My record for a last minute decision to go to a festival was only fourteen hours before a Midnight Thriftworks set…

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It was about 10am and I essentially snapped from FOMO. Was I ever someone to let mere logistics hold me back from getting to a festival? No! I truly pulled up a map of the Northeast, put my finger on the festival grounds and then dragged it to the nearest city on the map: Baltimore.

Of course the only bus that would leave me enough time to see the 12 am Thriftworks set was leaving in an hour. This erased any second guessing that might have happened; I was too busy frantically packing and making that bus.

All of a sudden I’m on my way to Baltimore trying to figure out how the heck am I gonna get almost three hours East to the festival grounds. I was scouring social media, hitting up every single artist community page, rideshare page, and bass community page for the entire trip.

I got to Baltimore and it was looking really bad at this point.

I dreamed of nightmarish scenarios where I was hitchhiking on the wrong side of town getting harassed by police and random people, only to spend the night on the side of the road. I got in touch with a manager for one of the artists, a dear friend of mine.

He heard I was in a bus station, comped me to the fest and gave me an incredible piece of info.

Finally, a shot in the dark that still could have totally failed for a dozen reasons. Two hours later, after a short Uber from the bus station, along with some beautiful serendipity, I was in a van to the festival, sitting behind one of my favorite artists on the bill, having him offer me a spliff.

I know taking away a lot of the details makes the story less informative, but the moral is to just get up and go.

Out of respect for the artists and teams, I can’t give away all of the secrets. With some crafty thinking and that one friend who does all the cool shit, you could figure out the hack for yourself if you were in a pinch.

Just go!

Options that you have never conceived of will appear before your eyes. People will see the effort that you are making and will be impressed enough to help you out in any way that they can.

The story is also a testament to hard work and loyalty, for no money. I killed myself for this manager, promoting countless shows for free when he was starting out and to this day he is always ready to help me.

For years I never asked for anything in return, I loved the music too much and getting involved in exchange for a ticket was more than enough. Five years after the last bit of work I did for him, he still remembers my loyalty and takes care of me, ten-fold.

I have hitch-hiked to fests.

I have gone with $25 to spend and had an incredible time.

I have washed dishes for vendors to earn a hot plate of food.

At the end of it all, you see the music and you have the unforgettable experience.

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Now, find out how you are gonna get to Lucidity, or at least, get a ticket to the closest city and hope for the best like I have done.

See you there. Tickets to Lucidity available here!

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