What festival workers are listening to during quarantine

Today is Monday, April 27th, 2020.

 It's the day what would have been  load-out day in Indio for Stagecoach and the remnants of Coachella. After weeks of working grueling hours in the desert sun, heat and dust, today would have been an exhausting beginning of an end to the famous back to back to back festivals which signal the start of Festival Season.

load-out day at Empire Polo Fields in Indio CA, April 2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

 Coachella and Stagecoach 2020 would have been the 3rd and 4th music festivals I worked this year and my first time working them on the Artist Hospitality team, a goal of mine I had finally, excitedly obtained. I'd have a few days to rest before boarding a 5am flight with a co-worker to head to Rolling Loud Miami then off to experience working my first EDC which would then bring me back to Northern California for BottleRock Napa. Then back to Southern California for Virgin Fest and possibly working Bonnaroo for the 4th year in a row, followed by Electric Forest which would bring me to July with 10 music festivals under my work belt (aka, fanny-pack). 

Sounds tiring, right? I was so excited. 

So excited. 

Coachella 2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Coachella 2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Coachella 2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Not long after returning home from working Okeeochobee in Florida on March 9th, I got news on March 12th that Coachella had postponed. My first day on-site was suppose to be April 1st. 

Since then more festivals have followed suit and more recently, music fests have started to cancel for 2020 and are looking forward to 2021. 

Everyday since March 12th, my heart breaks for and with the live music industry, events community and my festie fam. I do what I do because I love music, I love being a (tiny) part of something that brings so much joy to so many people. The fulfillment in it is indescribable and immeasurable. 

Stagecoach 2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

My other favorite part about being a festie is that it has allowed me to meet and work with so many amazing people with insane work ethics who do what they do because they love music, too. 

So, without further ado, here's a short list of what some of those amazing festival workers are listening to during quarantine. 

Nick is one of the best guys I've ever worked with. He's a hard worker, he knows what he's doing, he does it well and he doesn't mansplain. He's been in the biz for about 5 years doing Artist Hospitality at music festivals around the country and venues in the LA area. He's been listening to Measure, the EP that came out last year from the British punk band, Heavy Lungs. Mariah Carey's Daydream and George Straight's Carrying Your Love with Me has also been heavy on his quarantine playlist. Nick also sent me a link to the song "Sludge" by Squid which I immediately added to my 2020 playlist on Spotify. 

I met Piper after hearing her name from friends who'd worked the festival circuit longer than me. Years later I'd meet her for the first time when worked Pilgrimage in Franklin Tennessee two years ago and we were hotel roommates. Piper is a seasoned festie. She's been at it for 11 years wearing different hats in different departments including site-ops, food-ops and artist hospitality. Her go to spins have been Lillie Mae and Ty Segall. The Avalanches new single, "Running Red Lights", Dirty Projectors "Search For Life" and Andrew Combs' "Reptilia". 

Lillie Mae at Amoeba SF 8/22/2019 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Ian and I became full-time festies three years ago. We've worked some fests at The Queen Mary in Long Beach together, sometimes on the same team, sometimes on different teams but always in the realm of AR. Ian's top 5 quarantine time albums are: 

1. Twin Tribes - Ceremony (2019) 

2. Polica - Schulamith (2013) 

3. Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror (2019) 

4. The Antlers - Burst Apart (2011) 

5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008) 

food cooked & photos by Tanya 

Tanya started her festival career 11 years ago, working her way up from humble beginnings at a food vendor. The next Outside Lands will be her 4th year as Food Curator and Food Vending Program Coordinator and she was the Assistant Food Curator for I don't know how many years before that. She also has the same title at Lightning in a Bottle and has helped run the Culinary Stage at BottleRock Napa. We've worked on the Concessions team at Bonnaroo the last few years and we're both on the F&B team in the middle of the jungle at Envision. 

She's been doing a lot of home cooking during quarantine which is very fitting considering what she does out in the field! 

She's listening to a lot of relaxing meditation music, typically at night, using the Insight Timer app. This something she never use to listen to before quarantining but finds it very soothing during this uncertain time. While she's busy working on various projects during the day, she listens to a lot of deep house and disco. 

In the last few weeks Moonboots has become one of her new favorites. 

Kayla has been working festivals for 11 years doing hospo, transpo and artists relations. Our paths have crossed onsite the last few years but I didn't work with her closely until KAABOO Del Mar last year and Okeechobee this year. She highly recommends the new album from Waxahatchee, Saint Cloud which was released on March 27th. Her favorite tracks are "Fire" and "Lilacs". 

If festies have besties, dear, sweet Christina is mine. She was on the concessions team the first year I worked Outside Lands and in the years that followed we've worked Outside Lands and Bonnaroo as  VCs with Christina being a food vendor coordinator at OSL and a craft vendor coordinator extraordinare at Roo. She has been a festival professional for the last decade, mostly doing operations management but she worked her first international festival at the Kiwiburn in New Zealand at the end of last year on the artist relations side of things! She's been over in New Zealand listening to new music from NZ natives, Marlin's Dreaming on repeat along with the latest from the Canadian band, Peach Pit. She's also been enjoying some oldies but goodies from Elvis, Queen, Sylvan Esso and mixing things up with lots of French musics! Mon cheri, I miss you! 

I had the pleasure of meeting, working with and sharing close living quarters with J.C in the most unfortunate of times. When news was looming and breaking about COVID-19 we were in Florida working Okeechobee. J.C is a musician and lived in SF. She shared stories about her bands playing at venues I grew up going to. By the end of the 4 day festival our team had bonded under pending pandemic circumstances. As I went home to SF  the rest of my team, my friends, my festie fam went home to LA, none of us knowing what laid ahead. 

J.C did not share with me what she's been listening to or give any recommendations for this post. J.C is letting me share with you a song that she wrote, a touching tribute for her aunt and uncle. Her aunt Tracey and uncle Derek both passed away after contracting the corona virus. With a heavy heart, it is a great honor to share this, thank you J.C, love you. 

Her aunt's last words to J.C's mom were, "stay strong'' and after her cousins asked her to write a song for her aunt those words stuck with J.C. 

Below are the lyrics of the song J.C wrote for her aunt and uncle, T+D. Follow the link to hear J.C play it: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-81-bXDmz9/?igshid=piupiuztp3oa

Picturing you in your new life
Derek and Jason are by your side
Vovi is cooking you Fried Chicken
My Dad pulls up and says 'Awww hell Tra
It's good to see your face'
'Let's grab a Coors Light, I'll show you around'
You say, 'ole Don it's OK
I got my Tuakau and my babe
Have you met Derek here before'
Derek said 'it's nice to meet you'
Tracey I've been waiting for you
So grab my hand let's go explore

You're on the other side of the Universe
It's the reality and god it hurts
We're trying to stay strong
Through the good and bad and thick and thin
We're all dust in the wind
You're an unknown legend in our world
The sun came up and went down again
With all these memories in my head
I know you're looking down from the stars
We are trying to be strong

Remember 1982
Auntie Sue scared the shit out of you
Scarred Jacquie for the rest of her life
Litte Stephen playing guitar
Underneath the Delta stars
Slaying every song he played
I haven't got that peaceful easy feeling in so long
It comes in waves crashing through my front door
We're trying to stay strong
Through the good and the bad and thick and thin
It's just water under the bridge
You're an unknown hero in my world
The sun came up and went down again
With all the memories in my head
Wish I had you instead of a song
We stay here and trying to stay strong

Thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to this post and to everyone who reads it. 

We will get through this together. 

Pretty, Simple, Frosting

I had seen then all month at Whole Foods, a dozen cupcakes, six chocolate, six vanilla, all 12 with a perfect swirl of pink and yellow frosting. You know when you get soft serve ice cream and you have the choice of vanilla, chocolate or swirl and that blend in the swirl where the two flavors meet? 

Now imagine that but in a pink and yellow color combo. 

Looking at those cupcakes was like falling under a pastel hypnotism spell. 

And then, one day I walked into the break room and there they were. The store bought cupcakes with some of the prettiest frosting I've ever seen were up for grabs. 

Free is my favorite flavor. 

Cupcakes from Whole Foods Bakery 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

There was half a dozen left and one of those was vanilla. I was quick to act and got two chocolate cupcakes topped with the pink and yellow frosting, one for me and one for my roommate. 

My roommate had her cupcake before I had mine (I am more of a midnight snacker). When I asked her how the frosting was she said it was good, like a sugary butter. When I asked her how the chocolate cake was she said that was good, too. 

Cupcakes from Whole Foods Bakery 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

I had my cupcake a little bit later and the first thing I tried was that pink and yellow swirled frosting. I had to! 

My roommate was right, it was thick like buttercream but sugary like the frosting on generic store bought cupcakes, only this frosting is way better. It was a really thick, sweet cream and the colors were through and through. As I enjoyed little mouthfuls of just the frosting the two springtime pastels weren't licked away to reveal a white frosting underneath some weird airbrushed food dye like some store bought cupcake/cake frostings. 

The cake was good, too and actually chocolatey! A well balanced,  semi-sweet chocolate flavor that was more chocolatey than a lot of other chocolate cupcakes I've had. It was dense enough but not decadent, moist but not super buttery because it was still fluffy but cakey. 

This standard, store bought cupcake had a chocolate cake that was pretty much just right. 

I haven't seen these or any Whole Foods Bakery cupcakes by the dozen, or half dozen since then. I have seen their huge, fancy cupcakes in the display case along with their whole cakes, assortment of cake slices and four-packs of Rubicon Bakers cupcakes. 

I imagine that a dozen cupcakes from Whole Foods Bakery is more pricey than a dozen cupcakes from Safeway or Ralphs. Based on how good they taste, I say it's is worth it if you want a dozen yummy cupcakes. 

Cupcakes from Whole Foods Bakery

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Carrot cupcakes from Rubicon Bakers

It's been a while since I've reviewed Rubicon Bakers cupcakes, five years to be exact (when I reviewed their Strawberries and Cream cupcakes during the Summer to celebrate my cousin's 16th birthday). Turns out it has also been five years since I reviewed a Carrot Cake cupcake (also around Easter time). 

Now that a lot of places are closed due to shelter in place orders, apparently store front bakeries/cupcake shops are not considered essential. Weird, right? 

However, grocery stores like Whole Foods are open and with Easter this Sunday and being a part-time Amazon Fresh shopper, what better time to try Carrot cupcakes from Rubicon Bakers.

Bunnies like carrots...Easter...Easter bunny...get it?

Rubicon Bakers' Carrot cupcakes 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

When I asked my roommate if she likes carrot cake she said yes, especially with cream cheese frosting. While pondering if there's a carrot cake out there that comes with anything other than cream cheese frosting, I purchased a four pack of  Rubicon Bakers Carrot cupcakes because they do indeed come topped with cream cheese frosting.

 If cupcakes have a season, carrot cake cupcakes have two: Spring and Autumn. The un-official affiliation with carrots and Easter make carrot cake a fun and appropriate flavor. But also, April is known to be the rainy part of the Spring season (April showers bring May flowers) and when it rains doesn't cozying up with a comforting carrot cake sound like it would hit the spot? That same cozy sentiment is why Autumn is also a carrot cake season. That and the fact that it's also Thanksgiving time, the time of year when sugar and spice and everything nice start coming around.

Rubicon Bakers' Carrot cupcake

photo by Nikki DeMartini

Even though I waited a couple of days before taking my first bite of one of the cupcakes, it was still as fresh as ever. My first taste of the cream cheese frosting as I licked a little bit it off of my fingers after getting it out of it's place holder, rendered the slightest familiarity of a toasted cinnamon and ginger. The sprinkle of crushed walnuts on top of the frosting was a nice, subtle touch of texture on the otherwise very smooth dollop.

Before the photo shoot started I noticed carrot shavings in the top of the cupcake and after I clicked a winner I proceeded to do what I usually always do when I eat a cupcake, especially one I'm reviewing: I ripped the bottom part (the cup if you will) off.
I do this because

1. I'm m a frosting junkie and eating a cupcake this way gives me more bang for my buck (or something like that).
2. I want to be able to fully taste the cake itself so that I can review it thoroughly.
3. See reason number one.

Those people who are like "I'm more of a pie person. I just don't like cake there's always too much frosting" and people who do not like raisins should not eat this cupcake.
It had been so long since my last Rubicon Bakers cupcake that I had forgotten that they are filled.
That's right.
I ripped this sucker open and its guts were filled with frosting and raisins.

Rubicon Bakers' Carrot cupcake 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

I love a good, fragrant carrot cake filled with carrots and raisins and I love frosting. This Carrot cupcake was off to a good start before I even tried it.

The color of cake reminded me of dripping molasses, a deep and warm golden brown. Cake stuck to my finger tips as I took bites out of it. Fluffy on the inside yet a little gooey on the outside. The delicate balance of cinnamon, ginger and butter weren't drowned by the chunky raisins and carrots. No, the dried fruit and root veggie complimented the enticing spices while the spices in turn complimented them.

Rubicon Bakers' Carrot cupcake 

photo by Nikki DeMartini

The cream cheese frosting was thick and rich and not too sweet. I think the frosting can really make or break a carrot cake because it's basically an enhanced spice cake and a frosting too sweet would throw off the flavor pallet. This is probably why cream cheese frosting is the go to frosting for carrot cake. The frosting filling gave each bite of cake just a touch of the sweet and tangy confection but the bites from the top where my favorite, so rich and creamy and carrot cakey.
There's a lot packed into these little things from the cake to the frosting, Rubicon Bakers mean business when it comes to their Carrot cupcakes. It was so good, if I didn't know it was a store bought cupcake before hand,  I wouldn't have guessed it.



Every bunny who likes carrot cake will be happy with the Carrot cupcake from Rubicon Bakers no matter what the season it is.