Meadows Festival: The Experience (2017)

Even though it’s only been around for 2 years, Meadows has been such an awesome addition to my New York summers (last year’s event was in October, but whatever). The festival expanded from 2 days to 3 this year, and this year I attended the full event instead of just one day. So I had lots of time to take it all in!

Check-In/Security I had a media pass to Meadows this year and they had a separate entrance for press and staff! I waltzed right in every day without waiting. But it didn’t look like there was much of a line anyway.

The Crowd The difference between all-genre festival crowds and electronic festival crowds is that the all-genre people are dressed in such a way that they could conceivably go out into greater society afterward and still look normal. EDM kids are far more concerned with their outfits than other people. I like being around crowds that are a little older and a little less Instagrammy. Good job, Meadows.

Fun Stuff Day festivals are never going to have the epic type of experiential parts of camping festivals, but Meadows does a pretty good job of having graffiti art and other NYC-appropriate extras. They had the usual crop of photo booth options and sponsors handing out freebies (the free Vitamin Waters gave me so much life on these hot days). The best thing, however, was “Totally Tubular,” the crowd of blow-up wiggle guys. Whoever had this idea should be so proud of themselves.

Water What I find interesting here is that my recap from last year mentioned that Meadows had high speed spigots. This year’s event definitely did not. There were plenty of faucets but they were a little slow. Not a huge problem but I wonder why the downgrade.

Layout Probably the best festival layout I’ve ever seen. 4 stages in the middle, facing outward, with food, bars, and other vendors on the perimeter. It’s so smart and efficient.

Transportation It definitely takes time to get between my house in Brooklyn and this festival, but I LOVE being able to take the train. Full disclosure – I left the festival a few minutes early on all 3 of the days because I had no desire to be on a packed 7 train with thousands of people. I do not regret this, even though I think if I had stayed until the end I could have gotten an express train. Either way, I love the subway and I much prefer traveling to Citi Field than to Randall’s Island, the site of Electric Zoo, Governors Ball, and Panorama (which I haven’t been to).

Price This is not a cheap festival. I had a number of friends who wanted to join for a single day of the festival but were deterred by the $150 price tag (3-days were around $350, I believe). But hey, it’s New York. We expect expensive here.

Misc. They could have used more bathrooms.

And now, my friends, the 2017 festival season is over. (With the exception of Global Citizen Festival, a single-day event in Central Park with only one stage that I have never bothered to recap in this same way, although I’ve gone every single year). I’m sad, but it was an extremely full summer. And 2018 will be here before we know it!