Charlotte’s Lovin’ Life Music Fest: My Thoughts
This past weekend was the Inaugural Lovin’ Life Music Fest. When this festival was first announced, a lot of people couldn’t believe the lineup. To be fair, the lineup was pretty unbelievable; Stevie nicks, Post Malone, Noah Kahan, The Chainsmokers, and the list goes on and on.
What was also hard to believe was how a festival this big could be placed in the middle of Uptown Charlotte. Well, the weekend has come and gone, I went, and here are my honest thoughts.
Getting Into Lovin’ Life Music Fest
I thought that getting my wristband and getting into the festival was going to involve waiting in hours long lines, but I couldn’t be more wrong. I got my wristband the day before the festival at will-call and was impressed with how well it was organized. I waiting in line for maybe 5 minutes and was back to work before my lunch break was even over. Getting to the festival, there were of course a lot of closed roads. We lucked out and got an Uber that had already dropped people off at the festival, so he knew the lay of the land pretty well. Getting home was a different story. We ended up having to walk a few blocks to call an Uber home. Not too big of a deal considering the size of the crowd for the mainstage acts. I did have multiple friends take the light rail in, and after the headliners ended, that seemed to be PACKED. The good thing about the location is that there are a good amount of transportation options.
The Wristbands
One of the things I was most impressed with was the wristbands. You could add your card information onto them to make getting food and drinks easier, but the real benefit to these wristbands was that it made it super easy to get in and out of the festival. I liked that you could freely walk in and out, and I never had to wait in a big line to get it.
The Food/Beverage
The food may have been the biggest flop of the festival. There were only two food options in VIP, and those lines grew to be incredible long at times. There were also times when the food vendors ran out of food. There was a food area with more options in the GA area so I went to check that out. That was so crowded it was hard to even tell where one line started and the other ended. The festival could definitely improve when it comes to food organization and vendors. I found it easier to just leave the festival and go to a local spot in Uptown to grab food than to wait in any of those lines.
The beverages on the other hand were incredibly easy to get. I never had to wait very long at all for a drink. I did hear that the slushy line was really long at times (I never got a slushy drink myself) but there were PLENTY of bars in comparison to food.
The Stages
The festival had three stages, a main stage, a secondary stage, and then a local stage set up where the food was. While this was great in concept, in execution, it was a bit of a mess. Some of the acts placed on the second stage were way too big of act to be placed there. For example, trying to see the Chainsmokers on that stage was a mess. The second stage was smaller, so you would have thousands of people trying to cram into the smaller space for the second stage to see those acts. It was so chaotic at times, I just decided to skip some of the artists performing there. While I love the idea of two stages… I’m not sure it worked in this sense.
The Sound
Another reason why the two big stages didn’t work was the sound. There wasn’t a ton of artist overlap, but there was always a DJ playing on the mainstage in between artists which caused A LOT of sound bleeding. You would be trying to enjoy artists on the other stages and all you could hear was the DJ from the main stage bleeding over. There were points in the middle of the festival grounds where it was two completely different things happening, both extremely loud at the same time. The sound is definitely something that could be improved next year. Or, maybe they should just stream the acts from the second stage on the main stage in between set changes instead of having a DJ.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, I was impressed with how the festival turned out. They stayed on time and executed what seemed impossible really well. Obviously, this being the first year there are a few things they could improve on; the sound, the stages, and the food, but there were tons of positives too. While festivals aren’t always my personal favorite way to see music because of the massive crowds, I would go again next year! I think with some fine-tuning, this could be a staple Charlotte event, and I’m excited to see what they do next!
