I Love: Festival Study Playlists

I spend a lot of time at music festivals, it’s the most fun in the world I can consistently find. And I’ve found that I have the most fun when I know the songs I’m about to hear. There’s exceptions, of course, I go to a very small festival where I deliberately don’t study the lineup because the discovery is part of the fun. But usually, because they cost so much, I like to know the music so I can get my money’s worth! So, whenever I get the lineup for a festival, I like to build the playlist based on who I already like or want to see live. Other factors I consider include who’s a rare get, doesn’t tour much or isn’t coming to Denver (I for instance skipped horsegiirL because she was coming to The Church and tickets were cheap, she was up against Beth Gibbons who I missed because I was already in California, so this was my only chance to see her.) And then there’s stuff I go to because my friends want to go/recommend the artist!

How do I pick which songs go in the playlist? I used to do their top songs on Spotify, but I found this wasn’t consistently what the artists would play live. A much better way I’ve discovered is to go to [setlist.fm] and look at their averages for the latest tour. Whatever they’re playing the most goes in the playlist, and artists get more songs the more I want to hear from them. Sometimes an artist will start with 3 and they end up with, like, 7-10 because I loved the 3. It’s a really useful way to decide in advance who you want to see.

As I’ve gotten more into EDM last year, I’ve found it’s trickier with DJ’s, whose fans don’t really upload setlists. In this case I’ll either go off top Spotify/Youtube Music tracks or I’ll look at entire setlists on Youtube to make up my mind. (Sometimes those videos have a setlist, too!)