inspired ::: music festivals

With the season of summer music festivals approaching, I've been thinking a lot about my countless festival adventures, and the ways in which they've so uniquely possessed the ability to produce creative inspiration. Up until very recently, I spent summer after summer attending as many music festivals as possible, in all sorts of different capacities, for both work and play. 

I've been a festival fashion show producer and emcee.  I've been a stylist for bands.  I've been a vendor of my clothing line.  I've been a speaker on eco-fashion.  I've been a sustainable style workshop leader. I've accompanied my fiance to festivals the band was playing. And, of course, I've attended as a good old-fashioned fan.

Regardless of my reason for being there, there's always been something about music festivals and the experience of participating in them that is inherently creatively motivating.  Besides the obvious inspiration-inducing art form that coexists with these festivals (music!), there's an abundance of expressive fashion, beautifully designed functional art, progressive concepts in eco-consciousness, limitless potential for new discoveries (bands, art, people, food!), and, of course, the unique idiosyncrasies of festival culture itself.  For me, it's almost impossible to leave a music festival without feeling a new found desire to create.

Admittedly, over the past couple of summers, I've finally reached my "festie wall," where I no longer feel the need or desire to cram as many as possible into a given year.  Whether I've overdone it or am just becoming boring remains to be seen, but these days I'll be sticking to just one or two per summer, please.  As for this summer, I'm still deciding which ones I'll be attending (side note: Lollapalooza = a given), but I really look forward to the creative inspiration they'll undoubtedly bring.

Are any of you avid music festival-goers?

Background of top image: Black Keys at Lollapalooza 2010.