The Hudson Project Musical Festival of 2014 was the most exciting adventure I have ever experienced. It happened over the course of three days this past July. The goal of the people running this event was to create a modern day Woodstock, and I believe they did just that. They held the event in Saugerties, New York on Winston farm- which is over 800 acres of land. Although it was intimidating at first going on a camping trip with just me and my best friend, Katie, it truly was a life-changing experience. These types of festivals happen all the time, and have created a musically inclined following of some pretty rad people.
We arrived on Thursday night, and got our parking space- which was about 5 miles from the actual venue. We didn’t realize how much of a hassle off-site parking would be, although it was definitely cheaper. After waiting on a line for four long hours, we finally boarded the shuttle bus and were on our way! Lucky for us, or so we thought, Katie and I had a friend of ours, who we planned on camping, with take our tent to set it up before we got there. We arrived at our camping area at around 4 in the morning and in our state of deliriousness, we noticed our tent had not been set up.
Although Katie and I are both children who grew up around camping, neither of us could set up her tiny tent, especially not at 4 in the morning. With help from our friends, we managed to set up our tent- barely. Our excitement didn’t keep us up for long, and we slept dreaming of the long days we had ahead. Friday and Saturday were surreal. We emerged from our tent each day to see what seemed to be miles of more tents. Katie and I were like children in a candy store. The camping areas were set up and named after, the 5 city boroughs.
In the center of all this chaos, was the music area- which was huge. There were 3 huge tents, and 2 main stages. Amongst the unique people and music there were tons of little shops selling an arrangement of little trinkets, hippie clothes, and whatever other wonders you may have found. Although we were exhausted from the night we arrived, you would have never been able to tell. Throughout the day, the artists who played were obviously not the headliners me and Katie had come for, so we would walk around and explore all they had to offer at this amazing place.
This festival was not limited to just music, in the center of the concert area, there was a huge circle of 5 blank canvases that you could buy, if you desired. At first we obviously did not know what this was, but as the weekend went on these blank canvases were transformed into amazing works of art. There was a set schedule every day and many different activities were included. It was a bit difficult to get to enjoy early morning activities offered, such as yoga and other meditations, because the DJs who played at night would go on until around 2 in the morning. Saturday night was my favorite night, but it created a big mess.
Katie and I, along with a group of friends from home we met up with, were wandering from stage to stage waiting for Big Gigantic, a group we all looked forward to seeing. They played for about 2 hours, and every second was amazing. Due to the fact that charging your phone was nearly impossible, it was very important to make sure you stayed near your group. So, Katie and I were in a group with 3 of our close friends having an amazing time dancing and enjoying the great music when all of a sudden it began to downpour. The initial reaction of everyone was just to scream- out of anger, excitement, and even fear.
Although this event definitely made me dislike the rain, the way the rain felt with that music was indescribable. After about 5 minutes we all realized that we all had our phones and they would be ruined soon if we didn’t act quickly. Since Katie and I’s tent was a lot closer than our friends, we made a sacrifice and took everyone’s belongings back to our tent. We did not have our phones so we made a plan to meet at a spot in 20 minutes. Now, teenagers do not have a great sense of time so we all had our doubts about actually meeting up-especially because there were thousands of people all around us.
Once we got to our tent- the reality of it all set in. Like I said, our tent was barely set up, and we knew that the rain was getting in. We did what we could to protect our things from getting soaked, but our effort didn’t help much. By the time we were finished we knew it had absolutely been 20 minutes, so naturally we spent another 10 minutes debating if going out in the rain was worth possibly not finding our friends. We finally decided that we were here regardless of the circumstances, and that we needed to make the best of it. We ran to the concert area and felt completely lost scanning the huge crowds.
There was one big white tent right in the middle and that’s where we had said we would meet. Katie and I walked right up through the tent and emerged on the other side to see another huge mob in front of the main stage; we were almost out of hope at this point. All of a sudden, we saw our friends and rejoiced. We all decided that it was some type of miracle; they had been walking around looking for us because we took so long and were about to head back to the show when they saw us walk out of the tent. This happening reversed any negative thoughts I was having about the rain, and I had an amazing night.
Sunday was the day “mudson project” started. I would always wake up before Katie simply because I couldn’t sleep once the sun was up. Sunday morning, myself and Angela (a mutual friend of Katie and I) decided to take the shuttle bus to my car to charge our phones. The weather for that day was not looking promising and in my tired state I decided we would probably leave that night, instead of Monday morning. Our camping location really ended up saving our lives. We entered at the north entrance and the shuttle bus “stop” was a gas station about 5 minutes walking distance from our tents.
By the time me and Angela got to my car, we were shot. After 3 days of being up until 2 A. M and awake by 8 A. M- the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to us. I decided that Katie and I would leave that night after the artist we wanted to see was finished preforming. The decision to move my car to a hotel across the street that day was the best decision I made all weekend. When we arrived back at the camper I told Katie the plan and at first she was upset because she, obviously, did not want to leave this amazing place. Literally over-night this beautiful farm land turned into a huge mud pit.
Sunday was a bit of a recuperation day so we didn’t leave the tent until the first artist we wanted to see was preforming, this was not until 5 P. M. We spent the day being lazy and as the time approached our anticipation grew. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the gate to the concert area the security officers were turning people away. We over-heard a few conversations and realized that they were cancelling the day’s performances due to the weather. Everyone was really upset by this, of course, because we all paid good money to come to this event.
Once Katie realized the concert was probably over she came to her senses and we started to bring the bulk of our things to my car so we would have a lighter load later on. We waited a few hours just to be sure we wouldn’t miss anything, but we instead got caught in the most intense rain storm I have ever been in. My car was not even half a mile from our tents, and by the time we got to it with the remainder of our things, I felt like I just got out of a pool. By the time we left on Sunday evening, we were smelly (showers were 6 dollars-each), tired, and ready to be in our beds.
This music festival was by far the most exciting thing I have ever experienced. It was an eye opening event that exposed me to not only new music, but new people, unique art, and a different way of life. On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 7:37 PM, Kayla Kelly wrote: Kayla Kelly The Hudson Project Musical Festival of 2014 was the most exciting adventure I have ever experienced. It happened over the course of three days this past July. The goal of the people running this event was to create a modern day Woodstock, and I believe they did just that.
They held the event in Saugerties, New York on Winston farm- which is over 800 acres of land. Although it was intimidating at first going on a camping trip with just me and my best friend, Katie, it truly was a life-changing experience. These types of festivals happen all the time, and have created a musically inclined following of some pretty special people. We arrived on Thursday night, and got our parking space- which was about 5 miles from the actual venue. We didn’t realize how much of a hassle off-site parking would be, although it was definitely cheaper.
After waiting on a line for four long hours, we finally boarded the shuttle bus and were on our way! Lucky for us, or so we thought, me and Katie had a friend of ours who we planned on camping with take our tent to set it up before we got there. We arrived at our camping area at around 4 in the morning and in our state of deliriousness, we noticed our tent had not been set up. Although me and Katie are both children who grew up around camping, neither of us could set up her tiny tent, especially not at 4 in the morning. With help from our friends, we managed to set up our tent- barely.
Our excitement didn’t keep us up for long, and we slept dreaming of the long days we had ahead. Friday and Saturday were surreal. We emerged from our tent each day to see what seemed to be miles of more tents. Me and Katie were like children in a candy store. The camping areas were set up like, and named after, the 5 city boroughs. In the center of all this chaos, was the music area- which was huge. There were 3 huge tents, and 2 main stages. Amongst the unique people and music there were tons of little shops selling an arrangement of little trinkets, hippie clothes, and whatever other wonders you may have found.
Although we were exhausted from the night we arrived, you would have never been able to tell. Throughout the day, the artists who played were obviously not the headliners me and Katie had come for, so we would walk around and explore all they had to offer at this amazing place. This festival was not limited to just music, in the center of the concert area, there was a huge circle of 5 blank canvases that you could buy, if you desired. At first we obviously did not know what this was, but as the weekend went on these blank canvases were transformed into amazing works of art.
There was a set schedule every day and many different activities were included. It was a bit difficult to get to enjoy early morning activities offered, such as yoga and other meditations, because the DJs who played at night would go on until around 2 in the morning. Saturday night was my favorite night, but it created a big mess. Katie, myself, and a group of our friends were wandering from stage to stage waiting for Big Gigantic, a group we all looked forward to seeing. They played for about 2 hours, and every second was amazing.
Due to the fact that charging your phone was nearly impossible, it was very important to make sure you stayed near your group. This was my first experience, but I took note that many people who regularly attend these events create huge signs to hold up above the crowd for friends to see. So, Katie and I were in a group with 3 of our close friends having an amazing time dancing and enjoying the great music when all of a sudden it began to downpour. The initial reaction of everyone was just to scream- out of anger, excitement, and even fear.
Although this event definitely made me dislike the rain, the way the rain felt with that music was indescribable. After about 5 minutes we all realized that we all had our phones and they would be ruined soon if we didn’t act quickly. Since Katie and I’s tent was a lot closer than our friends, we made a sacrifice and took everyone’s belongings back to our tent. We did not have our phones so we made a plan to meet at a spot in 20 minutes. Now, teenagers do not have a great sense of time so we all had our doubts about actually meeting up-especially because there was thousands of people all around us.
Once we got to our tent- the reality of it all set in. Like I said, our tent was barely set up, and we knew that the rain was getting in. We did what we could to protect our things from getting soaked, but our effort didn’t help much. By the time we were finished we knew it had absolutely been 20 minutes, so naturally we spent another 10 minutes debating if going out in the rain was worth possibly not finding our friends. We finally decided that we were here regardless of the circumstances, and that we needed to make the best of it.
We ran to the concert area and felt completely lost scanning the huge crowds. There was one big white tent right in the middle and that’s where we had said we would meet. Katie and I walked right up through the tent and emerged on the other side to see another huge mob in front of the main stage, we were almost out of hope at this point. All of a sudden, we saw our friends and rejoiced. We all decided that it was some type of miracle; they had been walking around looking for us because we took so long and were about to head back to the show when they saw us walk out of the tent.
This happening reversed any negative thoughts I was having about the rain, and I had an amazing night. Sunday was the day “mudson project” started. I would always wake up before Katie simply because I couldn’t sleep once the sun was up. Sunday morning, myself and Angela (a mutual friend of Katie and I) decided to take the shuttle bus to my car to charge our phones. The weather for that day was not looking promising and in my tired state I decided we would probably leave that night, instead of Monday morning.
Our camping location really ended up saving our lives. We entered at the north entrance and the shuttle bus “stop” was a gas station about 5 minutes walking distance from our tents. By the time me and Angela got to my car, we were shot. After 3 days of being up until 2 A. M and awake by 8 A. M- the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to us. I decided that me and Katie would leave that night after the artist we wanted to see was finished preforming. The decision to move my car to a hotel across the street that day was the best decision I made all weekend.
When we arrived back at the camper I told Katie the plan and at first she was upset because she, obviously, did not want to leave this amazing place. Literally over-night this beautiful farm land turned into a huge mud pit. Sunday was a bit of a recuperation day so we didn’t leave the tent until the first artist we wanted to see was preforming, this was not until 5 P. M. We spent the day being lazy and as the time approached our anticipation grew. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the gate to the concert area the security officers were turning people away.
We over-heard a few conversations and realized that they were canceling the days performances due to the weather. Everyone was really upset by this, of course, because we all paid good money to come to this event. Once Katie realized the concert was probably over she came to her senses and we started to bring the bulk of our thins to my car so we would have a lighter load later on. We waited a few hours just to be sure we wouldn’t miss anything, but we instead got caught in the most intense rain storm I have ever been in.
My car was not even half a mile from our tents, and by the time we got to it with the remainder of our things, I felt like I just got out of a pool. By the time we left on Sunday evening, we were smelly (showers were 6 dollars-each), tired, and ready to be in our beds. This music festival was by far the most exciting and thing I have ever experienced. It was an eye opening event that exposed me to not only new music, but new people, unique art, and a different way of life.
