The Sweetlife Festival hosted by Sweet Green is always a highly anticipated event every year that it comes to Merriweather Post Pavillion. This year, the festival fell on Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30.
What first hit me was the vast array of food vendors at the festival. The monumental collection of food, while extremely pricey and hard to get a hold of due to massive lines, was a wonderful touch to the hunger-inducing heat of the day.
What I later realized was that the Sweetlife festival is not only meant to be a music festival, but also meant to emphasize the importance of healthy and delicious food.
While food is a crucial element to the festival, it is clear that music is the center of attention. This year, Sweet Green pulled together a great lineup full of well followed musicians.
Among those musicians were Kendrick Lamar, Calvin Harris, Tove Lo, The Weeknd, Charli XCX, and Billy Idol. It was clear that Sweet Green was trying to relate to all demographics with this lineup.
Complementing the music perfectly, the layout of Merriweather Post Pavilion was crucial to the enjoyment of the festival. The main stage not only had a plethora of seats covered with a roof, but also countless square feet of grass behind the seats that held the capacity of thousands. In my opinion, the lawn seats were the best.
There were additional stages, however. For example, The Weeknd played at what’s known as “The Treehouse,” a smaller stage with no seats.
“I liked the Treehouse the best,” junior Ryan Creeser said. “You could really feel the performance the best there.”
While the day was hot, I was not discouraged. Replenished by delicious but expensive lemonade, I marched on.
In my opinion, the best performance was given by Calvin Harris. The concluding act of the festival on Sunday, May 31 went all out with his performance. Harris played his hits as well as lesser known song, both well received by the audience. The final performance was stunning both audibly and visually. The lights show that went on with the performance was stunning.
Overall, Sweetlife was an exceptional experience that I would recommend for any and all teenagers that enjoy good food, good music, and a good time.
