hello! i recently returned from my first trip to utah, and what a strange place it was. granted, i went for the kilby block party music festival, so i didn't get a ton of time to explore beyond that, but gleni — my travel companion — and i joked that the "L" and "C" in SLC stood for "lies" and "construction." sooo much construction. a handful of lies. but anyway, the festival! the lineup was my dream and basically 75% of my spotify library, so it was kind of a no-brainer to go. and while we were skeptical about making it through all three days of music, people, and bathroom lines in our late-ish 30s without dying, we did it! we did it, man.
DAY 1:
gleni and i were fortunately able to book flights that got in within a half hour of each other, so we lyfted to our airbnb south of downtown in what's unofficially known as the "maven district."
we stayed in a cozy 1918 bungalow that was ideal for our purposes, with an adorable front porch we enjoyed coffee on during the first morning, a big-ass kitchen, and an electric fireplace that came in very handy when we were drowned rats (more on that later.)
but speaking of coffee — that was obviously our first priority at 3pm if we were to stay awake to make it to our 8:30 dinner reservation. we strolled down to publik coffee roasters to caffeinate and grab a snack. i got a cherry chocolate scone and an iced brown butter caramel latte, both delicious!
next up was the legendary randy's records, which has been in business since 1978. i was pleased to see a ton of youths there, but the records were pretty overpriced so we didn't end up getting anything.
we also popped into some cute boutiques, land of salt and mineral and matter, and i bought a rollerball perfume at the former (SHOCKING, i know, and my collection is officially out of control) that's called "sunrise" and is going to be my summer fragrance, i think. the area in general was very artsy and cute, with a bunch of murals:
we grabbed a pre-dinner drink at purgatory bar, which had a big outdoor patio area and a cool vibe.
for dinner, we'd decided prior to the trip that since we were going to be relegated to shitty festival food for three days, we might as well go all out with a seven-course tasting menu on the first night. table x was sleek and minimal in terms of decor, but all of the food (and that VIEW!) was incredible. sidenote: it's so wild that SLC is just like, surrounded by mountains. we pointed into the distance 10,000 times a day and went "MOUNTAIN." it looked like a freakin' green screen!
here are some of the things we ate:
intermountain gourmet mushrooms
baja striped bass
handmade torchietto pasta with chile sausage, chicories, and pecorino
niman ranch bavette steak
buttermilk custard
DAY 2:
we fueled up for our first festival day at park cafe, a no-frills breakfast and lunch spot where we lucked out getting a table right away. i had a combo called "french toast foolishness," with scrambled eggs and bacon and home fries, which was very on brand for me, and it was so good. the french toast was not foolish but it WAS fluffy AF. five stars.
it wasn't until we were in a lyft on the way to the festival that we realized past us had gotten VIP tickets, which entitled us to special bathrooms, a lounge area (below), and a designated food truck court. truly worth it for the bathrooms alone so good job, past selves!
overall, the festival was well-organized and had really good energy with minimally annoying people and we saw about 20 artists overall! highlights of the first day:
remi wolf: i didn't know any of her music, but she had such a great voice, sense of humor, and stage presence! she brought dominic fike (see below) onstage for a song they did together and we were like, "who's this dude? he's great!" and decided to check out his set.
dominic fike: i guess i've been under a rock because i've since learned this guy is massive with the kids and was on euphoria and all that jazz, but i swear i'd never heard his name until i saw people raving about his coachella set a few weeks ago but didn't look too far into it. i get it now!! his energy and voice were phenomenal, and even when i went to listen to his stuff the next day on spotify, a bunch of the songs didn't hit the same as they did live. love love loved him. highly recommend his song "3 nights" which went right onto my forthcoming summer playlist.
yeah yeah yeahs: not much to say except amazing, incredible, iconic. karen o. is a fucking goddess, yo. spot on and the perfect way to close out the first night. i may or may not have shed a tear during "maps," because it is basically the elder millennial national anthem.
DAY 3:
brunch was at picnic cafe (not to be confused with park cafe from yesterday). we both ordered the lox bagel sandwich, and not that i was expecting it to be bad, but it was so much better than i anticipated. i also ordered a vietnamese iced coffee that came with some sort of cream float on top.
once we arrived at the festival, we watched this ridiculous local band, the moss, and laughed at the lead singer's antics. then we checked out wallice, a singer-songwriter who we both really enjoyed.
goth babe's set was next, and he was entertaining, though the music was very h&m/forever 21-core. he had a girl from the audience volunteer to crowd surf on a watermelon pool float and it was a sight to see, but also had me scared to death for her. #old
as we were taking a food break, the sky opened up, so we sought shelter with our $25 korean rice bowls under a covered seating area with three younger girls and a 40-something mom whose daughter was camping out in the rain for indigo de souza. the conversation was very fun given our three generational differences and one of those memorable festival moments.
the rain cleared up after a bit and the music resumed with a great set by indigo, one of my favorite newer artists.
and while music venues have yet to hear my plea to serve coffee, the festival had a coffee truck!! i was so excited. it was a bit chilly so a hazelnut latte with oat milk was hitting the spot, baby.
it started pouring again a half hour before the strokes went on and i was like "AW HELL NAW." after having my hopes dashed on my birthday last year when one of them contracted COVID and they dropped out of boston calling, i saw this festival set as a redemption arc of sorts, and the weather was not about to kill my vibe.
i am always woefully unprepared in these kinds of situations, but gleni came to my rescue by breaking into a storage cabinet in the VIP bathroom and stealing a huge garbage bag, from which i fashioned a makeshift poncho, because i was not going to miss the strokes again, dammit! fortunately, the weather cleared up right before they went on and stayed dry the whole way through, save for two minutes at the end of the set during "someday" when i donned my poncho "hood" and everyone was singing and it was all very magical and cute.
while their festival sets have gotten mixed reviews in recent years, gleni and i both agreed that this one was amazing. julian sounded great, the band seemed like they were having a blast, and the vibes were immaculate. jules took the stage by saying "GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM" and had a running joke for some reason about blowing nikolai?? and was like "DON'T TRUST THAT MAN!" it was hilarious. nick valensi still looked like homeless jesus, which is always a plus. i was also three for three in terms of hearing my favorite strokes song, barely legal! #blessed. my heart was so full and i'm so grateful i got to see them for a third time.
DAY 4:
we had our hearts set on this breakfast taco place, la barba, that was supposed to be open, but was...not. and had no explanation for why? sooo we walked down to beans and brews, which seemed basically like the SLC equivalent of dunkin' donuts and got cold brews and breakfast tacos. they were fiiiine.
as i mentioned before, this festival was basically my dream lineup, and i even loved the undercard. so while we were trying to pace ourselves throughout the three days, i tended to want to be there pretty early to see some of my favorites. deeper was one of them, whose synthy post punk i've been digging for the past handful of years.
the rest of the afternoon included great sets from mannequin pussy, wednesday, the walkmen, and a break in there for some strawberry cheesecake ice cream and posing in front of the fun photo op stuff.
after grabbing some dinner, we got more iced coffee and went to check out surf curse on our way to the pixies as the sky gradually became slightly ominous. my cell service shit the bed at like 3pm every day because of the crowds, so i was relying on gleni to keep me posted on the forecast, and it did not look promising!
a few songs into the pixies' set, it started to rain and we broke out of the crowd to stand under a big metal tent structure so we could still watch from afar. that was great and actually kind of entertaining (because the sky was very pretty) until huge bolts of lightning started, the pixies stepped offstage without a word, the side-stage screens displayed "SEEK SHELTER UNTIL WEATHER PASSES," and everyone and their mothers began joining us.
we soon became pretty freaked out and felt quite unsafe standing under a completely metal shelter as the lightning seemed to be like, a foot away from us, so we decided to make a run for it since we figured there was no way pavement was going to play. god bless the other festivalgoers who were committed to #content that captured the madness, but just picture thousands of people running as thunder and lightning struck all around and torrential rain pelted them.
we ubered back to our airbnb and proceeded to have the coziest night everrrr once we got into our pajamas: we ordered not-great pizza, made coffee and tea, turned on our electric fireplace, and watched this terrible movie on netflix called senior year.
we were so happy to be alive and dry and not dodging lightning bolts that we didn't even care that pavement did end up playing like an hour after they were supposed to. i guess i'm just not meant to see them, man. oh well! the festival did release this amazing limited-edition t-shirt that gleni and i immediately bought the other day because it's the perfect souvenir:
DAY 5:
we needed a day to unwind and decompress before flying home, so a leisurely brunch was in order. we headed up to emigration canyon to ruth's diner, which is in a converted trolley car. the outdoor patio area was hidden away and so pretty, with the soothing sounds of a waterfall in the background as we ate our salmon hash and banana french toast.
then it was onto downtown salt lake, which was kind of boring, tbh? we popped into the mormon tabernacle...
did a #mallwalk of city creek center (which was gorg)...
and then picked up some cold brews at this adorable little cafe called eva's bakery and sat outside and drank them:
we figured 4pm was a good time to start drinking — and the bar next door, the ruin, was open — so we snagged two seats and it was delightful. we each got the same cocktails (the "thunder from down underberg" with patron, underberg bitters, grand marnier, lime, and sugar and the "cherry blossom" with tito's, hibiscus rose berry tea, lemon coconut, orgeat, and sugar) and they were both AMAZING. the bartender was so fun, too. and then one of the baristas from eva's came in to get a shot because they had a bad day, and we bought them a drink, and they gave us free pastries they were going to take home with them. i love people!
on our way home, we stopped into normal ice cream and got ice cream sandwiches that we ate on the couch later while watching the new season of queer eye. a perfectly low-key ending to a tiring-but-fun music festival weekend!
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