Well in my neck of the woods, it's that time of year where we offically kick off summer with our local radio station, 98.9 The Rock.
Yes, today is ROCKFEST Day. This is where we get 15 bands, on two stages, with a sold out crowd of 50,000 people, that gather in Kansas City's Liberty Memorial Park, which is just up from the downtown area.
This day has been anticipated by many who bought, or won tickets. I knew I wouldn't be going right off, as I had a previous engagement today, and my hubby had to work, and we prefer to attend concerts with each other, we have alot of fun when we go, it's just something we do together.
This year I am missing it, and given the line up, I am missing one of the best ones to date.
We have a local group, Red Line Chemestry that will be kicking it all of on the 2nd stage at 12:00, and from there it begins.
If your a rock music enthusiast as myself, there will be great up and coming groups playing like, Saving Able, Rev Theory(Gimmie a Hell, Gimmie a Yeah!...a song I like by them),Theory Of A Deadman, 10 Years, Another Blackday, Ashes Divide, Anew Revolution. And thats just the second stage. Then there's the main stage with acts that stagger in between these guys, so there is music playing constanly all the time.
On the main stage is groups like: Another Animal, Trapt, Chevelle, Sevendust, and my personal favorites, Saliva, and Shinedowne. The main headliner closing out the day is( we even wondered if they would show because of Scott Wielands troubles with court) Stone Temple Piolots.
Now that my friends is the makings of one fine day of rock and roll outside anywhere.
Now, a little info I found out just last weekend about this festival. It has become the biggest one day outdoor festival in the entire country with 50,000 people in attendance. Never before has any city put on such a massive festival for a day as Kansas City. Apparently there were some California radio stations giving away package deals for tickets, hotel, airfare so people there could get here to see it. I though that was pretty cool.
You expect that kind of thing out of California, New York, or Chicago, but no one expects it in Kansas City. Why not? Kansas City is very much music oriented. It has always been in the business of fine music accross the board. I am quite proud of this.
Anyway, I am missing it. I have put the word out to a couple of the DJ's on the station, to post tons of pics, which they always do anyway and you will be able to go to Youtube.com and find stuff even from past years.
If you go to youtube.com, make sure you look for the video from last year with Johnny Dare inside what they call the "hamster ball". They will have it this year, but it will be another guy from the station.
If you dont know what the hamster ball is, it's this huge clear ball that you get inside of, it is then zipped up and they roll you, and you walk, if you can, out onto the crowd and they pass the ball with you inside it, all around. Kind of like crowd surfing, inside a ball.
Thing is, there is only so much oxygen time once your inside it, so you can only go so far and then, you have to get out. They have a blast with it.
So, just thought I needed to post this, hopefully next year I can post about being there, and anyone liking these groups, can more than likely see this on Youtube.com, in the next few days as videos are posted.
As they say in the music world, catch it next time around.