Friday 9/27. 4:37 PM. I was scrolling through TikTok and I saw a girl talking about how All Things Go ticket resale prices have dropped because Chappell Roan pulled out. For kicks, I decided to check out StubHub. The Sunday tickets were still more expensive than I hoped, but then, I spied a $25 ticket for Saturday. I texted my friend, Autumn, who had bought her tickets way back in April, and said “should I?”. And I did.

Saturday 9/28. 11:51 AM. I stepped foot into Merriweather Post Pavilion for my first ever festival! There was no time to waste. Wasia Project was on at 12 and they were one of the artists that I was set on seeing their full performance. Wasia Project is made up of brother-sister duo Will Gao and Olivia Hardy. I first saw Will Gao as Tao Xu on Netflix’s Heartstopper. As I often do when I finish watching a tv show, I researched the entire cast and discovered Gao’s musical project Wasia Project. Even though I didn’t know a ton of their music beforehand (again, I bought my ticket less than 24 hours before the festival, I did not have time to prepare), it was still so fun to see them live and hear the songs I did know. 

After Wasia Project’s set, we decided to explore the rest of the festival. We wandered over to the Chrysalis stage and caught a couple minutes of Annie DiRusso’s set. Then, we checked out all the booths featuring photo ops, drinks, and food.

Once we had walked around we decided to head back to the Pavilion stage. We caught the end of grentperez’s set and settled in for Indigo de Souza. After their set we decided to plant ourselves at the Pavilion stage. Both Autumn and I were incredibly excited for Laufey, who was headlining the festival. We had found decent seats and didn’t want to run the risk of losing them while at the Chrysalis stage. Throughout the rest of the day we got to see Maisie Peters, Julien Baker, and Bleachers. At this point in the day the acts between the Pavilion stage and Chrysalis stage were more staggered and Chrysalis stage performances were shown on the screen at the Pavilion, which I thought was a nice touch.

Finally, it was time for Laufey. She was performing her headlining set with the Kennedy Center Orchestra, which I was so excited about. I grew up going to Kennedy Center family symphony days, have seen ballets, and countless musicals there so it was really special to have this orchestra perform with one of my favorite artists. The set was absolutely beautiful. Laufey’s voice sounded just as perfect live as it does on her recordings and she also had beautiful visuals to go along with her songs.  

After Laufey my first festival experience had come to an end. It was such a fun day and a perfect pick me up after a week of dreary Maryland weather. I can’t wait to see what the lineup is for next year. 

I also made a TikTok with more details about the artists we saw!