Our camping adventures started with a trip to Imagine Festival last year. It was an opportunity to see music that I love, the big draw being Tiesto and Deadmau5. Who knew that the trip would launch an entirely new lifestyle for us? And what a wonderful life change it has been. We enjoyed the festival so much that we purchased our tickets for this year very quickly after our return home.
We have been getting ready for this year’s trip for most of the year. We acquired a large two-room tent, an inflatable sectional sofa, an inflatable lounge chair and other small things to enhance our festival experience. We started prepping meals about a week before the trip. Last year it was the two of us, our son Joe and his girlfriend Bridget. This year we had a group of ten, which made the trip that much more fun.
We all purchased the early day ticket which allowed us to start camping on Thursday, a wonderful choice. Most of the group went down on Wednesday and spent the night in Atlanta. Chris and I worked Wednesday night. After work, we finalized the last of our food preparations and headed out at 3 am for the long drive to Atlanta.
The trip was nicely uneventful. We arrived at our meeting spot around 2:00. The other cars had window paint designating 1 of 4, 2 of 4, 3 of 4 and ours became 4 of 4. We made our way to the Speedway to let the fun begin. After they searched our car (they confiscated our bug candles and six beers) we were able to pick out our camping spot. We found a great spot next to a grove of trees (a nice block to the early morning sun) not too far from the festival entrance and near the bathrooms without being too close. We set up a compound consisting of 4 canopies and the big tent. We put up tapestries to enclose our space. Joe had tie-dyed sheets to use as tapestries and they were beautiful. We also put tapestries between the canopies and the big tent creating a ceiling over most of the space. We set up personal tents around the outside of the compound. We heard several comments from passersby throughout the weekend in awe of our setup, one even referring to it as a castle.
After setting up, we had tamales and relaxed for the rest of the day. We went up to Main Street for a little shopping and went to the Silent Disco for some entertainment. The Silent Disco is a great time. Headphones allow you to switch back and forth between the two DJs on stage. Finally, around midnight my body said it was time to quit and my 39 hour day came to a close.
The next morning I awoke refreshed and ready to enjoy the festival. We headed back to Main Street again and purchased a new tapestry (unfortunately the two we had ordered for the festival did not arrive until after we left on Thursday). We found one that matched the one in our front window at the house. Most of the day we just relaxed as the rest of the festival-goers filled in the camping fields. We wandered around the campsites enjoying the wide variety of camping setups. My favorite was the VW hippie bus, but I can’t complain about the pickup truck near us with the giant booming speakers and the muscular dancers dressed as Spartans. The guys were enjoying the view as well. The festival has a very free spirit vibe with plenty of nearly naked people wandering around. It was a joy to see so many people of different shapes and sizes comfortable in their own skin.
As the sun lowered in the sky, the girls and I put on our festival wear. There were long, glittery eyelashes, facial gems, bracelets, candy necklaces, glow sticks, festival clothes, pasties and lots of glitter. The guys rocked masks, headgear and dark glasses. We walked into the festival super cute.
We all had express entry included with our tickets so breezed right through the lines. Walking into the Speedway, I felt the same awe as last year at the first sight of the venue. The bleachers shook with the bass, lights were flashing everywhere and the music was insane. There are five stages so you can find something that you love at every turn. Plenty of vendors offered awesome wares and the food trucks offered a great variety of delicious cuisine. We found a Mediterranean truck with wonderful gyro and feta egg rolls and tasty chicken shawarma. We wandered around until 3 am soaking up the atmosphere, listening to fantastic music and dancing our hearts out. After the show, we hung out in our compound until 5 am just enjoying the atmosphere.
The sun made sleeping in the tent after 10 very uncomfortable so Chris and I moved to the chill room and crashed on the sectional with fans for a few hours. We enjoyed grilled pimento cheese sandwiches before heading into the second night of adventure. We spent most of night two at the Oceania stage and enjoyed a tremendous show while eating poutine from a food truck. The light shows were spectacular. I even broke out the PixelWhip and had a great time dancing the night away. I enjoyed falling asleep to the din of sound around me…people talking, music playing, the beat of the bass at the “secret” stage nearby. There is a beautiful electricity in the air throughout the festival.
Day 3 of the festival is a very quiet day. As much fun as the festival is, by Sunday exhaustion starts settling in. We just hung out until it was time for the show. As Sunday’s show ends at midnight, we headed in earlier than the other days. Once again the show was spectacular. Chris pulled out his light gloves and entertained the people around us. A couple near us left a circle of glow sticks on the ground. I enjoyed watching people’s delight at discovering the circle. One couple found it and started dancing inside. Another young woman used it as a spot for a mini photoshoot. The last show at the Oceania stage ended with a beautiful burst of fireworks, followed by John Lennon’s Imagine playing as people moved away from the stage. We watched the last act of the night from the bleachers heading out of the Speedway. We stopped on our way out of the venue to buy t-shirts and headed back to our tent. We enjoyed sitting in our compound listening to the sounds around us. We were really entertained by the conversation about our tapestry coming from outside. The tapestry’s name is Union and the couple on it very much resembles Chris and I. The couple we were listening to was discussing the possibility that we had done a photo shoot and then had the tapestry made from that. I was happy when they peeked inside our tent to get the real story. When we saw the tapestry last year, my reaction was “that looks like us”, so of course we had to get it. When it is not part of our festival setup it hangs on the wall beside our bed and makes me smile every morning.
After falling asleep to the thump of the bass once again, we awoke to an announcement. “It is 9:41 in the morning. The festival has been fun, but it is time to go home” was being broadcast by the police as they slowly drove through the campground. It was actually a pleasant way to wake up. We were efficient at packing up and were ready to go in an hour. Khristal mentioned that it would be nice to go somewhere cool for breakfast and I remembered Silver Skillet Restaurant in Atlanta. We had planned to eat there last year but never made it. We had a lovely breakfast before we made our long trek back to Virginia. Once we made it home, we invited everyone to come over for the tacos that we did not manage to make on Sunday.
The festival was a wonderful adventure and we were so happy to share it with our son and his friends. It was a great bonding experience and nice to get to know his friends on a more personal basis.
And yes, we do already have our tickets for next year. 🙂
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