Why I Cannot Help But Enjoy Going to Music Festivals

Summary: Music festivals, especially Milwaukee's popular Irish Fest, are an enjoyable form of entertainment.

my favorite music festival; Irish dancers at Irish Fest 2011, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, southeastern Wisconsin; Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011: Third Coast Daily, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Convenience, fun, informality, nature, novelty, tradition and variety are reasons why I like music festivals. The offerings, setting and time span ensure that nothing gets in the way of my liking the current festival. They guarantee my showing up at each gathering every year thereafter.

Music festivals are not organized in a vacuum. Organizers consider convenience of access by the greatest number of attendees. They contact area hotel, restaurant and store managers. They look into parking arrangements and public transportation. Festival attendees generally need not worry about lodging, parking and shopping woes.

Organizers also arrange for onsite booths to sell drinks, foods and souvenirs. I can be confident and spontaneous to, on and from the festival grounds. I can catch the most performances and have the most fun with the most family and friends.

The atmosphere feels comfortably informal even though music festivals require predictability and structure. Checking out the crowd's and the performers' choices in accessories, clothing and footwear always generates great learning fun. But, of course, listening and moving to great music with family and friends provide the most fun of all!

There appears to be no limit to the fun of a music festival. Two of the reasons for this exhilarating sense of limitless fun are the festival's setting and structure. The festival is held out in the open. In the case of my favorite music festival -- Irish Fest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- everything happens on the city's attractively landscaped downtown lake front. There is beauty, comfort, excitement and romance in absorbing live music, buying charming mementos and consuming delicious drinks and food while near breezy Lake Michigan, on cultivated greenery and under stars twinkling from clear night skies.

A festival never can stray too far from predictable activities and time slots. But each year's schedule emphasizes keeping audiences from becoming bored or dissatisfied with what happens around and on the stage. That precisely is one of the reasons why organizers mix fresh, rising sounds in new, unexpected styles alongside established, popular voices in expected, tried-and-true ways. That mix makes for the encouragement of novelty and support for tradition from which unforgettable performances and performers are born.

Security cushions life while variety spices it up. That I find both in all the companionable, expected, hassle-free, informal, unexpected fun of a couple of days out in the open air is why I so like music festivals!

Irish Fest 2005, Henry Maier Festival Park, southeastern edge of downtown Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, southeastern Wisconsin; Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005: Sutton Kinter IV, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

my favorite music festival; Irish dancers at Irish Fest 2011, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, southeastern Wisconsin; Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011: Third Coast Daily, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/50951130@N03/6067313690

Irish Fest 2005, Henry Maier Festival Park, southeastern edge of downtown Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, southeastern Wisconsin; Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005: Sutton Kinter IV, CC BY SA 2.5 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HenryMaierFestivalPark_MidGate.jpg