Positivus Festivāls

The weekend of weekends has come and gone.  It was crazy, magical, painful, repulsive, and wonderful all at the same time.  Positivus 2013 is definitely a weekend I will remember forever.

Friday morning I left the house in a downpour.  It was raining so hard and it was predicted to rain the entire festival weekend.  Awesome.  I was ready, though.  I had my rain jacket, rain boots, umbrella - I was not going to let the rain ruin my weekend.  No way.  I ventured through puddle after puddle until I met Carolyn, a friend from America, at a coffee shop.  We sat and chatted for awhile and waited for the rain to subside a little before heading out to meet Egija and her brother Sigurds so we could collect their stuff to carry to the festival in our car.  I was going to travel there in the car with Carolyn, Liva, her boss, and her friend Sabine, while my main festival companions, Egija, Sigurds, and Egija's friend Klinta, were traveling by bus.  When it was time for us to leave, we had so many things to do.  Liva had to pack her things, we had to pick up Liva's boss and Sabine, stop at Rimi for some groceries, and stop at the gas station.  Once we had finally done all of that, we were on the road by 4 PM.

Tent City

When we finally arrived at the festival, Egija, Sigurds, and Klinta were waiting with tent spots saved so we could all be near each other.  They had my ticket, but we had some problems with getting my ticket through.  Apparently, my ticket had already been beeped when my friends were getting their bracelets, but I hadn't been there to get my bracelet, so I couldn't get in.  We had to wait for a guy to give the check-in people the okay to give me a bracelet and let me in.  Sigurds waited with me by the gate while Egija helped bring all the stuff to the tent.  I didn't know if I'd be able to get in or not, but I was not going to let this ruin my weekend.  No way.  Finally, after half an hour, the guy called and I got my bracelet and I was in!  Now, my festival weekend had officially started.  Our group had four tents.  Carolyn, Liva, and Sabine were in one tent, Egija and Klinta in another, Liva's friends Antons and Rita in another, and me and Sigurds in the tent that I brought.  While everyone was setting up their tents, Liva, Carolyn, and Sabine's tent broke.  It looked like they were going to have to squish together with us in our tent.  Then, Egija and Klinta's tent broke.  Okay, almost everyone's tent is broken now and there isn't enough room for everyone to sleep.  Not going to let this ruin my weekend.  No way.  In the end, duct tape was purchased and everyone slept in their own tents.  Crisis averted.  Later, we headed across the road to where all the festivities were taking place.  We listened to some good music, went and hung out by the sea, and just chilled and drank for the night.  The last and biggest band of the night was Noah and the Whale.  I had never really listened to them before, but they were so good.  I will probably look them up later and listen to more of their music.

Lunch at the tent

After Noah and the Whale was over, we wanted to stay up and party some more.  We met up with Klinta's cousin, Madara.  Madara is so crazy.  She is a really personable person, but she was so drunk when we met her.  I actually don't think I even saw her at all during the weekend when she wasn't drunk... Regardless of her drunkenness, she was so fun.  We walked around and listened to a little more music while drinking.  Throughout the night, we ran into a lot of drunk people who we would sit and chat with for awhile before moving on.  Probably around 2 AM, we were walking in the grass, and I tripped on some uneven ground and fell, and sprained my ankle.  The pain was so bad, but, lucky for me, this is the third time in the last year that I have sprained my ankle, so I know the feeling really well and know when it's just a sprain.  Madara freaked out and took off for the nearest first aid station.  She came back with some bandage wrap and wrapped up my ankle, and, despite how drunk she was, she actually did a really good job.  She told us that she had told the first aid people what had happened and they said that I had to go to the station myself to get the wrap.  She told them that I couldn't go there, because I had sprained my ankle, and they told her that they wouldn't give her the wrap.  Then she told them that she was a doctor herself and knew how to wrap it.  They asked her what her name was and she gave them the name of her family doctor.  Probably just to get rid of this drunk girl, they finally gave her the wrap.  Madara to the rescue!  After that, my ankle was sore but Sigurds helped me to get around, so we still stayed out until 4 AM.  Not letting this ruin my weekend.  No way.

The Positivus crew

Saturday, we started off the morning slowly.  We woke up fairly late and got ready for the day.  Around 1 PM, we went to a school really close to the festival grounds where they were offering cheap lunch.  The food was actually pretty good.  After that, we headed over to the festival entrance, but not before Sigurds could get some ice cream.  We went to the gate, and Klinta and I got through, but Sigurds was stopped and told that he couldn't take his ice cream past the gates, so Klinta and I went back out so he could finish his ice cream.  Then, we went to the gates again.  Klinta and I got through, but Egija was stopped and told that she couldn't take her umbrella past the gates, so Klinta and I went back out so she could hide her umbrella.  Then we went back to the gates and the guard looked at me funny and said, "again??"  We all got through the gates this time and headed over to the second biggest stage to see a popular Latvian band called The Sound Poets.  They were so good.  Usually, Latvian bands are not very good, but this one I really liked.  After that, we hung out around the festival and listened to a lot of different music.  We also heard an older Latvian band called Jauns Mēness, or New Moon.  They were also pretty good.  After that we had to gather up all the strength we could for the most exciting part of the festival: Imagine Dragons.  I am so in love with this band and was so unbelievably excited to see them.  We stopped by the tent to eat some food and drink some beer and then headed back over to get our spots.  We got spots that were really close to the stage, which was really awesome.  When they started playing, I had so many amazing emotions running through my body.  This is what I love about good live music, and this is what it really feels like to be alive.  One thing I really loved about them was that they are still a pretty new band.  They only have one album out, so they were so amazed and grateful to see such a huge crowd watching them.  It was truly amazing.

After Imagine Dragons played, though, my asthma started getting really bad and I didn't have my inhaler.  I'm pretty sure 80% of the people at this festival were smokers.  Every second there was someone smoking near me and it was literally impossible to get away from it.  People would smoke in the huge crowd where everyone is so close together.  They'd blow their smoke right in your face without a care in the world.  It was so disgusting.  Klinta and Sigurds are also smokers, but at least they were considerate about it and blew their smoke away from me.  I wasn't going to let my asthma ruin my weekend though.  No way.  So I took all the mental strength I had to calm down my breathing so that I could be okay.  Compared to how I usually get when I forget my inhaler, I did a really awesome job at mentally getting my breathing under control.

Disgusting feet after Imagine Dragons

There were a few really disgusting things about Positivus, in addition to the excessive smoking.  People threw their garbage wherever they wanted, and there was trash EVERYWHERE.  I hate that.  Littering bothers me so much.  I don't understand why people can't just respect the earth and clean up their trash.  There were so many trash cans around, and it really is not that hard to pick up after yourself.  Also, after the first day, the porta potties were absolutely despicable.  Going to the bathroom was probably the worst part of the whole festival, including spraining my ankle.  But, anything that is so great has to have a few downfalls, right?  So, there is no way that disgusting people could ruin my weekend.

The last band of the night was Sigur Ros.  I was pretty excited to see them, too, because they have really good music and they are a pretty big band.  However, their concert turned out to be long and boring.  While their music is good, it is not quite right for a festival.  They have really chill and quiet music, and all of it sounds pretty much the same.  They didn't really seem like they actually enjoyed being there and didn't talk to the audience at all.  I think a huge part of being a big musician is crowd appeal, and if you don't do things to get the crowd excited or to show them how much you appreciate them, it's a big turn-off.  They were probably one of the only bands I saw where no one called for an encore, including a lot of the smaller bands.  After that concert, my ankle was hurting pretty bad and I was tired, so I headed back to the tent to get some sleep.

The XX

Sunday was the last day of the festival and by that time, I was so tired, not breathing well, in a lot of pain, and now had a cold.  No way I'm letting any of that ruin my weekend, though.  In the morning, we packed up most of our things because I was leaving after the XX would play around 1:30 AM.  During the day, we saw a lot of bands: French Films, Tom Odell, Darwin Deez, Michael Kiwanuka, and Two Door Cinema Club.  I really loved Tom Odell.  I only knew one of his songs, but all of the songs he played were so good.  Two Door Cinema Club was also really good, of course.  They were one of the bigger bands, but again, I only knew a few songs by them.  The end of the night was what we had been waiting for all day, though: The XX.  They are so amazing.  While I wasn't as excited about them as I was about Imagine Dragons, they were definitely in my top bands to see for the weekend.  The XX was the last band to play for the weekend.  Obviously, they were so good.  After the XX played, it was time to go.  It was sad leaving the festival, but I was also pretty ready to go and sleep in a bed again.  I got home around 4 AM and took a shower right away.

So many things went wrong this weekend, but I didn't let anything ruin my weekend, and you know what?  I had such an amazing time.  I will never forget the great friends that I made and the adventures I had in Salacgrīva, Latvia.  And, one of the best parts is that even though the forecast predicted pouring rain all weekend, it rained for like two minutes total.  How magical is that?  This was such a good way to spend my last weekend in Latvia.