"Don't be THAT person at the music festival"

Music festivals are supposed to be fun, but a lot of things can make them miserable: heat, crowds, overpriced water, and—most of all—other people's behavior. In this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour (shared on It's Been a Minute), co-hosts Aisha Harris, Stephen Thompson, and NPR Music producer Isabella Gomez Sarmiento lay out three specific etiquette rules they wish festival-goers would follow. The throughline is simple: festivals work best when people treat them as communal, in-person experiences rather than individual quests for the perfect spot, the perfect video, or the perfect path through the crowd.

The front row is overrated

Stephen Thompson's pet peeve is the obsession with getting to the front of the stage—so much so that some people reportedly soil themselves rather than lose their spot. (Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish have both called this out.) Thompson argues the front row is actually a bad place to be: you're crushed against a barricade, resented by everyone around you, positioned under giant speakers that can permanently damage your hearing, and often not getting the best sound anyway. He points out that the spot near the soundboard often gives you an equally good view with more space and better audio. Aisha Harris, who is short, adds that being close to the stage doesn't even guarantee you'll see anythi