Lisa A.

Review: Neon Desert Music Festival 2016 Day 1

Hi everyone! I hope your Memorial Day weekend was good. I had a GREAT time attending the sixth annual Neon Desert Music Festival. I had so many experiences there, I don’t even know where to start! As I mentioned before, I wasn’t given press credentials after all but I was determined to go anyway!

I’ve wanted to go to this festival since the first year but money was always tight or something else always came up. My son wanted to go somewhere else and I forget what else happened over the six-year time span. None of my friends ever want to go either. This year I finally said the hell with all of these excuses! I know I know the rent is due this week and none of my friends want to go! I didn’t care, I was going by myself one way or another. Guess where I ended up getting a two-day VIP bracelet for about $100 less than its actual value? Guess where I usually purchase my tickets the day before or day of the event for a fraction of the cost? Craigslist!

Day 1 was pretty fun but the main reason I wanted to go was because of day 2. I’ve wanted to see Ludacris since my college days nearly 12 YEARS ago! His big hits like “Money Maker”, “Roll Out” and “Move” were jams I always wanted to dance to in Juarez, Mexico and/or local clubs like Graham Central Station and The Stampede. Anyway let’s get to Day 1.

Day 1

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The first artist I ended up seeing when I arrived was Nikyee Heaton. As I mentioned in my Sunday post, I was immediately drawn to her powerful voice. I always like it when artists interact with the crowd. She was one of those artists. You can read and listen to her music here. After I listened to her for a good 20 minutes, I headed to the Homegrown Stage. This is where local bands from different genres jammed out. The stage was set at the beautiful, new San Jacinto Plaza. I checked out the 11-member band jazz and hip-hop band Ribo Flavin’ and rappers Varsity Alumni.

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The new San Jacinto Plaza
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San Jacinto water pad

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Dinner from La Placita Cafe. Not quite Chico’s Tacos but it was still good!
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Varsity Alumni

After watching the two local bands, I took a walk around the festival and hung out in VIP for awhile. I spoke to a few people while in VIP. Note to self: Next time just get a general admission bracelet. I also included a few photos from my walk around the festival below. You can check out more photos and videos on Twitter. My Twitter handle is @lma911 or https://twitter.com/lma911

I will have part 2/Day 2 for you shortly. Enjoy the rest of your day and week!

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Men on stilts! They were super nice and friendly 🙂
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Art!
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Ribo Flavin’

Published by Lisa A.

Hello everyone! My name is Lisa Amaya. I'm a 30 some year old mom to one son. My blog is about my life, entertainment, current events, people and events in my hometown, El Paso, Texas, etc. My blog will also feature pieces about Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and surrounding areas in New Mexico. I also hope to include more travel blog posts. Guest bloggers will also contribute from time to time! I've been a writer since I was 6 years old. I graduated from New Mexico State University with a degree in journalism. I've written for various newspapers and magazines. I plan on focusing more of my time on blogging and freelance writing. I took a five-year break from writing but I'm back at it! Thank you for stopping by and welcome!

21 comments

  1. […] Hi everyone and happy Saturday! Today is local music day here! I’m including this smooth one by Frythm (Matthew Pena). Frythm is on his way to blowing up in the local and worldwide music scene. He’s performed at several local venues and festivals. He performed at the Neon Desert Music Festival back in May. If you’ve been following me for a couple of months, you might recall my NDMF reviews. In case you missed them, you can check them out here.  […]

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  6. Ohhh I see! We have one that’s similar but most likely not as huge, it’s called Sun City Music Festival. It happens on Labor Day weekend. Skrillex and Kaskade are opening for them.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. TomorrowWorld is a music festival or may I say extravaganza 🙂 Its actually the american version of TomorrowLand which happens in different parts of the world everytime. From David Guetta to Dimitri Vegas to Martin Garrix to Chainsmokers, all the famous DJs partake. And not to mention about the settings 🙂 I am afraid I am not doing justice to the description 😉 I would recommend you to google 🙂 Of course tomorrowland totally beats this one in terms of settings and music but then who can travel to brazil and belgium every year for this !

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Wow.This looks so awesome. 🙂 Glad you could make it finally and seems like you had a ball 🙂 Hubby and I always wanted to go to TomorrowWorld and now that we are here we thought we might as well try and they cancelled it this year 😛

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I was a little nervous about posting the pics. Lol. I’m not really a photographer. I need a little bit more practice. I had a blast! I’m going to an event on Saturday so I’m hoping the pics come out alright. Practice makes perfect! 😊

    Liked by 2 people

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