Selfie On the Run, or: How to Party at Governors Ball
This year, once again I took part in the Governors Ball music festival (this time for one day only) and once again I have to say that – at least as far as the music is concerned – the event is awesome. But… Yeah, there is a big “but”, namely two things that made me summon up my inner Buddha more than once.
No. 1 is the omnipresent teenagers (or twenty-somethings, since you can’t always tell the difference), running madly to and from, hardly focusing for longer than the duration of two songs. I had the impression that a “good performance” as defined by them is a performance matching nicely the Instagram selfie they are taking at the moment. Their “cycle” looked something like this: a song – a picture – social media – next song – smoking a joint – another picture (“Cause it’s so funny, right!?”) – and Instagram again. Then a mad dash to some undefined destination – and instant repeat. Where were they all rushing to…? I have no idea. To the next performer? To the john? To a group selfie? It’s still a secret to me. I was this close to whispering under my breath, old lady-style: „Where are the days when you came to a concert and actually stood there, flooded by the music and with your cell phone buried deep inside your back pack?”.
No. 2, which I mentioned on this site before, is the smell of cigarettes and weed. I don’t smoke either of those and I am not interested in starting, and what’s more, I am particularly sensitive to smells and I wasn’t even helped out by the fact that this was an outdoor event. Finding even a single (!) place where one wouldn’t be bothered with the smoke amounted to a miracle! I was this close to saying something to a group of folks enjoying a joint next to me. What stopped me was the knowledge that they were probably about to run somewhere soon – which of course they did. Either I am getting old or I should have had a drink prior to the concert.
P.S. Florence and the Machine were as great as I expected; Chromeo was even better than I expected; my discovery is MØ, whose music is very promising. Randall Island which provides the location for the event is just about ideal – you don’t lose time moving between the stages and everything is very accessible. Will I go next year? I believe I will – and again, probably for one day only.
