badgirl2chainz-blog

[badgirl2chainz-blog]

Moonshine & Pop Tarts

Hi friends, it’s ya girl again talking about another festival! So here’s the back story about how I fell in love with Arizona’s biggest Country Music festival in the beautiful lands of Florence, Arizona, known as Country Thunder! If you know Arizona you know that Florence is uh how do I say this nicely, a prison? Honestly though the only thing worth mentioning is the prison and a gas station that I have used the lou at many, many times. And maybe a Taco Bell, yeah actually there is definitely a Taco Bell. So here’s some facts about the one place where fireball shots are acceptable, bacon covered curly cheese fries are healthy, and sleeping on a rock hard ground is fun.

As a freshman at NAU everyone was talking about some festival called Country Thunder. I was slightly familiar with it because when I was searching for my college roommate she had told me she attended a festival called Country Thunder, a 4 day music festival. Now I appreciated the fact that she thought Country Thunder was the best country festival ever but I already knew I liked Stagecoach, so she wasn’t fooling me on this one. However I used some grad money and bought a ticket because was I really going to pass up a new festival? Absolutely not.

April rolls around and I was ready to take on festival season. My roommate and I talked about our game plan every night before bed and how stoked we were to see Miranda Lambert because she was so bad ass and I even ordered an American flag fanny pack that I was so unbelievably excited for. 

I was going to go to 3 festivals, 3 weekends in a row. But in my mind, Country Thunder was going to the be the most lowkey one so it was a great one to start the month off with. But boy, I was so so so wrong.

Country Thunder is an adult playground for country loving hicks with basically no rules. Compared to Stagecoach, I felt like I was invincible. However as a relatively good kid, I would never try and disobey the law. I was all about sneaking in alcohol via the sunscreen game. But a wise soul told me to just bring in a flask and all will be well. I remember going to through the check point thinking “Holy Jabroni, I am so screwed. I’m going to jail. I’m a minor. I hate myself. My mom is going to hate me. Brady is going to be the favorite.” However it was my turn to get checked and they let me through so fast. I stood gawking at what I just went through and then I remembered, I had to play it cool. So my super duper cute American flask, filled with some vitali (lol sorry Mom) and I were inside safely, as were my friends. Yipeeee! The grounds itself are obviously much smaller than The Polo Fields. But I enjoy the closeness. There is really only one main stage with another small stage by the concessions and there is a big tent that is wild as heck. But I will get to that in a moment.

The best part of Country thunder is how close the campgrounds are to the festival grounds. I’ll be blunt, the campsite is more fun than the actual festival. Shotgunning, dizzy bats and beer bongs commence Thursday morning and do not end until Sunday night. You have not seen a pregame until you go to Country Thunder. I will vouch for the statement for the rest of my life.

Last year we set our campsite up in a major rain storm. It was the biggest scene and a half, my roommates and I will giggle about that one for awhile. But of course the rain made for an epic slip n slide a few campsites over.

I am a huge fan of camping at Country Thunder because it’s acceptable if you throw up, as long as you hit your tent mate with the “I’m sorry please be mindful of my vomit outside of the tent” text and you definitely bond on another level with your friends because nothing says friendship like not showering for a whole weekend.  

Jamie Lynn Spears performed one year and we literally sprinted from our campsite because she was on so early. My pal and I chanted “We want Zoey 101 back” a mere 87 times, I’ll never know if she heard us, but I’d like to think so. 

A cool thing about Country Thunder is that it feels like a little reunion for all the NAU, ASU and U of A kids. And I mean I guess the GCU kids too ;)

So as for the tent that I brought up earlier. Basically it’s a huge tent that can be fit some hundred people and should be labeled “Lets Get Ratchet!” This is no joke. It is a huge sweaty, absurd mess. Think of it as like an after hours club in Vegas. You already know you’re too tired to do more in your night but against your better judgment you’re screaming “Yolamos!” You are so tired from your day and then you go into this tent and all bets are off. I experienced the dirtiest paint party filled with country music mixed with heavy beats. Weird combo - but I wasn't mad about it. Not so much fun the next morning when I was using water bottles to get the paint out of my hair. Twas’ a huge “L” on my part but nothing was worse than when I used the neighbors port-a-potty at 3:00 am and they were screaming at me for using their ever so upscale shitter without asking. Good times, good times. :)

Day turning into night - the wildness never stops and by Sunday you are so exhausted, so sunburnt, smelling relatively wretched and you crave anything besides hot dogs and funnel cakes to eat. But you’re going to rally and force yourself to have fun on the last day. You know why? It makes the drive back to Flagstaff that much better because you will have filled your brain with 4 days of obscene memories. I promise you.

From Jake Owen to the Band Perry, whiskey jello-shots to brown cinnamon sugar pop tarts, gnarly rain storms to extreme heat, this festival is something every country lover should experience.

Thanks for reading & are you on you’re way to the cow rn?!

[badgirl2chainz-blog]

coacHELLYA

Since I’m back and ready to express my thoughts and feelings about everyone’s favorite festival, here I am! Yes, my first blog was about Stagecoach, however it is no surprise that I would prefer Coachella over Stagecoach. Not in a conceited way, but I was one of the first people in my High School to attend both in the same year and have been fortunate enough to keep that going ever since. When April ends, the typical questions follow, “Which one do you like more?” or “If you had to choose which one would you go too?” As much as I loved country growing up, it’s no surprise that the vibes and the atmosphere you see and feel at Coachella are much more me. The most “eclectic music festival” they said, and man they weren’t wrong.  

After experience quite a few festivals, I think I can safely say what festivals are worth going to at least once in you're life and Coachella is 100% that one festival, no matter if the lineup isn't up to your “par” you still gotta go. Ya, just gotta.

The reason I was so infatuated with attending this festival was because one of my pal’s was very into EDM and always talked about the Sahara tent. The Sahara tent this, the Sahara tent that. And he kept blabbing about something called the “Do Lab” and he would constantly say, “Mas you gotta go, you would love coachella!” I figured he knew me well enough that he wouldn’t suggest I go to some lame event. The more research I did the more I realized I had to go.

My first Coachella experience began with my pal and I making sure we went to our Senior year English class because attendance mattered, but once the bell rang we were sprinting to the senior parking lot, yelling “Bye Triana!” It was literal go time. I had never been more giddy in my entire life, so giddy that I fell asleep immediately in the car on the way to La Quinta. Classic Carly for y’all.  But don’t you worry I woke up just in time for some in n out.

I had worked hard and paid for my ticket with my own money, which at the time $350 seemed like a lot for a ticket, I do even remember my parents telling me I was rather insane, but little did they know how much money I would be dropping on festival tickets in the future. Anyways sorry I got a little off topic there, SO we get to my pals house and she is much more girly than me and she was ready to go, knew all the outfits she was going to wear and all I really had to my name was a mesh tank top and a flower headband, literally so Coachella of me, am I right? Don’t worry my outfits have definitely improved over the years, or so I would like to think. Not that it matters what people think of my appearance because I have always been one of those people to actually attend something for the music and the experience.

Disclaimer - the thing about looking cute is really tough because you might walk into the sahara tent at 3:00 pm in 95 degree weather to see What so Not or Thomas Jack and you might just come out looking like you ran a 5K and haven’t showered in days, so just don't over do it with the outfits. Trust me your outfits that you ordered online in January will still be cool.

For someone that isn’t very crafty or artistic at all, the artwork at Coachella enlightens me every single year. I followed the snail around for about an hour and I took pretty heinous selfies of myself with the caterpillar. In all seriousness though, the art is much, much, more than a new twitter header, it’s interesting to see what artists are thinking and to think about why that piece of art is here.

Now lets talk about my favorite topic once again; food and drinks. Yes there is the infamous lemonade. One year I counted that I drank 8 in one weekend. Raw talent, I’d say. This could also be because Coachella does have designated drinking areas. So unless you sneak something in you can’t just roam freely with alcohol. Last Coachella was the first Coachella that I was allowed in the Beer Gardens. Now this craft beer was extremely expensive but it was so necessary as a newly 21 year old gal. It was really cute and fun to be in there but not as worth the hype as I had anticipated. Now this doesn’t mean I won’t make my way into the beer garden again this year. I will of course, but I won’t be feeling like I have to in order to complete my Coachella weekend experience. Okay enough about the alcohol, I swear I am not an alcoholic. In reality I enjoy about 2 popsicles a day because it’s cheap and SO bomb. Plus if you have a few minutes it’s a great food to grab right after you’ve filled up your camelback.

Talking about food and drinks is a great segway into my thoughts of buying a GA or a VIP ticket.  VIP at Coachella is extremely fun and well organized. The bars are fun and there aren’t designated drinking areas in VIP. There is also more food options in VIP and no lie they are much more upscale than the rest of the festival. So if you have a couple thousand to spend why not get that VIP ticket, ya know wha I’m sayin’?!

Weekend 1 or Weekend 2? Now that is the million dollar question, isn’t it. This upcoming Coachella will be my first time attending weekend 1, so based on my last 4 years at Coachella, I was a huge advocate for weekend 2.  The very first time my pal and I bought tickets we couldn’t get weekend 1 tickets so we were honestly just thrilled to get weekend 2 tickets! Then before we knew it, it became a tradition to always go that weekend, no questions asked. Is the grass truly greener at Weekend 1 than Weekend 2? Well time will tell and do promise to report back my thoughts.

Watching Mr. B rap every single world to every Ice Cube and NWA song really made me realize that yeah, he is the golden child. Honestly, I’m still kind of getting over it, but in all seriousness, he was killing it and I couldn’t have been a more proud big sister. Now as for my Father, he was a whole other story. We were getting ready to take a family photo and Guns N Roses was starting and my Dad literally left the photo op and sprinted to the stage. My Mom, brother and I were standing there shook as hell, but we decided we might as well enjoy ourselves so we went to the show and I swear we could still hear Dicky screaming “Paradise City” at the top of his lungs from 20 plus feet behind him.

Getting Mamafred to see Baaur in the sahara tent was the move. She was always so afraid of “tents” but she handled herself wonderfully. She looked so precious with her bandana and her special festival dress. My favorite tent is the Gobi tent. The way the stage lights reflect off of the chandelier lights made my first time seeing Flume, Kygo, Purity Ring, Odezsa, all so special.

Surprise Guests - Coachella has really done it all, from reuniting bands back together, incorporating Holograms, and simply shocking you more than you thought you could ever be. Now flashback to 2015, Drake brought out Madonna weekend 1 and even though they had an extremely awkward make-out session, I was so jealous, don’t worry not of the swapping of saliva but because I was thinking I wanted to see someone cool like Madonna. So weekend 2 rolls around and it’s Saturday night and my pal and I were at the Weeknd and as if Abel’s voice wasn’t enough he brought out Kanye. I was DEAD. I was screaming like a child. I remember being LOL at everyone who said weekend 2 sucked, because who truly received a better guest? Yeah most definitely weekend 2. Never forget last year that G Eazy brought out Lil Wayne. Mom was like “woah who’s this a milli guy”.

Even though it’s my favorite weekend of the year, it can be extremely stressful. Now I know that sounds super lame but once the set times come out, my hands get clammy and I get a nice sweat going with the fearful thought that all my favorite people will be interfering. I once sprinted from Major Lazer to 2chainz to Ben Howard, it was absurd but I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I feel at ease with going to multiple sets during a set time. Now a lot of people aren’t like that, but I would rather see 4 songs of 3 artists in a set time than just one.

It’s hard to decide what my favorite memories from Coachella are but I think a few would be seeing Kid Cudi as the sun was setting on that Saturday evening, maybe it was getting in a mosh pit by myself at Floss (no worries I survived), or it could’ve been sitting on the ground eating noodles watching ACDC, or maybe it was chugging Heinekens with my pal right before Tchami threw down the most epic set EVER. 

However if you know me you know seeing my boyfriend Porter Robinson for the first time, front row is something I’ll talk about 5ever !!!

Over the last 4 years I have spent 12 days at Coachella, eating high end food, attempting the running man, meeting new foreign friends, making Freddy memories, pulling all nighters, and craving the next year even more than the previous.

I can't wait to go this year and have friends who have never been see what the hype is all about and I can assure everyone, no one will be disappointed.  

Besame Mucho & thanks for reading :)

[badgirl2chainz-blog]

! S T A G E C O A C H !

Hi all! SO I am totally not a writer but against my better judgment I wanted to share blogs with whomever cares enough to read them about my experiences at my favorite thing to do in the world – yep you guessed it, attend music festivals. I figured what better way than to take a break from all the regular and rather negative social media talk than to read about something that is becoming so popular. The point of my blogs is mostly for me, to remember my experiences when I’m old and grey and most likely getting wheel chaired into my next festival. But I thought why not share my thoughts and opinions and see if others can relate to yours truly. Most importantly I want to look back and see what a wild time I had.

My first blog is about is California’s biggest country music festival, Stagecoach, otherwise known as Ragecoach, yes I unfortunately was even guilty for writing that on an Instagram caption, once or uhm maybe twice. If you’ve never been you’ve most definitely heard that slogan on the radios from January until the last weekend of April every year. It can get pretty exhausting if you have zero interest in country music, but for every High School senior, it is truly the most exciting commercial to hear.  I can relate because I was that High School senior.

I went to my first Stagecoach my Junior Year of High School. I had always gone to concerts and fun events before this, but never had I gone to 3 day music festival. I was through the roof. My pals and I chatted about what we wearing, what songs should be on our mix CD’s, what classes we were missing, what the weather was going to be etc. etc. etc. Our wristbands were pure gold to us and we kept them on for months after the festival ended. Rather disgusting now that I think about it, but I still have every wristband and every box it has arrived in. Oh and of course my Mom made me go to school that Monday, but that was always the golden rule – if you play you gotta pay. 

Entering the polo fields whether it’s Stagecoach or Coachella, (hopefully my next blog), is truly a euphoric experience. Sounds so lame, but I get giddy just thinking about it. And if you’re with me, or anything like me, it is a scene and a half. Yes you are sweating, yes your buzz might be fading, yes you are tired, yes you are sore, but man you are stoked. You are so proud of your outfit, whether you’re wearing a cute country dress or an American flag vest with a matching doo-rag, you feel like the 10 that you are. You are stoked that the alcohol you poured in sunscreen bottles made it in safely, so stoked that you will literally high five any drunk guy that you pass by. The ferris wheel is spinning and the cops on horses are roaming around and you are ready, ready to get to that 4:00 pm artist who just happens to be Eli Young Band and you had already told yourself you are not going to miss them.

From babies with huge noise cancelling headphones, to adult men wearing nothing but a thong to cover their gentleman parts, stagecoach has it all. It definitely caters to every ones’ needs because, to be honest, not everyone that attends, are actually country fans. That thought never bothered me because the more the merrier in my opinion. Most people pregame to EDM or rap but luckily my friends and I have always kept it festive and pregamed to our favorite Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan songs – whether or not they were performing. We may or may not have thrown in the Tesoro Rap once or twice but hey gotta keep that Titan pride forever baby!!

Stagecoachs attendance has people on both ends of the spectrum, it definitely has those cute families that look forward to Stagecoach all year round and you best believe that they were making Jell-O shots the whole week before to prepare.  It also has those girls that are just excited to wear their $100 cowboy boots for their first time and get that perfect boomerang with the caption saying “Yeeeeehawwww” or “Save a horse, ride Brad”. But my favorite type of Stagecoach goers are those older couples that bring their chairs and blankets and set up a cozy camp so far away from the stage, but you can tell that they are just as excited to see Blake Shelton as you are.

Now lets talk about something rather important. Food and Drinks. Holy Moly the lemonade. Even as an almost 22 year old, I would still prefer lemonade as my poison for the weekend. It is so refreshing and goes great with a nice slice of Spicy Pie Pizza, an all time Mamafred favorite! Getting a wristband to drink is definitely time consuming but most necessary, too many youngins have received MIP’s and MIC’s. A lil tidbit piece of advice would be to eat before you enter because yeah the food can be extremely expensive and if you aren't fortunate enough to have a best friend whose Mom makes a killer bbq chicken salad, then yeah please eat before. Oh and by the way, Stagecoach is actually one of those festivals that doesn’t have designated drinking areas and you can walk around with alcohol in your hands – clutch.

GA or VIP? Well I have been fortunate enough to experience both sides. I spent some time in VIP with my family and it was so fun, you are so close to the stage and it’s the perfect time for photo ops. The lines for drinks are so much shorter than in GA, I definitely took that for granted when I went back in GA the next day.  In all honesty, it’s all about preference, I would have to say GA is more fun though, yes it’s more crowded but it’s the type of rowdy you signed up for and should expect. I would suggest you save your VIP money, get a GA ticket and have extra cash for some beer and/or lemonade. Shout out to Mom for buying me a $28 grilled cheese in VIP, I will always love you for that one.

Being able to attend Stagecoach has been one of my favorite parts of going away for college, being able to see your high school crew and your family all in one fun ass weekend is something I will never take for granted. The crew has added new friends over the years and the Freddy’s even got Brady to join in the most recent year. He doesn’t like country but like I said, as a High School senior he still had a grand ole time. My goal in life is to go to Stagecoach with my future daughter and with Mamafred. I have no doubt in my mind that Mamafred and I will be able to show her the ropes accordingly.

One particular pal of mine has been such a trooper and has made her way back to the west coast to attend Stagecoach with all of us. She even surprised us all and let me tell you, I blubbered like a baby, but hey ever since that day I have been so thankful for American airlines for letting me have her for the weekend - they truly helped make our round 5 that much better, together.

There is truly nothing more heart warming than thinking of you and your crew dancing to the Sunday night headliner, singing at the top of your lungs, telling each other how much you love them, and completing ignoring the fact that you have an 8 am in another state.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope everyone who attends Stagecoach this year has a blast, especially since Uncle Kenny’s hotter when the sun goes down.

P.S. meet at the boot ;)