I confess that I'm turning into an old fart.
We have this music festival called Summerfest. 55 years on the shore of Lake Michigan, a dozen stages including one that seats 10k and one that seats 23k. General admission gets you into every stage, although the 10k that's half reserved and the 23k seater that is probably 80% reserved which require a separate ticket for the reserved seats. It was a lot of fun when I was 25 and it was $3 a beer. It was also a lot of fun til I got burned out on it thru work. A lot of radio stations sponsored stages. We did live broadcasts, introduced bands. There was free beer and clean restrooms backstage. It was an 11 day party.
I haven't been there in almost 10 years. And that was for work. Did my show, saw a band and got the hell out before sundown. Pretty much perfect.
We're not out there every day like we were years ago. I can still get free tickets for almost whatever I want thru work. They spend money with us, we hype. One hand washes the other and everyone goes home happy.
As soon as I saw Cheap Trick on the schedule, I put in for tickets. They're playing on opening night, which is a few Thursdays away. Didn't think much else about it except to think about how to weasel myself a parking pass. It's probably $30 nowadays. Ugh. Whatever. Better than getting barfed on riding one of the shuttles.
I assumed that the band would go on at 7 or 8. The festival opens around noon and closes at midnight, with headliners starting at 7, 8 or 10. I looked up the start time the other day. CT starts at 10. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I assumed that since it's an older crowd they'd play earlier. WRONG. That means they get done around 11:30 (which is curfew for bands), I'm in the car at midnight and with any luck out of the lot in another 20 minutes. Then another 20 minutes home. Lucky if my head hits the pillow by 1am, 1:30 if I have to crap before bed. And then be coherent for work.
And this is exactly what I would make fun of "old" people for 30 years ago. I guess mommy's alright, daddy's alright... they just seem a little weird. And get off my lawn.