The Love Loud Festival

On August 26th, Dave and I had the amazing opportunity to attend the first annual Love Loud Festival, put on by Dan Reynolds, lead singer of the band Imagine Dragons; a band that originated from the Provo music scene. The purpose of the festival is to essentially bring together those of the LDS faith and our LGBTQ brothers and sisters in support and love. The profits go to organizations and resources that support LGBTQ youth in our community.

We actually ended up putting our tickets up for sale on Facebook, because we couldn't find a sitter to watch the kids for 6+ hours. But when my friend, Jeanne-Marie, saw we were trying to sell them, she immediately offered to watch the boys for us so we could still go. The show was completely sold out and people were really wanting to get their hands on some tickets, so we were really grateful we could still go. We took the kids over to her house around 4:00 with a GIANT pizza; they have 4 kids of their own, so it was pretty incredible that they were willing to watch our kids for that long.

The event was held at UVU and the doors opened at 4; we got there around 4:30ish. We parked in the northeast parking lot of campus and walked towards the ballpark where it was being held. On our walk over, we saw this huge line and we were really confused as to what it was for and if we were supposed to be in it. But so many people among us were walking past, towards the entrance. So we just kept walking. We got to the front, still confused, sat down and listened to a band play that was just outside the entrance, when we decided to get back up and continue towards the entrance. As we approached, one of the staff opened a new entrance that took us around the back of the stadium. Still confused, we kept going and found ourselves at an entrance with no line. We got in, walked down the seating to the field to where the actual show was going to be (there were food trucks and I was hungry), and Dave saved us a place right there on the grass not too far from the stage. As the show progressed, I looked around and couldn't believe how lucky we were that we had gotten so close! People were all the way up in the stands and the stadium was filled beyond capacity! Apparently, we were supposed to be in that long line. So...we got super lucky by the fact that we were super oblivious.

Dave is in the red shirt sitting on the grass. Dan Reynolds is on the screen talking about Love Loud.

Alex Boye hosted the event and was awesome, there were a lot of speakers, single acts, etc. Dan Reynolds' wife, Aja Volkman, also a musician, played and sang without her band. Nicholas Petricca, lead singer of Walk the Moon, sang and played his keyboard. His band was unable to attend, but he gave a pretty impressive performance. Michael McLean, Joshua James, and Krewella also performed. Finally, Neon Trees performed. They were really good and super entertaining. Tyler Glenn did a legit crowd surf which was pretty awesome. And then, after waiting for what seemed like forever, Imagine Dragons finally performed. I love Imagine Dragons, but seeing them live is absolutely incredible. They are better live than recorded. I was completely blown away. So, if you ever get a chance to see them perform live, totally do it. You won't regret it.

Tyler Glenn, lead singer of Neon Trees

 

During their last song, Dave and I ran out of their super fast, all the way back to our car, so we could beat the traffic and get to the kids. We finally got back around 11:30 PM, but they were all troopers and were very patient. I think it was totally worth it and am really glad we got to go do something completely different and for a good cause.