Our rules for music festivals

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 on https://www.npr.org/2026/02/10/nx-s1-5704763/the-pop-culture-hill-ill-die-on How we handle spoilers https://www.npr.org/2026/04/09/nx-s1-5776802/how-we-handle-spoilers Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support Pop Culture Happy Hour+ https://plus.npr.org/happy See pcm.adswizz.com https://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 https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:15Speaker 01

  Stephen, question. What was the last music festival you went to?

• 0:19Speaker 02

  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.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  Okay. Oh, shade from the, from the heat?

• 0:34Speaker 02

  Shade in a good way. Shade in the way of not dying of sun poisoning.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Okay, gotcha. Yes, yes, yes. That is very important, very key.

• 0:42Speaker 02

  I will throw no shade at All Things Go.

• 0:50Speaker 01

  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 With Your Happy Hour is my fellow co-host, Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Hey, buddy.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  And also with us is NPR music producer, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Hey, Isabella.

• 1:29Speaker 03

  Hi, Ayesha. Thanks for having me.

• 1:30Speaker 01

  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?

• 1:40Speaker 02

  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 Rodrigo has talked about this. Noah Khan has talked about this. 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.

• 2:21Speaker 02

  Now, I could be talking about, like, my rule of concert etiquette is don't soil yourself so as not to lose your, your prime spot. But I feel like that's sort of implied. But I do want to talk about the front row, specifically the spot 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.

• 3:03Speaker 02

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

• 3:37Speaker 03

  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, 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.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:22Speaker 03

  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.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  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.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  And we had to like make sure she was okay.

• 5:26Speaker 02

  Vacate the premises.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, 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 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?

• 5:51Speaker 02

  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, huh, huh, oh, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry.

• 6:02Speaker 01

  That's very kind of you, Stephen.

• 6:04Speaker 03

  Not everyone is like that, Stephen, and we are grateful for you.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  Okay, but like, I mean, it's not about my, it's kind of about my virtue. But, 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 your position right under these gigantic speakers. You're not necessarily getting the best sound. Maybe, maybe you're getting the best visuals, but you're also just having your, 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.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Isabella, 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, banned phones.

• 7:05Speaker 03

  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, be it 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.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  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.

• 8:32Speaker 03

  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.

• 8:46Speaker 02

  I've often found at festivals that I have a terrible signal.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  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, you know, I will say, you know, just kind of inside baseball, you know, Ayesha, 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

• 9:29Speaker 02

  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.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:49Speaker 03

  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.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  Well, that's the 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, Christina 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 gonna 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-

• 10:41Speaker 02

  Let the professionals do their work.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  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 gonna 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 wanna 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 wanna be in the moment and there is nothing to be gained. And when I think about the videos that I do have from festivals past, I don't think I've ever really gone back and watched any of them, back when I was still doing that,

• 11:28Speaker 01

  when I was trying to video them. Yeah, it's, just seems like a waste. Absolutely.

• 11:32Speaker 03

  Agree.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Well, we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, I'm gonna share my pick for a music festival etiquette hill I would die on.

• 11:41Speaker 00

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• 13:12Speaker 02

  Aisha, what is the hill that you would die on when it comes to festival etiquette?

• 13:17Speaker 01

  Okay, so mine is actually, I feel like it's kind of an extension. It all 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, I can't deal with this. But like, I think we've all been here where we're, 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 gonna be, this is where we're camped out. If we have to go to the bathroom, we're gonna 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

• 14:00Speaker 01

  getting bumped, or you're getting inconvenienced and other people around you are not moving and it turns into like a traffic jam. My thing, my hill that I will die on is that if you are gonna 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 are gonna 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 gonna take probably about 15 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 gonna find my friends?

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Or like, if you're with a large group, and at festivals, you're, 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-

• 15:01Speaker 02

  On a stick.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  On a stick. Or if, 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?

• 15:18Speaker 03

  100%.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  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, 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-

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  -but to move in front of. I am a natural person to move in front of, in part because I'm not gonna 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, 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.

• 16:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:24Speaker 03

  I totally agree. And I think this goes back to Stephen'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 a 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 gonna 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, 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 gonna go towards the back, like, you see each other after the set, just like enjoy.

• 17:09Speaker 03

  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.

• 17:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, just be. And look, I am, I'm gonna 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 gotta go around. I've done it before, some people don't like it, some people are too drunk to realize what's happening.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Path is closed.

• 17:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm, I'm like, no, I'm like the troll at the, at the bridge, like, no, 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.

• 18:12Speaker 02

  In society.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Exist in society.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes. Well, I feel like we've all made our points and we, 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?

• 18:33Speaker 02

  Festivals are supposed to be fun and good.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, not stressful.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  They should not be like miserable camps in which, in which we're all getting heat stroke and dehydrating and damaging our hearing. They're supposed to be fun.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  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.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Look, case closed, that is our story, we're sticking to it. That brings us to the end of our show. Stephen Thompson, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, thanks so much for being here.

• 19:03Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 19:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love being cranky about music festivals. That's, that's my bag, that's my bag.

• 19:10Speaker 01

  This episode was produced by Mike Katsev and Lennon Sherburne and edited by our showrunner Jessica Reedy. Hello, Kimin 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.

• 19:23Speaker 03

  Maybe at a festival.

• 19:29Speaker 04

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