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Now that festival season is in full swing, I am having just as much of a hard time writing about shows as I am daydreaming about going to more.  I think this is a side effect from being #snowballed.

March 8-10 2013 marked the insane weekend of music, free spirits, and snow at SnowBall in Winter Park, CO.  If you haven’t been to a four-day festival and camped, skip the blacktop day-hops in major cities and “rough-it” in a field like at Bonnaroo.  If you have only been to a festival in sweltering summer heat, bundle up and head to “Mountain Time” for SnowBall.  There are different crowds, different sights, different experiences, but the same good music that you just have to hear.

Winter Park, a small mountain town home to Winter Park and Mary Jane mountains, was incredibly accommodating, as thousands of us painted the town in glow-sticks for three solid days.  SnowBall, aside from website issues, did a great job working with the town to score us discounted mountain passes, shuttle services, lodging information and other sweet deals.  Inside the venue, which was an open ice/snow-covered field in the middle of town, the staff was friendly and down to dance with the rest of us.  Speaking of…the key to surviving SnowBall is to dance.  Bundle up like snow bunnies, your parents from the ’80’s, or like Scully from Monsters, Inc., grab a Sierra Nevada and a friend, and d a n c e !

Every act I caught was awesome, but a few favorites were Robert Randolph who jammed to Jimi’s “Purple Haze” in the sunshine; Portugal. the Man who covered Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger;” Big Gigantic, Kendrik Lamar, Grizmatik, Flying Lotus, STS9, and Pretty Lights blew my head off.  Did I mention the lights, fireworks, balloons, snowboarders, turkey legs, beers, and dancing?  Yeah…

I feel like it’s a cop-out to leave you with some videos, but my words still don’t do the festival justice.  Put SnowBall on your bucket list because it was a TIME crossing it off mine.

-j