WHFestival 2005

I was one of the 52,000 people that attended HFStival yesterday at Baltimore. It was a lot of fun for many reasons.

First thing: Christian and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on alcoholic beverages, when regular beverages were gonna cost a fortune. So, inspired by one of his college friends, we adopted this strategy: sneak in some alcohol. How? Fill up 2 small ziplock bags with 1-2 shots of Grey Goose, tape it into a square, and stuff it. In. my. bra. (fortunately, my mom, thinking i'm gonna "grow," has gotten me bras with bigger cups than i have boobs). It looked a little unnatural, but hey, i had alcohol implants. LOL! So, during 2 occasions throughout the day, we got ice-cold sprites and slipped in the vodka for a niiice buzz.

I liked how it was general admission and there were no assigned seats. THis was great because during the day, it was hot and sunny, so we sought seats in the shade, and then it rained as a thunderstorm passed overhead, and we sought seats that were covered by upper levels. You could go onto the field if you so desired. M&T stadium also has nice widescreens that were broadcasting what was going on onstage.

As said thunderstorm was passing through, we had a slight rain delay cuz of lightning and thunder. It was right before Coldplay and Foo FIghters, which may have truncated their sets. While most of those on the field went inside the concourse, some decided to stick it out and have some fun. They took off the tarps from the beer trucks and made slip n' slides. THe crowd that was sheltered from the rain would cheer people on as they tried to go as far on the slide. Shirtless guys had the best distance. There was a cool lightning show as well; bolts would streak the sky in cool patterns, and the crowd oohed and aahed.

So, the bands. My favorites:
~ We caught the end of They Might Be Giants. We then went to the Street Stage to catch The Stereophonics. They put on a good set; christian really dug them. Unfortunately, we had missed Jimmie's Chicken Shack because of traffic upon exiting the freeway and finding parking. We went back to the main stage and hung out with Scottie, Haley & co. Garbage was really good, and the following acts were uneventful. It started sprinkling during Social D's set, so we walked to another section where we were sheltered from the rain; the sheltered seats in our current section were filled up, as they provided a really good view (since we were in a football stadium, i'd say the seats were around the 40-50 yard line).

Social D put on a good set too, many tunes I'd heard of. Good Charlotte, blah. I'm not a big fan of their stuff. Billy Idol put on a freakin' good set. Soooo fun. He's a character on stage too, really funny. He also looks real good, compared to the emaciated state of the lead singer of the New York Dolls, whoever he is. The crowd was so ALIVE while Billy Idol was onstage, dancing and having a real good time. Then the rain delay came, and finally Coldplay was allowed to go onstage. I was real excited to hear some new stuff from their upcoming album, but they didn't play as many songs. Chris Martin did improvise for some songs, which was neat. For example, during....Politik, he changed some of the lyrics: Give me real, don't give me fake / Give me Coldplay in the rain....Give me strength, reserve control / Give me heart, and David Grohl....etc, etc. Unfortunately, i think the rain delay had shortened their set times, because they played maybe 1-2 new songs, and then Politik, Yellow, Clocks, and another old song. So they left, and Foo Fighters came on.

Foo Fighters are AWESOME on stage. Dave Grohl can really wail and jump around and rock out. He apparently grew up in Virginia and listened to HFS, and was really pissed when it turned into a Spanish station. They put on a real good set too.

So, overall, a really fun day. We were able to get out of stadium traffic early and get onto the freeway fairly quickly since we parked a little further away from the venue. Pics and videos will be online later in the week. Yay HFStival! I'm so glad it didn't sell out quickly because it was in a HUGE stadium, unlike frickin' KROQ, putting the Weenie Roast in such a small place like Verizon Wireless with a sick, sick lineup.