A Mother's Day Festival Guide

It's Mother's Day, and to honor all of our moms and their concern for our health and safety, the New York Times has published an article all about...this summer's festivals; lovely venues where drugs are more common than potable drinking water and at least one person dies at most events.

To be fair, I find festivals to be a pretty fun time provided you can stand being quite filthy for a whole weekend of "camping" and the smell of patchouli doesn't bother you. I can't say I'm an avid festival goer, though I've been to a few and I'll enjoy a few more.

Out of all the festivals (and tour announcements as well) mentioned in the article, I'd have to say I'm most curious to see how Rothbury goes. It seems that in years past, Bonnaroo and Coachella were the dominant festivals people made a point of traveling to. However, with a more 'eclectic' line-up every year at Bonnaroo, with headliners this year including Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Panic, Kanye West, and Chris Rock, the more hard-core festival-goers are looking for a less main stream place with bands that will feel more at home with 150,00 'screaming' hippies (I don't remember seeing a lot of Hippies...hell, ANY hippies the last time I saw Metallica).

This leaves room for Rothbury. Though it still has quite a wide range of genres represented by it's headliners (DMG, Panic, John Mayer, 311, Phil Lesh & Friends, Primus, Thievery Corporation, Snoop Dogg, and Modest Mouse), it seems like it is a combination that will go well together and isn't forced, like Bonnaroo's.

And with ticket prices going up each year (I remember when I though $120 was a lot for a ticket), people can't afford to go to every festival or even 2 or 3 like they may have been doing in the past, which makes picking where you spend your inebriated weekend even more important as you'll likely only be going to one festival.

However, there are a great deal more events going on this summer than just the three I mentioned, so go check out the NYTimes article and see where you might like to head this summer. Who knows, maybe your mom will even want to go with you...but probably not.