Festival shows as a radio DJ
Back when there was live music, festival shows were always a thing. Warped Tour, Aftershock, Coachella, etc. They were always in some hot dusty field and after the fourth band you always wanted to grab some shade or get under a tree.
Or under a flat bed truck, don’t ask, but I did once eat potato salad under a flat bed truck at a festival show because it was just so fucking hot.
One year at Ozzfest, my ex fiance and I were there. We were already hot and tired because of traffic and walking from the parking lot. We walked in and got two big margaritas to cool off. The next thing we knew we were asleep under a tree and got woken up by Slipknot blasting cannons playing “People=Shit.”
When you’re there though as a representative of the radio station though, you get invited into back stage areas that have glorious air conditioning. You have to find the tour manager or set it up in advance but they have air conditioning.
One year at the Warped Tour I went to interview NoFX and they dragged me on the bus to get out of the heat and mixed me up a cocktail. Afterwards Fat Mike told me to stay backstage as long as I wanted and to help myself to Less Than Jake’s beer.
Another Warped Tour in Marysville CA while repping the radio station, we had a tent out in this is and it had to be 110 degrees. My co-worker and I were hot and miserable and fairly strapped for cash. The tent next to us belonged to the band The Black Pacific. Their singer is Jim from Pennywise. One of the guys came over and asked us if we could play their song on the radio or interview them. Slap bang we were in. They trucked us across the show grounds on to a delightfully air conditioned bus where we were given some cheap beer and allowed to hang out as long as we wanted because it was “I’m gonna barf” hot. We also got a really great interview with them… off a flip phone.
At the Aftershock festival one year, my station had a tent back stage and we were doing artist interviews. The guys in Asking Alexandria just picked up my water bottle and started chugging my water bottle. It ummmm didn’t have water in it but they were stoked. Awhile later I was being escorted back to interview Korn.
I’m from Bakersfield so I kind of know them so for me it wasn’t a big deal but my staff photographer was pretty excited. It was a big deal to me to get into the air conditioning. It was 114 degrees. I was greeted as “Hey (my dad’s name daughter)!” by Jonathan Davis walking up and got to cut in the line because the tour manager yelled “Hey Bakersfield Girl!” and waved us up and we sat and shot the shit with Korn for awhile. I was just happy to get out of the heat.
Festival shows are 100% better if you know a guy…. or five