March 14 2023
Tampa, FL
Music festivals are an interesting beast because its organized chaos. That’s what I love about it so much. I like to walk around the campground section and sell flower crowns at this type of event. Setting up as a vendor is not worth it at all in terms of my product line and what I sell. I got to do it one year and I paid a fraction of the vendor fee and made maybe half of what the total vendor fee was sooo I couldn’t justify doing it by myself just to lose my ass.
This time around it was a super hot and honestly seeing some of the same gaps at this event kind made me sad. At the bigger EDM shows the outsourced staff gets underpaid overworked and they have absolutely no information (where you are, how to get help) and seeing this happen at Okee was sooooo disappointing. I believe 2 people died and honestly it was a matter of negligence. I could iterally see it from my perspective. The signage regarding not swimming did not stay posted and no one was informed that water wasn’t safe to swim in. People traveling from out of state have no idea if there’s no signage or security guard telling people not to go in the water. It’s not safe and as a Floridian I knew that coming in but not everyone did. Okee was bought by insomniacs and the event I would say has gone downhill since (what I mean by that is the PLUR is gone and its just a bunch of bros and chads if you will). I’ve seen this type of gap at events like EDC Electric Forest and Imagine where there’s a fuck it point. Where you can get into VIP because they’re not even checking the bands anymore, use the vip bathrooms because the person manning the front fell asleep sitting at his station and low key setting up the environment for theft.
I remember the year I vended Imagine we drove another vendors car to behind one of the stages and brought inventory so we could vend in the festival vs the campground. Security literally said fuck it and let us drive behind the main stage and park there.
Same vibes here. People are more into the party and abusing substances than they are interested in connecting with and meeting new people or the being immersed in the art or the music even.
I will say the stages were fire the performances were fire the art was great although it did feel like a section was missing. I didn’t go to the Griz LSDream set because I genuinely did not want to be shoved around for an hour and a half by people trying to get a “better” spot. I did go to the LSDream light code session and that was amazing. I literally worked at least 4 events last year where I just missed the experience. I know I wanted to do it when he performed at Rekinnection last year but I think the weather messed up my booth and I ended up not catching that set to clean up my display. Either way it was life changing. I could literally see my third eye open and I was using that eye to see if that makes sense. It was a beautiful and I am so grateful I got to do it:)
I lost my retainer at one point and found it later. I left it at a stage and had to look real dumb for a little to find it. My neighbors ended up getting locked out if their car and they lost their phones so I got to see how chaotic ground control was. They were a mess. I got them to the station they told us to meet them and when they arrived they said we were in the wrong spot. Either way they got help and got their car unlocked. I sold some crowns but honestly I don’t like to holler and I don’t know if I was just being shy or if I’ve decided I don’t want to do the renegade vending thing anymore. I like my set up, I like my display and that’s how I want to present myself/ the product line. I also decided that I don’t need to do the big shwaggy events. The vendor fees are so high that making a profit is pretty rough. I do better at city events, reggae shows, consciousness wellness events and even sober events. The vendor fee is typically more manageable and I genuinely make more sales. When people go too hard in the paint they don’t really shop for the cbdizzles and that’s something I’ve experienced on more then one occasion. I think that LSDream set allowed me to align with my purpose and reset my intentions in terms of how I want to run my small business:)
Again grateful for the experience. Not into the negligence from insomniacs. It screamed profits over people. Also I’m gonna add… these big production companies that advertise ariel artists and fire performers but expect to get free talent through ticket exchanges are garbage. That’s a garbage move and the fact that you won’t pay for a service you say you’re providing is just icky. Again profits over people. Looking forward to this years festival season and I’m trying to pick where I set up carefully and strategically. I want to see different parts of the country explore nature and also bring some bad ass CBD to the people <3
Until next time !
Travel Diary
