My first rave in 539 days

The last time that I saw some EDM live was back on January 25th, 2021. My most recent show was when I saw Dirt Monkey @ Bluestone. As you can tell from this photo, I love going to shows. So much so, that I created a Hive community for EDM. The thing is as soon as I created that community, all of the EDM shows and festivals across the world were canceled thanks to the COVID hysteria. This put my dancing on a very non-consensual hiatus. Lucky for me I started dating @flowerbaby right around that same time, so I survived through the absence of EDM just fine. Still yet, there was a gigantic part of my being that yearned for the day that I could dance to my favorite music live once again. Not only for myself but also to introduce my girl to the loving scene of bass music. We both needed EDM more than we knew.

^{@flowerbaby and I waiting in the parking lot for the gates to open at Reunion}

About two months ago, I purchased two tickets to Excision's Reunion festival. @flowerbaby and I both waited anxiously until the day that we finally got to go. She had begun to gather somewhat of an idea of what to expect from the festival, but neither one of us truly knew what was in store. I had only been to a small festival once before and about 20 or so shows that were hosted at clubs. The vibe between something like that and a giant festival such as Reunion is totally different. It's like comparing high school basketball to the NBA. Same sport, but a totally different level of tenacity.

^{These were the set times for each day. We only attended Saturday, which in my opinion had a far superior lineup.}

Reunion was a two-day festival presented by Excision and staged at Legend Valley Thornville, OH. This is the same grounds where the dinosaur-themed Lost Lands festival is held. I had never been to this location before, despite the fact that Lost Lands is the closest EDM festival of massive proportion to me here in my home state of WV. My state has little to no EDM activity, and it sucks big time. West Virginia did have a festival called Clustxr that looked to be something awesome for bassheads here, but it was last held in 2018 and hasn't happened again since. I was unable to attend it back when it was happening, I missed out big there. Going to smaller shows in other cities is really my only experience with EDM since my initial attendance back in mid-2017. That is until @flowerbaby and I were unleashed unto Reunion.

^{@flowerbaby posing with the giant Triceratops just after we passed through the light security clearance. She has one of these same dinos tattoos on her arm!}

^{This would be none other than myself, posing with the Tyrannosaurus Rex which was positioned next to the Triceratops. You may notice me sporting @flowerbaby's @flowersaur brand on my tank top. I thought it to be fitting for the event. Plus you never know, maybe somebody saw the name and did a google search to discover her brand.}

^{The two of us were incredibly happy to finally be roaming around Legend Valley and more than ready to go for Reunion.}

The bass and mud may consume you

We had a 2.5-hour drive from WV to OH, which went by quickly thanks to the trusty Audi of mine. We arrived promptly at 1 pm just as the gates were opening. We were greeted with a rainy and muddy mess at Legend Valley. I trusted the forecast and hoped that the rain was going to stop eventually, which it did. The mud was no reason to get upset and really wasn't a problem once we left the parking lot. There were some spots across the festival that had patches of mud, but the dance floor was gravel, so no issues there.

^{This is for sure the dirtiest that my car has ever been. I was more than okay to get it muddy, at least we got a parking space near the front of the giant field of grass and mud.}

^{Parked right in front of us was a Subaru with a New York license plate that read "HeadBnga".}

^{Just beside the Subaru was a sweet Ford Raptor with Nebraska plates that read "Xcision"}

Legend Valley is out in the middle of some rural farmland in Ohio. The main parking lot was across a two-lane road from the entrance to Reunion. One of @flowerbaby's favorite parts was the fact that the flow of vehicular traffic would continually get stopped for a bunch of half-naked people to run across the main road. She thought that it must be hilarious for the elderly locals to randomly see a giant mass of scantily dressed ravers sprinting across their typically desolate roads.

The festival was set up perfectly in my opinion, I wasn't expecting everything to work quite so well. There was an area with a ton of tress for hammocks. Giant dinosaurs were scattered everywhere like landmarks to make finding your friends a breeze. The food, drinks, and merchandise bordered one-half of the festivities. The rest was a wide-open space leading to the massive stage for the artists to perform upon. The stage was facing the sun so that the audience didn't have to. Sure it beat down on our backs, but that's much better than blinding our vision. There were thousands of people there, but it didn't seem too crowded unless of course, you are like me and like being right up front and close to the stage. All it takes is some snake-like maneuvering and we made it pretty close for every set, especially in the beginning when we were some of the first ravers to arrive. Sometimes you just have to force your way through people.

^{@flowerbaby posing in front of the tallest of all the dinos, the mighty Brachiosaurus. She was happy to wear my rain jacket so that she could remain somewhat dry during the periods of precipitation.}

^{I was finally back in my element. It had been far too long since I had felt in this environment. Vicious dinosaurs and some rainfall were no match for me. I say bring it on, you will be the one who suffers. Not I!}

^{@flowerbaby and I purchased matching Embark Hydration Packs at Target the night before the festival. Best decision ever, these things were essential to thriving. We each had a tube linked to a reservoir to drink from at any time and were able to fill it up for free at several watering stations. There were also several storage compartments, it was a huge bonus that the packs just happened to be my favorite color.}

Festive for the festival

I do believe that @flowerbaby was most excited about dressing up. She loves getting all dolled up and does a damn fine job of it too. I personally dress for comfort and convenience (with a little bit of flair... Woooo!), but she went all out to look like a glistening rave queen. I think she was tremendously successful and I will never forget my first time having a girl with me who actually had the passion to dress the part and enjoy the music. She only had to wear my rain jacket for an hour or two in the beginning while it was still drizzling. Otherwise, the jacket came in handy as a place to sit our asses on the wet ground when we took breaks from dancing.

^{She did colorful hairties for her pigtails and fluffy balls on top.}

^{Star/heart sparkles and glitter in her hair and on her face with some shiny makeup.}

^{She threw on a mesh coverup with glimmering stars over her rave bikini}

^{Being the crafty gal that she is, she even made a bunch of her own kandi. If you aren't familiar with what kandi rave is, check here.}

^{She had removable tattoos all over her to go with her real tattoos.}

Break a sweat and yo neck

I did mention that we were some of the first to arrive at Reunion, which means we were there longer as well. Sure we skipped out on Day 1, but it was partially postponed due to lightning anyway. I'm sure there were many people who went to both days and it was only they who had us beat on total time raging. I think we were certainly there the longest out of a lot of people on Saturday. We danced and mingled from 1 pm all the way until 11 pm. It was an extremely long day. We took advantage of the wide variety of food available multiple times. We had a couple of teriyaki noodle bowls, some smoothies, and cheeseburgers. It was far better food quality than I expected, I was satiated to an ideal level of fullness every single time that I became hungry.

^{@flowerbaby waiting for me to finish ordering some of the yummy food we had while attending Reunion.}

^{@flowerbaby feasting on some noodles while Jessica Audi slams down some massive bass for the evergrowing crowd. We made sure to never order too much food at once, so we shared everything. We didn't want to get too full and didn't want to waste food or money either.}

You can see from the stats that my Apple Watch collected that we went hard. It was essential to replenish our energy with food and water regularly. I broke my own record for most fitness activity in one day. I can say without a doubt that this was the most I have done in over a year when it comes to using my body to its full potential. We both really had to push to make it to the end of the night. There was a huge motivation for us though, the best performances were saved for last. Plus the light shows become otherwordly once nightfall hits.

^{These are my stats from Saturday at Reunion. @flowerbaby doesn't have an Apple Watch, but we can safely assume that she had similar numbers.}

^{Just look at those numbers. 3.33 hrs of exercise. Standing for over 12 hours. Nearly 28,000 steps which translates to approximately 15 miles. Those are serious numbers, thanks to the power of electronic music I was able to do this.}

^{I have had my watch for over 2 years now, it felt good to finally set some new personal records. I hadn't seen badges like these for quite a while. They remind me of Pokémon gym badges a lot, so you know I'm a fan.}

^{Let's analyze my two most active hours. It boils down to 5-6 pm (He$h/Kompany) and 8-9 pm (Boogie T). It looks to me like Boogie T was the clear winner for the artist that played music that got me to dance the hardest. This is surprising as hell to me since Boogie T was one of the artists that I was looking forward to the least. I love his music don't get me wrong, I just didn't expect to enjoy his performance so damn much. Bravo, my dude.}

^{We did do a lot of walking, but most of my "steps" consisted of me jumping up and down or dancing in a small area. I wasn't really traveling far, but it sure did add up. 3,822, steps of my daily total of 27,782 came from Boogie T's set alone.}

The verdict

@flowerbaby and I both had an absolute blast at Reunion. This will go down as one of my favorite memories of all time. Not only during my relationship with @flowerbaby but throughout my entire life. I am so glad that she was able to hang with me all day and night, it sure wasn't easy. I am not so sure that I would have been able to finish strong without her. We both knew that if we wimped out and missed some artists, then we would later regret it. Thankfully we worked together to fight through the pain and see all 12 talents that performed, but damn were our bodies hurting afterward. The 2.5-hr drive home was pretty miserable. Instead of blazing the streets like usual, I was just focused on being able to see and not hit a deer. I was fighting sleep the entire time, plus my body ached in ways that I had not felt in many months. We did make it home safely, just before 2 am. The next day we both felt like hell and did nothing much more than rest up to recover.

^{@flowerbaby had no problem casually enjoying the tunes while I danced like a madman. I'm glad she understands that I love EDM and has found her own way of appreciating it too. She even plays it during her awesome yoga classes for her students.}

^{I didn't lug around my tripod with us, so we got a bunch of selfies together instead of our perfectly posed portraits that I often post. I think the images turned out pretty great even without my trusty tripod.}

^{@flowerbaby got an absolutely beautiful pashmina from Loose Lucy's. This place was shopping heaven for her, I am proud of her for only getting one item. She could have easily bought a whole new wardrobe at this place and the many other vendors.}

^{The pashmina has multiple uses. In this case, it turned her outfit into a skirt to keep her legs warm.}

Thanks for checking out my video and blog 😎🤝

I hope you enjoyed everything that I had to share today. I believe you can probably feel the amount of passion that I have for EDM through this post. Reunion was the best music event that I have ever attended in my lifetime thus far.

I will be sharing another video tomorrow that is much longer than the one at the top of this blog, also with much less editing. This will give you a raw interpretation of what we experienced while at the festival, rather than the trailer-style video that was attached to today's post.

You are invited to come back and join me again tomorrow. I will be going more in-depth about each EDM artist that we were so very lucky to witness lay down that bass at Reunion. Plus I have a playlist featuring all of the artists that I'll be linking.

I leave you with one last photo of me and my @flowerbaby, pure bliss. Plus some photos of how everything was set up around Legend Valley. Enjoy!

^{Shoutout to the dude that was staring off into space who I asked to take our photo before the sun started to go down. He was more than happy to oblige. One thing is for certain, you won't have to go far to find kind souls while at an EDM event. Ask the homie @derangedvisions, he knows. It's all about peace, love, unity, and respect (aka PLUR).}

^{You and I both know for a fact that you have always wondered what a Brachiosaurus's butthole looks like... Now you know.}

^{Shoutout to the homie Cody behind me.}

^{Damn, that's one long ass neck you have there bro.}

^{You are probably wondering why I gave Cody that shoutout. The dude rolled up with a freaking gun that shoots out air. That and the hand fans from other ravers were blessings while I was dripping sweat from dancing so hard.}

^{I couldn't tell you what type of dinosaur this is. If you know, please leave a comment and tell me. We will call him The Spikey Boy for now.}

^{These were right in the middle of everything. There were giant boulders underneath that people chilled on for the entire festival. I guess they didn't want to lose their spots.}

^{This was the line to get in. We were in the 4th or 5th row of cars. By the time we left, there were hundreds of rows.}

^{This was the only time I saw this place looking empty, just before the first artist jumped on stage.}

^{We were very close to the front of the line to get in. Lots of cool outfits all around, I love it.}

^{Just after we walked down the hill past the security clearance. They didn't even check our bags, lucky for them we weren't up to anything suspicious. Maybe they could tell, who knows.}

^{I loved the layout of all the vendors. Everything just made sense here, it was hard to get lost.}

^{The valiant Parasaurolophus, well-known for its's bizarre head ornament. It seems that he is about to get eaten by a T-Rex.}

^{This is a screenshot of right when we pulled in the parking garage back home in WV. I was so happy to have made it safely, we both were sleepy as can be after such a long day.}

^{Two dinos going at it right next to the porta-potty area. The Pachycephalosaurus is another type of dinosaur with oddly shaped heads, perfect for ramming.}

^{This place was a gathering ground for weird people. I think I'm pretty different myself, but not this far out. Dude had his girlfriend on a freaking leash. It was both cute and disturbing at the same time. She seemed to be loving it at least. Shall we call it puppy love?}

^{The road from the entrance that leads down to the stage. I saw a few dedicated people at Reunion who were on crutches. That is true grit and determination, mad respect for them. There were golf carts that used the road to help transport the injured who refused to quit.}

^{The visuals throughout the show were amazing. I imagine that this would be quite the place to do some psychedelic drugs. We didn't do anything more than chomp on some Delta-8 THC gummies.}

^{This poor girl was super fucked up. I think she was on mushrooms or something heavy like that. She seemed so happy, yet barely able to stand. She kept alternating from hugging and sleeping on her friend and her boyfriend, he is the smiling dude peaking his head around them. I know I know, I am clutch with the candid photos. I could have gotten so many more but was far more focused on enjoying myself and making sure that @flowerbaby was safe at all times.}

^{Just look at this place. They had every color on the rainbow and then some. Like many, they traveled from afar. Their shop is based out of South Carolina.}

^{@flowerbaby is peaking in from the bottom on this one. The lines to wait for food/drink were actually not bad at all. It helped that there were so many vendors around. I was thoroughly impressed.}

^{Totems are really popular in the EDM community. This one particular stood out to me the most. It is the flag from Assasin's Creed Black Flag.}

^{As I said before, the mud wasn't terrible all around. As you can see here, there were a lot of areas that had lush grass that was barely wet.}

^{This was my first time dancing in gravel, it wasn't too bad actually. The only negative thing that I have to say about it is that I kept thinking I had just stepped on somebody, except for it always turned out to be a rock instead.}

^{The people you see here on the rails are the most die-hard. They stayed there pretty much all day long. We call them railbreakers. Luckily these rails were nice and sturdy. Had they not been, they would surely have been destroyed by these hardcore headbangers.}

^{There are so many awesome people at these festivals. If you have never been to one, please go soon.}

^{We were waiting at the front before the show started, I wanted to make sure I got up close like this as often as possible. I am used to being at clubs where it's pretty easy for me to stay ahead of everyone else the entire time. Here it was much more difficult, there were just so many people.}

^{The grounds were well kept. Trash cans were spaced out everywhere and there were areas accepting recyclables as well.}

^{This is as close to "Goin Muddin" that I will ever get. I may be from West Virginia, but I am no country boy. Give me a European auto and let me hit the road. That's my style. My baby was washed the next day as soon as we got back home.}

^{One last view. Damn, I fucking loved this day so much. If you read through all of my blabberings today, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love you.}

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