13.5 hours on the road, 15 hours of sleep, endless sarcasm, ridiculous amount of laughter, a handful of shoulder rides, mass amounts of alcohol, and an unbelievable line up of talented artists, all of this combined with our fantastic accommodations, it’s safe to say that Osheaga 2014 was a success.
There are no words to describe how phenomenal this weekend was. This was my first time at Osheaga, I finally decided to go after 3 years of hearing people rave about it.
Osheaga is a three day concert over August long weekend in Montreal. It would have been ideal to make it to Montreal the day before the concert, but unfortunately I had to bartend the night before. I went to bed at 4am after work and woke up at 5am so that Haley (my best friend that I went to the festival with) and I could leave and head to Montreal at 6am. According to google maps the drive should take about 6 hours. We had to stop twice, to pee and to get gas and we made it there in 5.5 hours. The drive in wasn’t too bad, both Haley and I were exhausted. OUr exhaustion, or I should say her exhaustion led to some pretty dumb comments! We had just entered Quebec and obviously all the signs are in French because Quebec is a french province and is not bilingual. Anyways, Haley was like “Are all the signs here in French?” and I was like “yea” and she’s like “why?” I’m like “uhm, because we’re in Quebec…..” I was literally like.. are you for real? (also side note – Haley don’t be mad at me haha). We passed a KFC and in french KFC is actually PFK and Haley was like “What does KFC stand for again?” .. I don’t even think I responded, I’m pretty sure I just looked at her and laughed, she replied with something along the lines of “when I’m tired I get dumb”.
Once we got off the highway I obviously got lost and had to pull two U-turns and I was like “WOW, we’re good at Quebec”. We finally arrived at our accommodations around 11:30, we booked it through Osheaga. It was a university residence where a bunch of people who were also going to the festival stayed as well. We booked a double room with private kitchen and a private bathroom. We drove into the parking lot and before grabbing all of our stuff (which was obviously way more stuff than we needed), we decided to go for a little gander to figure out exactly where we were suppose to go. After getting lost we found our way back to the parking lot where we saw some people who looked like they knew where they were going so naturally we followed them. Sure enough they led us to the right place and we checked in. We grabbed all of our shit, literally a purse, duffle bag and backpack each plus a giant cooler. We lugged it up the underground parking ramp and into the residence up the elevator and to our room. When we opened are room door we were shocked at what we had paid for. Our room was welllllllll a little small, it was literally a hallway of a room. Double bed in the middle, a desk, little fridge, and stove, a window that opened a crack and a fan that moved slower than a fan you would make out of paper and use to fan yourself with. No air conditioning was just the cherry on top of our fabulous room. Not to mention the little blood stain on our comforter. It was a good thing our room was so hot no blankets were needed.
After putting our stuff in the room, changing and having a drink we headed to the festival. We met 4 guys (the ones we followed to the check-in) and they showed us the way to the festival. Thank goodness because Haley and I would have been hopeless (well mostly her, because apparently I’m very spatial and I could have probably figured it out). There were some really sick sets on Friday, one of the ones I really wanted to see was July Talk unfortunately we got there so late and we missed their set. I was kind of bummed out about it, but they are from Toronto so I’m sure I’ll get to see them again. We saw Awolnation, Sam Roberts Band, Childish Gambino (who was unbelievable), Foster the People (we were really close to the front for that) Haley and I were both put on shoulders and we were rocking out. I just need to comment on how I was put on shoulders on Friday. Literally picked up by the waist and in one motion put on top of shoulders – super impressive, made me feel like I was light as a feather, which is better than I felt later on in the weekend when sitting on shoulders was sometimes a struggle (*cough* Haley *cough*). We made a dance circle with the guys we were with and a guy from another group came in and danced and was absolutely insane I immediately loved it!! We also saw Skrillex and last but not least Outkast. For most of the sets we were right up close to the stage but unfortunately for Outkast we were sitting high up on the hill. That didn’t stop us from dancing our hearts out, especially when Hey Ya! came on. Haley and I were so rattled that we weren’t near the stage because 10 girls got to go up for Hey Ya! We left shortly after that song and made our way back to our room. Unfortunately Haley got a little too much sun and had to go to bed so I hung out with our new friends.
Day two was my least favourite day for music, but there were still some really great sets. We arrived early and got right up close to watch Serena Ryder. I’ve only heard a couple of songs by her from the radio and let me tell you, if you ever get a chance to see her live .. do it. She’s unreal and she loved to get the crowd involved and it was a fabulous atmosphere. We hung out on the lawn and I had a little cat nap. Being out in the sun for that long is absolutely exhausting. We were at another set, i can’t remember which one at the moment we were dancing and listening to the music – remember when I mentioned that guy that danced like crazy in our circle? Well we ran into him and his friends at one of the sets and we all became friends. It was magical … this was also the moment where my normal amount of sarcasm escalated to a whole new aggressive level.
Day three was the day I was most excited about. I was mostly excited to see Hey Rosetta, Vance Joy, Lorde and Arctic Monkeys. I saw Vance Joy at the Laneway festival in Fremantle, Western Australia in February and I was so freakkkkking excited to see them. The first set of the day was Hey Rosetta! Haley and I got really close to the front and it was a fabulous set. After their set we ran over to Vance Joy so that we could get right in the front. Just our luck though, we got there 30 mins before the set and there was already a huge crowd of people, we tried to get through as much of the crowd as possible but we weren’t very lucky. The first song that they played was Emmylou, (I’m actually listening to that sing as I’m writing this, which is so weird). It was unreal as was expected, a couple more songs were played some from the new album that has yet to be released. I really wanted to sit on someones shoulders but unfortunately there were no guys around (aka our new found friends) to lift us. So Haley and I decided to take turns, I lifted her up on my shoulders for one song and it was awesome. Being on someones shoulders for a song is amazing because you can see the artist and they can see you and you’re just above the crowd and it is just a wonderful feeling! We listened to a couple more songs before she tried to put me on her shoulders. I went to sit on Haley’s shoulders for a song and I sat on her and she couldn’t get up, not even with the help of the people around us. So I asked the guy beside her (he wasn’t a very big guy probably like 140-150lbs MAX like that might even be pushing it) anyways, I was like “so when riptide comes on can I sit on your shoulders” and he’s like “haha I’m not sure if I’m going to be strong enough” I looked at him and was like “hmm, ya probably not”. I felt like my comment may have been rude, but he indirectly implied I was too heavy for him, which is probably true. He asked his brother and friend and they both said no (jerks! They were actually just pissed at Haley and I because we made a really funny sarcastic joke and they didn’t understand it at all and thought we were the dumbest people). ANYWAYS, I really wanted to be up high for Riptide, which is the song most people know when they hear the name Vance Joy. It was obviously his last song, so when it was time, once again I tried to get up on Haley’s shoulders. I sat on her shoulders and the people around us once again, tried to help her up but no luck. Guess I’m just too heavy for anyone. Halfway through the song I was getting so anxious and I really wanted to sit on someones shoulders so I tapped a random guy on the back and asked if he would put me on his shoulders he was like yeah sure why not. So I got to enjoy the rest of riptide from up high and I was so happy. I could tell that the guy was struggling to hold me up and was relieved when I got off his shoulders at the end of the set. Once it was over everyone cleared out, Haley and I walked over to where VIP walk in and where the band goes after. I saw Vance aka James and I was being an obnoxious fangirl yelling things like “I love you”, “Marry me”, “I saw you in Australia”, I failed miserably he did not even look over. However, we met this English guy who is loving the life, he goes to so many shows and actually met Vance Joy a couple weeks prior. He was with us while we were trying to get the band’s attention. I was so determined I really really wanted to meet him, we walked around the set for a bit and then came back to the VIP entrance, I saw two of the band members sitting on the ground (far from the entrance but in plain sight). I waved to them and they waved back and then I waved them over to where we were standing. They both looked at each other and came over to talk to us. Kai, (the english guy) started talking to one of the band members while Haley and I were talking to the other – I don’t really know how this conversation went down and this all happened so quickly but somehow Kai, Haley and I got on guest list for Vance Joy’s show in Toronto November 1st I’m beyond excited. Let’s hope I get that confirmation email. Regardless of if I got on the guest list or not I would have made it out to that show because they are seriously my favourite. After Vance Joy I was on a permanent high. We were walking around the park and I turned to Haley and I was like “I’m so happy right now, like you know when you’re playing sims and you fulfill their lifetime goals and their little green diamond turns white? … that’s how I feel right now”. I am still on cloud 9. After Vance Joy we say Temper Trap, Lorde and last but certainly not least the Arctic Monkeys. Both Lorde and Arctic Monkeys put on a phenomenal show. We were right in the middle of a huge crowd and pretty close. Words cannot even describe how good the sets were on Sunday (aka yesterday).
There are so many stories I could tell but this post has gone on long enough. I’m glad I saw A LOT of familiar faces and met a lot of new faces as well. Osheaga is a great place to be and I will be making it a yearly tradition.
around the world with jenn 