Moonrise Festival – Baltimore

Day festivals are my favorite, thus I was super excited for Moonrise. For once, I actually knew a majority of the artists playing, which made it hard for me to choose who to see at times (a good problem to have). I was with my best friends on my last weekend in the States and it was gonna be a great day! But, once I entered the Pimlico Race Course I thought this day festival could have been run better.

There was not a lot of shade. Yes, it was a festival in the beginning of August. Yes, I knew the sun could be shining. But when the sun was out it was pounding down on top of the 90+ degree heat. It was humid, as there was a change of a thunderstorm and there were not many places for shade. Any shade possible, from fences to behind a Port-A-Potty, was being used by someone getting some rest. Obviously the event was held at a racing center where there are not a lot of natural trees for shade. But being in the direct sunlight for that long can drain your body and I was glad I only had a day ticket for this reason.

The stages were too close together. There were 4 stages, and 3 of them were in very close proximity to each other. If you were at one stage waiting for an act to come on, you could hear another stage in the background. If acts were playing at the same time it could be heard and almost ruined the listening experience. This included food options… it was a nightmare trying to get to a stage because cuisine and drink lines were going into areas around a stage.

There were not enough water stations. There were 4 water stations, one for each stage. However, the water stations were not big enough for the amount of people at the festival. Combine that with the lack of shade and extreme heat, I was tempted to buy water instead of wait in line at the water stations.

There were not a lot of vendor shops. Each festival is different and offers different things. I felt Moonrise was sponsored by a lot of brands and that was the most of the entertainment between acts. There were not a lot of craft vendors, which I do enjoy browsing to kill time.

Entering and leaving the venue was a nightmare. My friends and I took Uber to and from the venue. When we got dropped off, we were not by the one main entrance. We got out of the car and had to walk quite far to get our wristbands. Then we had to backtrack to get to the Entrance. I did not feel the flow of people was directed well. On top of that, once we were leaving we followed the map to the taxi stand only to find no taxis. This was troublesome as some people kept walking, onto the highway no less! We ended having to get another Uber, which was almost $400 to get home!

As for the musical acts… that was best part of the day. We arrived around 5 pm and went right to Griz. I saw Griz at Camp Bisco and was excited to hear him again. I like electronic music, but I love how he incorporates live instruments into his sets.

Then we headed over to Stellar Stage to see R3HAB. I hear R3HAB on the radio quite often and was excited to finally see him in concert. I loved his set! He played some of his biggest hits while also mixing some new top songs like Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This is What You Came For.”

My friends stayed for Flux Pavillion while I got some food. I didn’t mind him, but I was glad I got a break to go to the bathroom and such. When we walked away from the set to see Bro Safari we heard Flux play his biggest hit, “I Can’t Stop.” I took a seat while Bro Safari was playing… it was too dubsteppy for me at the time. I was trying to rehydrate and rest up for the rest of the night.

One of the acts I was really looking forward to seeing was Tritonal. I’ve listened to them for awhile and they did not disappoint. I heard all of my favorite songs but I didn’t like how they kept promoting themselves during the set. Next we went to the Solar Stage to see Marshmello. I also saw them at Bisco, but at Moonrise it was so crowded and the stage he was on was so small we didn’t really hear much. Solar Stage was under a tent and we were so far out that the beats didn’t get out to us.

Last but not least we went to the main stage, Lunar, to see Bassnectar. I didn’t know what to expect, but I loved it! He mixed a little bit of everything and his light show was amazing. It was a great way to end the night.

Have you been to Moonrise? What was your experience?