Photo by Amanda Lin
For the three-day Columbus Day weekend, I went to New York to visit my friend at New York University (NYU) and we decided to go to Rolling Loud. This was the first year Rolling Loud was hosted in New York, so we knew we had to go and have a good time. The headliners were: A$AP Rocky, Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Meek Mill, and Wu-Tang Clan, and so many other amazing artists. The festival was held in Queens, right next to Citi Field and consisted of three stages: Fashionnova, Dryp, and Sauce. Along with that, there was a basketball court, haunted house, cereal bar, merch tent, and smaller booths to fill the space. Most of the pictures you would see on Instagram were taken in front of the big “Rolling Loud Letters” at the entrance area of the festival.
Photo by Amanda Lin
Going straight into it, I truly believe that Day Two was better than Day One. The first day is always unpredictable and you don’t know what to expect for the location or vibe. Especially since this was the first year in New York, so no one knew what to expect. For Day One we had to figure out the moshing situation, where the stages were, when the right time was to eat, and more. In terms of these logistics, Day Two was better since we had figured all of that out. Day One we were caught up in the mosh pits since we weren’t close enough to the stage. To be honest, these scared me because people would start to open up a circle in a crowd of people, then start moshing once the song picked up. You would either have to mosh or get destroyed by the mosh, therefore we decided to be apart of it. For Day One we showed up a little later than we wanted at 4:30 p.m and the artists we saw were: Sheck Wes, Ski Mask the Slump God, Gunna, Playboi Carti, and Travis Scott. Around 6:30 p.m, my friend and I were starving– I mean not-able-to-survive-starving because we only had brunch before going. We waited an hour in line to get two burritos and a quesadilla, but I wasn’t mad because it was so worth it. Once we got our food we met up with our friends again and went into the crowd. At the end of the night when Travis Scott was performing, we left halfway through because we were dying of thirst. Then the festival RAN OUT OF WATER, leaving us to chug sodas from a food truck vendor. We ended up leaving right after Travis performed to avoid the huge crowd on the subway.
Photo by Amanda Lin
For Day Two, we showed up prepared around 3 p.m bringing our own food and 1L empty water bottles to fill when we got there. We made sure to plan out which artists we would see, along with when and where we would meet up with the rest of our group of friends. We ended up staying at the Fashionnova stage for all of Day Two, seeing Dababy, Tyga, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Juice Wrld, and A$AP Rocky. Before going into the crowd, we took a bathroom stop and stopped drinking water so we wouldn’t have to leave our spots. For a solid hour of performances, our group of eight people slid through the crowd to make it to the front. Fortunately, we were able to make it and stayed behind the people against the railing, otherwise, we would’ve gotten pushed into the railing and that doesn’t sound too fun. For those four hours, we were in front of the artists and had the BEST experience ever.
Photo by Amanda Lin
Overall, it was amazing, and to me, it was a once in a lifetime experience. The tickets were $250, but if you think about it, that is a great price to see all those artists while being so close to the stage. I’m not sure if I would go again to this particular festival because going in, I wasn’t an avid listener to their music, but I do really like them now that I’ve seen and experienced their performances. After going to Rolling Loud, I truly have a greater appreciation for the rap and hip-hop culture. If you are even debating about going to any of the Rolling Loud festivals, I would say 100% do it. You only live once, so go live your life.
Photos by Amanda Lin
Rolling Loud Festival Locations-
Miami, Bay Area, Southern California, New York, Los Angeles, and more to come in the future