A quick, insightful guide to navigating the who’s who of the Forecastle crowd:
The Original Hippie
The Original Hippie surveys the current festival landscape in dismay. Too many kids in neon leggings, not enough acoustic guitar. “This is nothing like Woodstock,” he’ll mutter with a sustained far-away look; one that is only broken when he derisively eyes the hippie-poseurs prancing around in fringed tank tops and woven crowns of artificial, waxy flowers. He’ll drown his sorrows in bootlegged-Kombucha that he smuggled in under his poncho while begrudgingly humming along to Gary Clark Jr. (because even he can’t deny that GCJ is catchy).
The Hippie-Poseurs
These are the festival-goers eyed derisively by The Original Hippie, in their aforementioned fringy ensembles and floral crowns. The Hippie-Poseurs travel in rag-tag groups, typically of six to ten teenaged or college-aged girls. You can often hear the leader of the pack saying things like, “I’m such a hippie—I’m basically Vanessa Hudgens,” before adjusting her feathered headdress. The others will nod, agreeing that she “belongs at...like Coachella.” They then gather to take impeccably-filtered ‘grams, subsequently missing Jack White’s set.
Those Who Just Came for Hipster Cred
They’re not here for the music, dancing, or even the bourbon tent. This group simply came for the pleasure of telling their friends a few years down the road, “Oh—I saw them the first year they played Forecastle. That was before they made it big and sold out.”
Hipster cred is thusly established.
The Sartorially-Inclined
Their Forecastle wardrobe has been a work-in-progress since there was still snow on ground. Harper’s, InStyle, and GQ have been combed over for festival-appropriate outfits; Pinterest has been scoured for quirky street style; Urban Outfitters has been pillaged for all-things “festival.” Looking at them, you’re not sure how they manage to look so effortlessly put-together in the 90-degree heat, or how they manage to balance in those platforms, for that matter.
The People Actually There for the Music
They purchased their tickets as soon as they became available, listened to the bands—openers and headliners alike—on vinyl for months, and have their set-schedule down to the minute. They’ve dressed for comfort: shorts and band t-shirt; their only accessories are items they’d like to have signed, and a fully-charged I-phone so as to follow the every move of their favorite artists.
Who are you, or who did we miss? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @louisvillecom. Cover photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
