I am not religious, but I love Christmas and celebrating throughout the holiday season. It’s the one time of year that people treat each other the way we should…with kindness and love, especially towards those who are in need. Unfortunately, the holiday season is just that…a season. It comes and goes and before we know it, the world returns to its default state and we all go back to the daily grind and all of the stress and self-absorption that living in the world sometimes requires. It’s a struggle, and it can make us feel very disconnected and even worse, depressed.
So when we attended our first music festival in 2006, we did not expect to find a pocket of holiday-like bliss in the middle of June. But we did…and we were immediately hooked. Imagine having the power to conjure that feeling whenever you wanted…it felt powerful and it completely changed our lives. Since then we have been to festivals in the East, the West, the Deep South, the North, rural England, Europe, all over the world…and the one constant is the feeling of kindness and camaraderie among the festies, and the sense that nothing is more important than loving your neighbor. Did you forget your sun lotion? Someone will see your skin turning pink and will help you out. Did you forget to bring a tampon? Someone will see you digging through your bag, frustrated, and offer one. You won’t even have to ask. Do you need water because you have been waiting 5 hours in the heat to see your favorite artist? Someone will give you theirs.
Yes there is VIP, yes there are those that have extra privileges and those that don’t. That said, no matter what ticket level you purchase, when you are at a music festival, you know that everyone is in it together! We have a common goal… to have the time of our lives. There is nothing more sacred than the present, and music festivals are a time when WE get to be present. Heck, half of the time phones, and electronic distractions won’t even work at festivals. Before you can Twitter rant, you have spent 6 hours eating cool food, drinking, talking to people you just met, and dancing to awesome tunes before you realize your shitty ass mobile company has only one bar and you can’t even post your cute fest ‘fit on the ‘Gram.
We are a social organism, the pleasure that excites our hypothalamus is not altered by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, or technological advancements. Listening to music with others is a base pleasure within our genes. Not everyone loves looking at paintings, listening to poetry, or reading a masterpiece of literature. Everyone does love listening to music. Everyone does have memories set to a song that moves them. Unfortunately, not everyone continues to seek those memories. Music Festivals are an opportunity to allow music to move you and connect you to others in a way that simply is not possible in the “Real World”.
Stairwell Baby is here to help with music discovery, everything associated with music festivals, music related travels, and travel for discovery. Our music content is aimed towards music introduction and promotion. We envision our readers as friends that simply do not have time to scour multiple blogs and playlists to discover new music. We will have oddly specic playlists to t seasons, travels, situations, moods and places. Our recommendations, not reviews, will never tear down an album or artist. We will endeavor to explain, simply, why we like the recommended artists and album. Our goal is to make it simple to nd new music that you will enjoy. We promise not to bog you down with obscure, self aggrandizing, references to 18th century literature or obscure music from 20 years ago
Travel provides the members of Stairwell Baby with experiences that expand our horizons and enrich our lives. We endeavor to share this with you. Our travel stories, guides, and recommendations aim to introduce new experiences and destinations. We also hope that you will learn from our logistical recommendations and even our logistical missteps. Also lets be honest, it is just fun to share travel stories.
Music festivals ares something we are always looking forward to. Usually, after a music festival we stop for brunch (often at a Cracker Barrel) and we recall the weekend, but mostly talk about the feeling we had throughout. Then our conversation turns to our next festival, which is usually already panned. There is a feeling of being apart of something with so many other people just wanting to enjoy themselves that creates a magical environment. Most of our travels involve music, one way or another. We travel to many music festivals, and also travel to see concerts and musician residencies. We have been avid festival goers for over 18 years and we want to share our experiences, tips, and denitely our mistakes with all of our readers.
Our musical content will include lots of playlists, recommendations, some news. We grew up with new albums and music coming out on Tuesday’s, and it made a plain weekday into something to look forward to. Now, most albums drop on Fridays, but weekends are a busy and exciting time for most people. Stairwell Baby will try to steal back a bit of thunder for Tuesdays. We plan to regularly share our album recommendations on Tuesdays instead of Fridays. This will give everyone a few days, if they want, to digest Friday’s new albums prior to our recommendations on Tuesday. After all, it isn’t like music expires or can be ruined by spoilers.
Our travel content will include blogging about some of our personal trips, guides, recommendations, lists of gear, and all the tips we can think of. We travel a lot in the summer, but we will attempt to share new content on a regular basis throughout the year. Some of this will intertwine with our music content.
Festival provide us with an organic means of discovering our music. Through SXSW and the small-font musicians at large festivals, we have been introduced to music that becomes a part of our life. We do not want our readers to go to a festival to only see artists that they know and love. Hopefully we will help you see all the artists you love and also nd new artists to love. Along the way we will share with you our tips, tricks, gear lists, and in-depth musical breakdowns of as many festivals as we can.
Summer is festival season, and it is our favorite time of the year. As we get older it is not quite as endless as it was in our youth, but it has a mystic an aura the other season do not. We love pool time, beach time, chill time, and party time. Our Summer Playlist is a soundtrack we use for roadtrips, pool days, morning runs, and just about every other occasion. Each year, we will have a very long Summer playlist, but we will have many many more playlists for you to explore. They will be for dierent locations, situations, and scenarios. We plan to take requests and will attempt to create as many thoughtfully created playlists as we can. Along the way, we will discover new bands, new music, new places, and new experiences. We hope that we are able to share that with all of you.
