Whenever I go away or do something fun, my mom always asks me “what was your favorite part?” I am always quick with an answer back to her because I can easily pick it out. As I laid in my tent trying to fall asleep on the last night, I could hear the final music act finishing up their set, the last of all the balloons popping in the distance, and the final hoots and hollers of all the happy hippies in the fields. My mom’s question kept swirling around in my head. What was my favorite part of Lockn’ Music Festival?
Could it be the atmosphere? I had been to Lockn’ once before in 2015. I was amazed by the crowd of people that the festival drew in. I was only nineteen years old and was still in the early phases of my musical journey. Every show or festival that I attended prior to Lockn’ gave me the impression that people were just into the music to get messed up on drugs. But the minute my tire rolled onto the grass of Infinity Downs Farm in Arrington, Virginia, I immediately felt a change in atmosphere. Throughout that weekend, my eyes were opened to a music-loving, warm-hearted group of people. Every attendee was soulfully there for the music being played. And because of that attitude, those people were the best people I’ve ever met. They will continue to be life long friends of mine. Ever since those three days (they canceled the first day because of the rain) in 2015, my outlook of music and life were completely altered.
With this sense from my first Lockn’ experience, I was thrilled to return this year. The minute I stepped out of the car onto the grounds and breathed in that fresh air, the thoughts and feelings of my first Lockn’ flooded back into my memory. I paused and took the chance to absorb the freeing energy. I was home. I was ready to spend the weekend in a place where the music was hot, and the people were genuine. During my first trek to the main stage, I saw that they had changed its location. The atmosphere was still the same but altered by them only having one stage as opposed to two. This time, instead of two stages side by side, there was one adjoining stage. One that spun around as the band was ending their set only to reveal the next band starting theirs. This added a whole new level to the atmosphere. There was nowhere else to be, except at the main stage. So, everyone was all there at the same time, doing the same thing. There is something very powerful about you and ten thousand others experiencing the same amazing music at once. The atmosphere was breathe taking. It helped create a once in a lifetime adventure. Especially with a full moon on the last night. But I still must wonder, was this my favorite part?
Or could it have been the people I went with? I went with my roommate, Rikki, her friends D’Anne and Matt, and my friend Moose. We all collaborated on what to bring so that we could create the best campsite we could. Between the five of us we had enough camping equipment to make one hell of a “glampsite.” The only thing missing was an RV. But as soon as I had that thought, D’Anne (D) said that she had some friends coming, and that they were bringing a camper with them. So, despite all the work we put into putting our campsite up, we ended up spending most of the weekend at Tara and Andrew’s camper. The camper was parked right next to the stage area. So even if we weren’t in the crowd during the show, we could hear and almost see everything that was going on. It was like our own little private concert grounds.
This Lockn’ was Tara and Andrews first. It was Tara’s first festival all together. Andrew used to follow the Dead around, so he was aware of what was in store. Him and D were friends because of their love for The Grateful Dead. My weekend was filled with old stories about how they used to see the Dead with Jerry. D said she had seen the Dead with Jerry about seventy-five times over the course of fourteen years!! Her first Dead show had a “Box of Rain” opener and it changed her life. It was so fascinating hearing them talk about music because they knew what they were talking about. You’ll find a lot of that when you hang out with an older crowd. I was the youngest out of all the people in our group, or our “wolf pack”(what we named our group). I tend to stick around with an older crowd. Some people say I have an “old soul” which isn’t hard to believe because I am drawn to older music and more mature groups of people. With that being said, it didn’t take long for all seven of us to become family. I will never forget all of us sitting under the tarp of the camper, laughing until our stomachs hurt, drinking Kraken and Cokes, and listening to the wildness of the festival in the distance. These people hold a special place in my heart and helped make Lockn’ 2018 perfect. Could they possibly be the best part?
Or maybe it was the music that flooded our ears over the weekend. I wasn’t expecting the music to be anything short of astonishing but, of course, all the talented musicians exceeded my expectations. Lockn’ normally has the best lineup of the summer but this year was especially spectacular. That weekend I saw my first Dead & Co. show, along with many other amazing musical acts. It’s hard for me to pick out my highlights because everything left me speechless. Tedeschi Trucks Band was probably my favorite act. They have such a soulful sound. They are all really playing their hearts out. Susan Tedeschi stole the show to no one’s surprise. She has this raspy voice that could make the manliest of men crumble to their knees. After the first TTB set, Tara said to us girls “Susan ROCKED my soul.” Which we all had to agree with her on.
There was a lot of nostalgia leaking off the stage and into my heart. Especially when Sharyl mother-fucking Crow got up on stage and ROCKED the whole place. She sang “Soak Up the Sun” as the sun was going down and I found it a little difficult to hold back some tears. It was also extremely nostalgic seeing Blues Traveler. A lot of good memories come back to me while listening to “Run Around.” One of my favorite nostalgic acts was Taj Mahal’s sit in with Toots and The Maytals. I have a good friend who loves Taj, so I felt a little guilty seeing him without my friend there, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying every minute of Taj warbling all the classics on stage. My heart flew when they played “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” I felt right at home listening to all this heart-warming, old timey music.
But of course, I felt the most nostalgic watching Bobby in his natural habitat. I always had a little edge when people say that seeing the Dead now is just for a nostalgic purpose. Mainly because they don’t play the same setlist every night. They’re still playing new jams and adding a different factor to the show unlike most older bands from the seventies that are re-touring today. I do still feel this way after seeing them live but I felt a strong presence of sentiment from all the old Dead heads grooving to all classics. I felt like ‘wow, this is their festival, and they’re finally playing here.’ And everyone was so happy about it. I can remember tearing up just from looking at the people in the crowd singing along with the words. Everybody seemed to be on the top of the world. No one was holding back. I saw some of the weirdest dance moves that I have ever seen. It was the greatest feeling seeing everyone be themselves while listening to the older music that they all have known and loved for years.
Even though a lot of the hippies were there for the older music (which is a huge theme at Lockn’ music fetival), everyone was also thrilled to celebrate the newer music as well. The best thing about Lockn’ is that they bring together old and new music. It’s like seeing the evolution of music together in one weekend. Wooks of all ages, shapes and sizes that I saw raging at the Jerry dance party were also lining the stage for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Spafford, and Turkuaz. Andrew even said to me during Turkuaz “Damn, I’m glad you got me off my ass and to this show because this band is awesome!” I think its important to value new music as well as old because most of the newer bands that I listen to get their influences from the great older bands.
One of the newer band’s set that meant a lot to me was PBR, or Peoples Blues of Richmond. This band is, of course, from Richmond. When I was living in Richmond I was very involved in the music scene. I found myself going to see PBR and other Richmond bands every weekend and even on some week nights. PBR grew very special to me. Recently they took a break due to some personal reasons. Their set at Lockn’ was their first set back on the stage after several months of not playing. While it was only a thirty-minute set, I made sure that I was front row. Up at the front I was greeted by so many of my old Richmond people who were all there for the same reason. Seeing everyone along with seeing PBR back on stage brought tears to my eyes. I found myself crying in the crowd of Lockn’ once again.
One other time that I found myself crying was during Umphrey’s (duh). They played three sets over the first two nights of the festival. The first night held two sets of Umphreys sandwiched between two sets of Lettuce, a very talented funk-jam band. I knew that the horns from Lettuce were going to sit in with Umphrey’s because they have before in situations like this. But what I didn’t know was how they were going to pull it off. The schedule had the night set up as Lettuce, Umphreys, Lettuce, Umphreys. As Lettuce was finishing up their last set with “Hang Up Your Hangups” by Herbie Hancock (a song that Umphreys loves to cover and have horns sit in with) I had no idea what was about to happen next. The rotating stage started to turn to reveal Umphreys starting their set with the same song. But the stage stopped in the middle to show the crowd half of Umphreys and half of Lettuce playing at the same time. I had to do a double take because I thought that there was a technical malfunction with the stage, but they knew exactly what they were doing. They played like that, side by side, for a couple minutes and then two of the horns from Lettuce hopped over onto the stage with UM. The stage continued to turn to show the entirety of Umphreys and they finished out the song with Lettuce. And let me just say one thing, that was the COOLEST shit I have ever seen! It left my mouth wide open and in awe for about an hour after the show.
The first night of Umphreys definitely rocked my socks but it only got my lips wet for the next night. On Friday, Umphreys were welcoming Jason Bonham, the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin’s son, to play with them. The festival goers thought that it was going to be an entire Zeppelin cover set but they teased the crowd by opening with a couple Umphreys originals. About six songs in, Jason made his great appearance. The crowd went insane (if you want to see some of the best sit ins, go to Lockn’. They have some of the worlds greatest musicians all collaborating up on stage). They started the Zeppelin covers off with “Good Times, Bad Times” and I found myself naturally gravitating towards the front of the stage. Throughout the five Zepp songs they played they invited Derick Trucks from TTB up for “Dancing Days”, and then added Taylor Hicks up to sing “When the Levee Breaks.” Then with nine people onstage, played “The Song Remains the Same” (one of my favorite Zeppelin songs). And then to top it all off, Kris came out from behind the drums to sing “Whole Lotta Love.” This was the first time that I had seen Kris off drums while singing. My heart absolutely melted when I saw him slinking around stage singing and acting like young Robert Plant. I felt like the ultimate fan girl, but I did not care. I had nothing but goosebumps for the thirty-two minutes of straight up rock and roll I witnessed. I had reached my hearts content. I almost can’t listen to that set again without crying just a little!
With all these factors and memories coming together over the weekend, I simply cannot choose a favorite part. The atmosphere made me feel at home, like I never wanted to leave. All the other festivals have good auras to them too but there is something special about Lockn’. I couldn’t have chosen a better “wolf pack” to spend the weekend with either. Everyone was so loving. The times we shared together will always be held in my heart. And the music was some of the best that I have ever seen. So why do I have to choose a favorite part? Is it so bad to say that the whole thing was my favorite? I wouldn’t trade the times I had for anything else in the world. It was one of the best decisions I ever made, and everything lined up perfectly. As we left, we had heavy hearts, but smiles on our faces. We joked around saying that if they had an “end of the festival survey” we would check the “yes” box for coming back next year. I can’t wait to return. While pulling out of the campground I had one thought, “see y’all next year!”
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