Greetings, readers! We (Emma and Ayla) are here to tell you about the things that occurred yesterday during Vans Warped Tour at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.
We started the day out at about 5AM, got dressed, did the usual get ready routine, and hit the road at 6:30. We arrived at Merriweather Post Pav. at approximately 7:30 and began our wait in the line. The gates open at 11, and if you donate 3 canned foods, a broken cellphone, or $5 at the Feed Our Children Now tent/table you get a skip the line bracelet. Ayla and I both donated $5 so we actually ended up at the very front of the line! During the wait we talked about a good meeting place if we lost each other during the day, what bands were our top priorities, what band merchandise we wanted to buy, etc.
After our 2 1/2 hour wait in line, it was finally time. They checked our bags, scanned our tickets, and let us run free. The first thing we did was locate/run to the red inflatable with all the set times on it. Seeing that Of Mice & Men was playing in the next hour, and a crowd was already forming around the stage that they were playing at, we sprinted there and landed a spot to the left of the stage. While I was waiting there, Ayla ran up the hill to the Of Mice & Men merch tent and got two tickets to their signing later that day and then sprinted back to the stage. They played at 12 and put on an excellent show. Every member of the band had so much energy, as did the audience. With all the crowd surfers slamming into our heads and the constant jumping of fellow Of Mice & Men fans, I was surprised to actually get some pretty fantastic pictures. After OM&M, Blood On The Dance Floor was scheduled to play on the same stage (the Kia Soul Stage). We are NOT fans of Blood On The Dance Floor, so we let a few girls behind us take our place up front at the barricade who actually liked them when we left.
The next bands we wanted to see played at the Kia Rio Stage which was (of course) all the way across the pavilion. We casually jogged to the amphitheater in which that stage was, and started to make our way down the aisles of seats. The ground floor level without the seats was full, so we went down as far as security would let us and stood through about half of Mayday Parade‘s set. They are absolutely fantastic live and their crowd showed much love. After Mayday Parade, it was Breathe Carolina time. Shoving through a bunch of exiting Mayday Parade fans, we managed to snag a place at the barricade towards the right of the stage. We bought David Schmitt (the lead singer of BC) a bag of gummy bears, and made both David and Kyle Even (other vocalist of BC) bracelets. We wrapped the bracelets over the bag of gummy bears and ended up throwing the little bundle on stage during the middle of their set. Kyle walked over to it, picked it up, pointed, waved, and smiled at us and tossed it to a stagehand for safekeeping. At this point we were squealing like crazed pigs because ONE OF OUR FAVORITE SINGERS ACKNOWLEDGED US. Anyway, haha, their set was extremely energetic, both crowd and band members. It’s sort of like a huge dance party where everyone forgets about all of their problems and just has a great time. After Breathe Carolina, it was time for the Of Mice & Men signing.
If you’re interested, we’ll be posting about the second half of the day a little bit later!
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