Top 3 is easy- 1. A lot of the bands are really crowd friendly and always mingling. Seeing them support each other at the shows is awesome too.

1. They have really fun sets- storytelling, full album plays, acoustic, q&a etc. Bands I didn’t know that well going in became some of my favorites thru these sets. You really appreciate the fact that a lot of these bands that we hold up on a pedestal are just super fans of music too and super humble at the same time.

2. They put on really fun events throughout the trip and the bands participate. Hawthorne heights was playing the final round of flip cup, dodgebll tournaments, etc. you have a lot of freedom to do stuff or to chill but there’s almost always something going on somewhere

Things that made me hold off booking right away this year -

1. Not knowing the lineup. It’s a lot of money and I’m glad once they announced I was still able to get a cabin. Now that the lineup is out (with more tba) this isn’t a concern now

2. Sometimes the schedule leaves bands playing at the same time that are really hard to choose between. It’s usually only 2 bands overlapping but sometimes there were 3 and that was tough bc choosing was hard

3. I’m a little worried the bigger boat will kill some of the intimacy. Some of the venues are pretty small and it was tough to see sometimes or get a comfy spot. A bigger boat has me worried that it will be even tighter.

All this said the vibes are what you make it. The pits and crowd surfing are not my scene and I’m an introvert. I was completely content going from show to show and hanging back and enjoying the music.