Indie music and the festival season and why I've become more selective about which ones I go to.

I've been going to indie music festivals for twelve years and the quality of my experiences has had almost no correlation with the size or reputation of the festival. The best experiences have been at small festivals with lineups I didn't fully recognize, in places that were slightly inconvenient to get to, with audiences who were there specifically for the music rather than for the experience of being at a festival.

The large prestigious festivals — the ones with the recognizable headliners and the extensive brand partnerships — have gotten worse over time in ways that are predictable. The ticket prices have gone up, the corporate presence has become more visible, the audience is increasingly a general social event audience rather than a music audience. The best music I've seen at large festivals has almost always been on the smallest stages.

I've started applying a simple rule: if the lineup is more than 50% names I recognize, I'm probably not the target audience for that festival.