hopped around to Said the Sky, G4SHi, Ookay, Lil Uzi Vert, and Elephante before posting up at Stellar Stage for the next couple hours for Alan Walker, Yellow Claw, Excision, and Dillstradamus.
Wait for the girl on the rail with the bloody nose. She went hard AF.
Suz, Gerald, and I stayed at Stellar Stage for Dillstradamus because we are super obsessed with Dillon Francis, but the rest of the crew closed out Moonrise with Pretty Lights at Lunar Stage.
Regardless of the internets trolls swearing they’ll never go to Moonrise again because of some lightning and mud, I’d say 10/10 times that I’d recommend. To close this one out, I’d like to ask anyone who reads this that could provide us with eye witness testimony of what exactly happened to us Saturday afternoon before the evacuation to please come forward.
Until the next festival,
MK
Megan Koester 