Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our rules for music festivals

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Have some people forgotten how to behave at music festivals? Summer is peak music festival season, and that means many of us are braving huge crowds and sweltering heat to see a bunch of artists we love in one place. But is there a decline in social decorum in these concert settings? From using phones to being in the front row to navigating crowds, today we’re sharing personal and passionate takes about music festival etiquette.If you are looking for more episodes like this one, check out:The pop culture hill I'll die onHow we handle spoilersConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport Pop Culture Happy Hour+See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Stephen, question. What was the last music festival you went to? I was trying to remember. It was either ACL in Austin or the All Things Go Festival. I think I've been at All Things Go more recently. Excellent, excellent festival with lots of shade, which is key. Okay. Oh, shade from the heat. Shade in a good way. Shade in the way of not dying of sun poisoning. Okay, gotcha. Yes, yes, yes. That is very important. Very key. I will throw no shade at all things go. It's summer. It's peak music festival time, which means many of us are going to be braving the huge crowds, the sweltering heat, overpriced concessions.

They're so overpriced. They're so expensive. Just so we can catch a bunch of the artists we love all in one place. And look, if you've been to a big fest recently like I have, you may have noticed that some people don't know how to be outside. But we're each here to share our perspective on festival etiquette that we feel very passionately about. I'm Aisha Harris and joining me today on NPR's Pop Winter Happy Hour is my fellow co-host, Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen. Hey, buddy. And also with us as NPR music producer,

Isabella Gomez, Sarmiento. Hey, Isabella. Hi, Aisha. Thanks for having me. Great to have you. So, let's get into it. Stephen, what is one of your things that you've noticed at festivals that you wish people would just be a little bit better about? Well, I already mentioned the whole every festival should have ample shade. But what I wanted to go with, is actually what kind of inspired this conversation, which is this recent dialogue that has been happening out in the world, specifically about people soiling themselves in the front row of concerts because they don't want to lose their primo spot in front of the stage. Olivia Rodriguez has talked about this. Noah Kahn has talked about this. I'm not talking about medical conditions. I'm talking about people where it's like, if I leave my spot,

To go to the bathroom, I won't get to see my favorite artist, and it is worth literally soiling myself so that I can be close. Now, I could be talking about, like, my rule of concert etiquette is don't soil yourself, so as not to lose your prime spot. But I feel like that's sort of implied. But I do want to talk about the front row, specifically the spots where you have an unobstructed view. My take is that that spot is overrated, that the front row is not actually.

the best place to see a concert. You are being mashed up against barricades. You are resented by many people around you. There are sometimes better spots, specifically around the soundboard, where you have

sometimes unobstructed views. If you're able to situate yourself behind the soundboard, you sometimes have almost as good a view, but not around so many people in their awful breath. So to me, the first thing that jumped out to my mind is that the front row is often seen as this destination

where everybody needs to wait 12 hours in order to stand there. But I feel there are actually better places to see a show within a festival crowd. And if you need to use the toilet, you can get back to it without much difficulty. I agree. I think the most fun festival experiences I have had have been when you're closer to the back or in an open field situation, you have lots of room to dance with your friends. You can see, like you're far enough back

that people probably aren't obstructing you. The music probably sounds a little bit better and you're not getting crushed. I'm a big dancer at festivals, and I think you just have more fun when you're in a part of the crowd where you have a little bit more space to hang out with your people.

It's less stressful. You're not getting pushed and separated by the crowd. And that kind of leads into my take, which is I think there shouldn't be phones at music festivals, or at least you shouldn't be predominantly on your phone at music festivals. And I think a lot of times when you see videos of the front row,

it's a lot of people on their phones filming the festival. And I just think it's like, put the phones away. Yeah. Service is probably bad at festivals. Like, I think a lot of times you don't even need your phone to like communicate with each other because the towers might not be working properly. Like I just, I'm all for leaning into the in-person experience, communal experience. And I think being on a phone or being in the front row doesn't really facilitate either of those things. Yeah. I will also say that in my experience, I've only paid for VIP once at one of these things. But I know that VIP, when you pay that extra money, they know that the best seats are not in the front. You're going to be off to the side, usually elevated. So, I mean, look,

that's a whole other thing because you can definitely see better there. Stephen, your point completely holds true, which is that who actually wants to be in the front? The one time that I did try to get to the front of a festival, it was Kendrick Lamar. It was after to Pivot Butterfly had come out. And I remember like trying to get all the way to the front, camped out with a group of my friends. And then it was so hot in the front that one of my friends actually, she didn't have enough water or whatever. And she passed out. And we had to like make sure she was okay.

Vacate the premises. Yeah. And I don't think it would have been that bad if we hadn't been at the front smushed with everyone else. It's just not worth it. And also, Stephen, you're a tall person. But like as a small person myself, it's like, even a. if I'm very, very close, I'm still probably not going to be able to see anyway because there's just too many bodies and the closer you are and the shorter you are. It's like the vision,

it's basically impossible. So why? Well, and as a taller person with somewhat poofy hair, I'm also self-conscious about blocking the views of people behind me. And so I'm constantly kind of like, oh, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry. That's very kind of you, Stephen. Not everyone is like that, Stephen, and we are grateful for you. Okay, but I mean, it's not about my, it's kind of, it's kind of, of about my virtue. But it's also, it is kind of self-consciousness-inducing, and we haven't even gotten into the volume. You know, I'm a big proponent in general as somebody who now wears hearing aids because I've attended too many concerts without proper hearing protection, that the front row is often you're positioned right under these gigantic speakers. You're not necessarily

getting the best sound. Maybe you're getting the best visuals, but you're also just having your precious, precious hearing, possibly permanently damaged. You know, the very first festival I ever attended included the band Dinosaur Jr., which is one of the loudest live bands in history. And I'm probably still paying the price for that festival more than 30 years later. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Isabel, you've already hinted at what yours is. But this does go hand in hand, I think, is the idea of, like, being on your phone.

And this is your take, right? Like, no phones, band phones. I'm anti-phones. I think it's like festivals are one of the few opportunities where like you can really disconnect from the world. Like you are there with a certain number of people, be it your friends, beat your family. Maybe you're going solo. I think festivals like should encourage the experience of being in the moment, exploring the grounds. Oftentimes when I've been at festivals, like, especially at camping festivals, it's like you just don't need your phone.

It's way easier to be like, I'll meet you at this stage at this time or I'll meet you at this food truck at this time. You're often more likely to run into people than you are to find. them via trying to text. And I do think, I mean, for concerts in general, I have become infuriated with videos of crowds at concerts or festivals where everyone is just standing and recording. I don't understand the point of that. I don't know how likely you are to go back and watch those videos. It's become kind of like a content farming thing. Everyone wants the best video to post on TikTok. And I think that is so far removed from like the communal experience of live music. This year, for example, there were videos of Sabrina Carpenter's set at Coachella where she brought out Madonna as a surprise guest and everyone was just standing there holding their phones.

And it made me so sad and it made my skin crawl because I just don't think that's the point. And I can't imagine it's very much fun for an artist to perform to a crowd of people who aren't moving, who aren't singing and are just sticking phones in their faces, especially in that front row. Like I don't think that that's a fun thing to look out to. So yeah, I just, I don't think you need it. I think for the one day, two days, three days that you're there, you can probably get by without it. There's plenty of resources to get to water stations, food, medical tents. Like, you know, festivals are set up to be in solar spaces. You can put the phone away.

You can log off for a few hours. I've often found at festivals that I have a terrible signal. Yeah. Basically, the larger the crowd, the more people are using their phones, the less likely you're going to have a signal. And the more trouble I'm going to have playing Pokemon Go. And so very often my phone just winds up staying in my pocket anyway, because unless I'm trying to text someone, hey, where are you? There's not really a ton of use for it because you're already struggling to get a signal. And I will say, you know, just kind of inside baseball, you know, Issa, you and I both work around the tiny desk. You and I have both, you know, produced tiny desk concerts.

phones have been a scourge at tiny desk concerts, which is a very controlled, very contained space to the point where we have now instituted a policy where when the artist comes out, everybody pulls out their phone and snaps a picture, and then everybody is required to keep their phones in their pockets. And we have security stopping people from pulling out their phones and taking photos because we want people to be in the moment. Yeah. Yeah, I just think it's like I get wanting to take a couple pictures. I get maybe wanting, you know, a short video of your favorite song, having it on you for an emergency. Like, you really can't find your friend. You need to know what's going on. But overall, it's like, you just don't really need it for 99% of the time that you're there.

And I think you're more likely to impede somebody else's experience by having your phone out excessively than you are to, like, regret not having the 30 second clip of whatever song you were trying to record. Well, that's a thing, right? At this point, so many concerts are so well documented already. they have the videographers on stage who are also impeding your view if you are watching because they're like, you know, Christine Aguilera is like dancing and then like the videographer comes up and it gets in front of her and her dance. Like, look, I'm not going to knock the videographer from doing their job, but because we have that, why do I need your really crappy, shaky cam video where you can also probably see. Let the professionals do their work. Right. Yes. And you can also probably see other people's phones in your video because everyone is holding them up.

It's like, what is the point here? This is an experience if you're going to shell out that much money, why are you not in the moment? And I will say my one caveat to this experience is like if you're filming yourself and your friends, that feels different, right? Like I've taken video of myself and it's like I want to be able to remember who was there with me, remember this moment. But I'm not, I'm also doing it for like maybe 10, 15 seconds and then I put it away because you want to be in the moment.

And there is nothing to be gained. And when I think about the videos that I do have from Fest. Pass. I don't think I've ever really gone back and watched any of them back when I was still doing that when I was trying to video them. Yeah, it just seems like a waste. Absolutely. Agree. Well, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I'm going to share my pick for a music festival etiquette hill I would die on. Aisha, what is the hill that you would die on when it comes to festival etiquette? Okay. So mine is actually, I feel like it's kind of an extension. It all comes.

comes down to that experience of being in a large crowd. And the older I get, the less I can tolerate it, I'm just like, I can't do with this. But like, I think we've all been here where we're standing. We've got our place. We've got our people. And we're in our spot and we're like, this is where we're going to be. This is where we're camped out. If we have to go to the bathroom, we're going to go. But we're not going to move too much. And then all of a sudden, you see someone trying to pass through and you're like, okay, sure, you're trying to pass through. You can go. And then all of a sudden another person is passing through and then another and then another. And then finally, it's like 10 people are passing through and because it's a large crowd, they're taking forever

and now you're missing whatever is happening or you're getting bumped or you're getting inconvenience and other people around you are not moving and it turned into like a traffic jam. My thing, my hill that I will die on is that if you are going to move through a crowd and it's fine if you want to, because I've been there, I want to pass sometimes. Sometimes you're trying to find someone. But when you were going to do that, pass with no more than three of you at a time. Because three feels like the perfect number. It's, you know, it's going to take probably about 50 to 20 seconds depending on, you know, the crowd and who's more willing to let you go by than others. But once you get past three people, you are inconveniencing everyone.

This long train that just goes on and on and on until the end of time is so disruptive. And I think, like, the whole cell phones thing, like people are like, well, how am I going to find my friends? Or like, If you're with a large group and at festivals you often are with a large group, it's like, how do I find them? It's like, well, you know what? There are ways around this. There are analog ways around this. I have friends who have discovered this way, which is one of you brings like a big, giant,

plushy animal on a stick. Or if one of you is really tall, you wear a funky hat so that you can find them if you need to. And it works. Or you just, you know, you separate three at a time, three at a time, but don't all go the same way. Do you understand my pain? 100%.

Yeah. And one reason that I understand your pain particularly vividly is that I am a person who really does not like to be in a very tightly packed crowd. We're talking about like a field full of people. I will try to position myself in such a way that there is some space in front of me at all times. And some of this is just like a desire for an exit strategy. Some of it is kind of anxiety about kind of being crushed or compressed. I like to leave some space in front of me. This makes me a natural person to not cut in front of like steal a place in line, but to move in front of.

I am a natural person to move in front of, in part because I'm not going to be like, hey, man, I was here. But also because I have left a little bit of space. And it's like you said, it's fine when it's one or two or three people. But when it suddenly becomes between 40 and 11,000 people, it can be very frustrating. And it can create the kind of anxiety that was the reason I left that space in the first place. Yeah. I totally agree. And I think this goes back to Steven's point, which is a lot of times people are pushing through or passing through because they're trying to get to the front, which is like the front's taken.

People have been up there elbowing each other for hours. You know, if you're like one or two people, maybe you have good chances of kind of like wedging your way in there. But a group of more than three, you're probably not going to make it to the front. You're probably making the people who have been standing here, like, physically uncomfortable. There's too many of you. And I agree. It's like have a friend with a bandana that can like wave it up and let you know what general area to move in. Also, I just think a part of festivals is like the groups get split off.

If you're part of a big group, it ends up being like three people are in one part of the crowd. three people are going to go towards the back. Like, you see each other after the set. Just, like, enjoy. I think there's nothing more stressful than spending an artist's set, like, struggling to find your friends or struggling to move through the crowd. Like, just pause where you are, enjoy the music, resume afterwards. It's not that serious.

Yeah, just be. And look, I am going to be that person. If you try to pull that with me and there's more than three people, I will just maneuver myself so no one else can pass. And I'll say, like, nope, sorry. You all got to go around. I've done it before. Some people don't like it.

Some people are too drunk to realize what's happening. Path is closed. Yeah, I'm like, no. I'm like the patrol at the bridge. Like no more passing. No one passes. But I think that's only fair because, again, as Isabella said, we should not be spending our time trying to do other things.

We shouldn't be on our phones. We shouldn't be trying to make our way to the front. Just be. Just exist. I think that's really what it comes down to. And I think all of these things. can kind of coalesce and be implemented, not just in festival settings, but in concert settings generally, just exist.

In society. Exist in society. Yes, yes, yes. Well, I feel like we've all made our points and we hope that this gets out to the general populace and they all practice them in the real world, in society. Just be nice. Exist. That's it, right?

Festivals are supposed to be fun and good. Yes, yes, not stressful. They should not be like miserable camps in which we're all getting heat stroke and dehydrating and damaging our hearing. They're supposed to be fun. Also, like make friends with strangers. You're navigating the crowd. Like, look up. Talk to the people around you.

Engage. That's part of the experience. Absolutely. Look, case closed. That is our story. We're sticking to it. That brings us at the end of our show. It's Stephen Thompson, Isabella Gomez, Sarmiento.

So thanks so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I love being cranky about music festival. That's my bag. That's my bag. This episode was produced by Mike Katzv and Lenin Sherburn and edited by our showrunner, Jessica

Reedy. Hello, Kamen provides our theme music. And thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next time. Maybe at a festival.