Cover photo by Collin Taylor
It is officially Backwoods at Mulberry Mountain month, folks! In approximately three weeks, I will be making the 11 hour road trip down to the Ozarks. I am so thankful Backwoods changed its date to summertime because I could not imagine missing this. Backwoods really went all in to make this a fantastic year, and it truly shows.
The wait has been excruciating, but Backwoods recently released its set times to hold attendees over until we unite at the mountain. The day set times were released, my boyfriend and I created our schedule and established the things we wanted to do and the artists we wanted to see most. Here is what we have thus far, day by day.
Friday
We’ll drive two hours from our hotel to arrive at Mulberry Mountain by noon. Hopefully, we should be past security and have our tent set up by 2pm at the latest. After, we’ll attend Aubrey Warren’s Guided Medication from 2:30pm-2:50pm to destress our frustration with each other from setting up the tent (I am admittedly useless and easily agitated when it comes to tents). From that, we will go into Acro Yoga from 3:00pm-3:50pm The first set we definitely want to see on Friday is EOTO at 8:30pm so we’ll likely spend the remainder of the day wandering around, exploring the area, checking out the vendors, and catching sets. After EOTO, we’ll catch Lettuce and part of Umphrey’s McGee before taking a nap to prepare for the sunrise Yheti set from 4:45am-7:15am.
I am only 21, but I feel like a grandmother sometimes. After my 17 year old party phase, I can’t “hang” with the kids anymore, and I embarrassingly get tired or burnt out way too easily. Truthfully, I admire people who can party all day and all night because it would make my life a whole lot easier. This Yheti sunrise set is going to be magical, but my body is going to hurt.
Saturday
After the Yheti sunrise set, I hope to wake up decently later so I can get a good rest. But knowing me, I’ll probably wake up around 7am and sweat inside my tent until I leave for Intro to Astrology: The Planets at 9am There are a lot of workshops I want to attend on Saturday, and I’m hoping to go back to back to back, from Astrology to Music for Meditation to Laughter Yoga to Hoops Tricks and Transitions. After that, it’ll be around 1:20pm and my body will be dying. Hopefully, I’ll be able to nap for an hour or two, otherwise I’ll probably hop from stage to stage before The Motet at 6pm. I’m currently planning to stay at the Motherland stage for the remainder of my night, as Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, PEEKABOO, Space Jesus, and REZZ immediately follow. Seriously, talk about stacked. Hopefully PEEKABOO doesn’t forget to play Babatunde again!
“Ubbi Dubbi was one of my favorite sets I’ve played but I forgot to play Babtunde so I’m in dubstep timeout right now.” -Peekaboo, on Twitter
Sunday
Depending on whether my body likes me or not, I’ll attend Part 3 of the Intro to Astrology series at 9am, where we’ll learn about the Phases of the Moon. From that, we’ll go into Intro to Plant Medicine: Ceremony & Ritual until 11am After, we’ll check out some of the Backwoods Battle Winner sets, maybe attend more workshops, and bounce around until Minnesota at 7:15pm. The Aqua Station stage hosts Boogie T and Caspa right after, which have put on some of my favorite performances before so I don’t plan to miss them. I’m pretty disappointed because I really wanted to catch Glass Cannon, but they’re on from 2:30am-4:00am. My boyfriend and I are being pretty ambitious right now, and we’re planning to do the entire 11 hour drive back up to Milwaukee on Monday. Rest in peace.
It seems far now, but Backwoods will be here before we know it! If you still haven’t got your tickets, you can still purchase them here.
If you already bought your ticket and wanted to test your luck a little bit more, you could also enter the giveaway going on, hosted on the official Backwoods Facebook page. The winner of it will receive TWO backstage passes. The contest ends May 17th, so you better get moving! You can enter and find out more details here. See you on the mountain!