When: July 31st– August 2nd
Where: Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ
Who: Jay Z, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, The Knux, Pharcyde, Carolina Liar, Ra Ra Riot, Tool, Cage the Elephant, The Ting Tings, Chairlift, Trail of Dead, Neko Case, Elbow, Coldplay, Steel Train, MGMT, Mogwai, We Are Scientists, Ghostland Observatory and many more!
The Scene: MUD, MUCK, and MUSIC! Well, some music.
“I sure hope you kids leave this park as beautiful as it was before you got here!” shouted a Jersey City jogger as I exited my first night at APW. I laughed to myself and thanked God I wasn’t in charge of dealing with the aftermath from all the heavy rain that drenched the grounds on Friday and Sunday.
What a place to see a show. The Liberty State Park venue provided a breathtaking view of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and historic Ellis Island to create a surreal music experience some of the time. The rest of the time concert goers battled shoe sucking mud and chanted profanities at the APW security guards for holding them outside the gates. And the mud smelled pretty vile at — at least until you got a few beers down.
After record-breaking rainfall on Friday, Saturday was pleasant, but still not enough to dry the grounds. More rain on Sunday forced concert promoters to push the gate opening from noon to 4:30. As you can imagine, this created quite a stir. While many chanted and raved, some folks gave up altogether and left. Well-liked bands such as Steel Train and The Gaslight Anthem had to forfeit their sets to make time for headliners such as Elbow and Coldplay.
A concert is still a concert, even in the rain. Who can stay agitated when Coldplay performed beautiful ballads such as Yellow while releasing hundreds of yellow balloons off into the NY skyline? Even I couldn’t stop dancing to performances by MGMT, and didn’t even care about stinky mud accidentally getting kicked up onto my face! Isn’t it magical that music can change your mood in a matter of seconds?
Next I’m off to the opposite end of the country for the Outside Lands Music Festival. From the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge, Music Festival Wizard will be there to cover all your favorite parties.
See you in San Francisco and I’ll be sure to wear some flowers in my hair!
