Festival season is here again and many find themselves walking down the glorious and gritty shakedown street, their infant eyes wide and bugged by stimulation. In the face of this strange world and culture, the newbies don’t do much more than stare at the bright lights and gawk at hip terminology. Many bite off more than they are ready to chew. It’s not uncommon for a newcomer to pass out in the fresh summer heat on day one and in reaction to the incident a friend seeks no one in particular, asking,  “Can someone find a medic?”

    A festival goer might be indigenous to America but for four fleeting days, Manchester, Tennessee, Marvin’s Mountaintop of West Virginia and other like places will become a foreign place. The land surrounding dotted campsites will be decked in bright, neon flags with vendor signs advertising four dollar hot dogs and seven dollar bags of ice as the throng is ushered toward the main stage. People dressed in flamboyant monster costumes or drag will dance around like aliens bred by some strange, bonkered world.

    Many patrons of the music festival have been doing this for years. They are the ones sitting peacefully on their Grateful Dead tapestries surrounded by friends and are the tour guides wearing homemade fanny packs with a pocket for every necessity: camera, keys, phone, water bottle, and cigarettes, among other paraphernalia. The mammas and papas of this mad carnival waltz the sun-drenched areas near the main stage misting their fellow “festies” with a spray bottle purchased at the dollar store. Veterans hold an eye out for rookies who aren’t quite as collected and are never afraid to address the grimy man speaking gibberish to passersby and ask, “How are you?”

    This question is a sentiment that passes through every music festival. Asking someone how they are doing allows two strangers to relate their level of elation as well as offer and accept help. Strangers become good friends in this fast, compact world and they enter the experience expecting nothing less. Many festival goers peruse the grounds carrying premade notes that offer contact information and an opportunity to convert a chance encounter into a real friendship.

    On the other hand, some people aren’t concerned with long-term relationships. Even after engaging in a fiery discussion about music, the nature of time and space, or carrying festival norms into the real world, many never bother asking for a name. Leaving the festival experience without concern over keeping in touch is an attitude that thrives in this world as much as a devotion to close-knit relationships. Every partier makes his or her experience unique. In a world where the spirit of people roams free and wild, always expect the unexpected and be prepared. The music festival will always be back next summer, giving music lovers a chance to reunite and improve their experience. Too bad it costs half a months rent.