Electric Zoo

A friend came to visit me over Labor Day weekend, so we had a few activities planned. We got some last minute tickets to Electric Zoo, a large electronic music festival. I wasn't crazy about the music, or so I thought, but I really like music festivals. I do like a band called the Glitch Mob, and they were performing on Sunday. Tickets were a bit expensive, but I managed to find them for a bit cheaper on Craigslist closer to the date. Part of the advantage of being unemployed is having the free time to snag random deals. 

There is quite a long list of prohibited items, and a thorough search as you enter, so we were careful about what we brought. They even limit bag size. Since both of us are fairly cheap, and everything at the festival was really expensive, we decided to walk to the island as opposed to taking the ferry or the bus. We arrived at 125th near the Bronx. After using bathrooms in China, I'm not so picky, but my friend said she did not want to use a porter potty, so we stopped by McDonalds.

The line for the bathroom was ridiculous. The girl ahead of us was on something, possibly super drunk, but she greeted us happily. We were polite and engaged in some conversation.

"Yeaaaaah!!" She slurred. "Eeeeeezoooo." She hiccuped a few times and said, "sorry, I am really sorry."

"No worries," said my friend, "you're fine...but um...if you have to throw up, face the other way." 

In my head, I could already see her projectile vomiting all over us, but then she collapsed onto a little ball on a chair, and that was the end of that. 

"Let's just use the porter potties," I said impatiently, "this line is too long."

"Have you been to a porter potty??" My friend asked. "They are awful."

Of course I have, what a silly question. "Whatever," I said, "it's like the bathrooms in China, just run in, hold your breath and pee, and then run out."

But she wouldn't budge. "I guarantee you, the lines at the Porter potties will also be long, and most of the people in line will be like our home girl over there," she said, pointing to the girl who was now being force fed water by her friends.

As it turned out, there was a bathroom for employees only. I tried to sweet talk the employee guarding it, to see if he'd let us use it. Finally I just said, "I'll give you a dollar if you let my friend and me use the bathroom."

"Ok," he said. 

I think I started a business for him, because after we used it, others were paying him to use it. The employee bathroom was for sure cleaner than the public one. 

My friend has T Mobile, which allowed us to use the VIP line and the VIP booth. While in line for the booth she complained to the worker, "so I have no service right now. Can you do something about that?"

He said, "I work for E-Zoo, not T Mobile. And I have ATT because T Mobile sucks."

The music was really good, and I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I'm not entirely sure who we were listening to, but I made sure that we made our way to see the Glitch Mob around 8:00. There was another VIP balcony, but you had to have master card to get in. We tried to talk our way in and failed, but then these random people allowed us to go in with their group. From the balcony, we had a really good view of the stage. A boy said, "I'm hiding from my ex-girlfriend." 

"Oh, what's her sign?" I asked.

"She's an aquarius," he replied.

"Yeah, she's going to find you," I said. I'm an Aquarius, and we are pretty stubborn and persistent. To be fair to her though, he wasn't doing such a good job of hiding, since he was leaned over he balcony. Maybe he really wanted to be found; sometimes we aren't really sure what we want, and our actions and words contradict. But I guess if she doesn't have a MasterCard he'd be pretty safe.

The food at the festival was over priced and just okay, but that is to be expected. My friend turned to me and said, "since this festival is so expensive, it's probably a good place to meet boys because everyone here must have a good job of some sort." But then she stopped to think. "Oh wait, but you are unemployed and you are here."

"Also," I added, "a lot of people might be using their parents' money. There were definitely a lot of college kids there too.

The headliner, Alesso, performed at the main stage at the end, with fireworks. 

As we headed back, we decided to stop by IHOP for food. It was like the apocalypse. Everyone was exhausted from the festival, and people had remnants of glitter and confetti on them, as well as dirt and grass stains. People were slumped over tables. The food at IHOP was just okay, but again that was to be expected. 

All in all though, I would highly recommend it. It's fun with the right group of people, and you should bring ear plugs.