It was a hot afternoon in June when I was scrolling through twitter in my air conditioned house when I saw a tweet with probably the coolest lineup ever. With artists like Beach House, Courtney Barnett, STRFKR, Hinds, and tons of others I was psyched to see, I was super excited, even though I realized I would soon be on a college student budget and probably wouldn't be able to go. I never would have guessed that five months later I'd be attending though, mud and all, having one of the best weekends of my life.

The festival I'm talking about and am going to talk about for a long time to come is of course Sound on Sound, a new festival that took place in a forest where the renaissance fair is held. Not only was the landscape insanely beautiful, but the SOS crew managed to make it even better with their decorations, like adorable wooden painted signs, lights hung between trees, and even a giant dragon head that spit smoke above the main stage. That coupled with the fact that people there were some of the nicest people I've ever met at a festival made it a weekend I won't forget for awhile. Since Sound on Sound provided me with such a great weekend, I feel it's only right that I share some of my pictures from the fest and brag about them for a little bit, so here it goes.

One of the first bands I saw, and arguably my favorite one of the festival, was Hinds, a group of four of the cutest girls who hail from Spain. Their set was crazy energetic and they made sure everyone stayed dancing the entire time. Carlotta, one of the singers, told everyone in the crowd that she hopes they find the love of their life at Sound on Sound although I think the whole crowd actually fell in love with them by the end of their set. In the middle of their show they brought a fan they had met at their signing earlier and got him to show the audience his butt they had signed a few hours beforehand and the crowd went crazy. They ended their set with a screaming chorus version of Thee Headcoats' "Davey Crockett" and definitely proved they're a force to be reckoned with in the rock world.

On Saturday I started the day off by making it just in time to catch Brian Bell (who I love very much) from Weezer's band The Relationship. They played a great set despite the malfunctions on their rented equipment, as Brian explained to the audience, and it was a great start to the second day of the festival.

My favorite band of the day though was most definitely Beach House. Every song Beach House releases feels so incredibly ethereal that I felt like I was floating their entire set. The twinkling lights behind them coupled with slow color-changing lights shining from above create an atmosphere that feels otherworldly. A few of my friends definitely cried during their set and the one thing I took away from it was that not every show at a festival has to be super rock-y to be fun. Sometimes you just need some really good vocals and a couple of twinkling lights.

Despite an evacuation and a couple hours of delay on Sunday, the last and final day of Sound on Sound was one of my favorite days at a festival ever. It was freezing, the mud was up to my ankles, and I had already spent all of my money on veggie burgers the day before, but everyone was so happy to be there that none of it mattered. I got to see Baio, the bassist of Vampire Weekend, play his solo set which included some wicked dancing, which was definitely worth my ruined shoes.

Sunday turned out to be the best night of the festival though, mostly in part because of STRFKR's performance. I had never seen them so I didn't know what to expect, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how crazy their set would be. First they brought out an entourage of people wearing astronaut suits to dance in the background. Then those astronauts took how multiple confetti guns and started shooting confetti and lit up balloons into the audience. I thought it couldn't get any cooler, but then they brought out probably the two biggest inflatable flamingos I've ever seen and started crowd surfing on them.

I couldn't get too great of a picture because I was being shoved from all directions, but you get the idea. Writing about how good STRFKR's set was literally got me excited just remembering. It definitely a great way to close one of the best festival weekends ever.

Sound on Sound's inaugural year was definitely one for the record books. The location, sets, bands, food, and overall atmosphere made it one of the coolest festivals out there and I'm so ready for it to grow in popularity so everyone can have as much fun as I did. Thanks for the good times SOS, see ya next year!