By Matthew Valenzuela-Serrano On September 15-16, the popular hip-hop festival, “Rolling Loud", came back to the Bay Area. Last year's event came to “The Shoreline Amphitheater”. This year, the weekend-long Festival came to Oakland. Some crowd-pleasing artists who performed were Lil uzi vert, Sheck Wes, Playboi Carti, and Travis Scott. Although I’ve been to a handful of concerts, I have never been to a weekend long festival. The lineup included a few artists who were unknown to me which was worrying since I would have to wait a few hours to see the artists I longed to see.
The first artist I saw is known as, “Lil Gnar”. Going in without any knowledge of his discography, I was able to appreciate his talent. At one point he said “open the mosh pits.” Having no clue what was about to transpire, I was immediately thrown into a circle full of pushing and violent dancing with my friends. And for the next few minutes, I remained in the mosh pit and eventually got punched in the eye, yet I thought nothing of it due to the adrenaline flowing through my body. A few artists and hours later, Playboi Carti’s set was about start. His performance was amazing. It left me speechless at first, but thinking back to it gives me chills due to the joy it gave me. At the end of the night Lil uzi vert was the last rapper my tribe and I wished to see. He came thirty minutes late, but the buildup was exciting. He came out full of energy, which you could feel in the crowd. Going into his catalog of music, he reached, ”The way Life goes” The crowd went silent and in unison we sang. “ I know it hurt sometimes, but you’ll get over it. You’ll find another life to live.” He ends the night singing “XO Tour Llif3.” Day 2 got kicked off for my group and I at the Comethazine set. Its set times were a hard choice for us because most of the artist were on different stages around the same time, which forced us to flip flop between The Pinclout and Dryp stage. The lesser known artists were better on day 2, for me at least. The most notable artists that day were Juice Wrld, $uicideBoy$, Trippe Redd, Chief Keef, YG, and Travi$ Scott as headliner. After doing more of the same, we finally reached Travi$. He came off, aggressively “STARGAZING”. Everyone screamed with excitement. He went through a few songs before YOSEMITE started. This is became the moment of the weekend. At one point you could feel the energy of all 40,000 attendants, ending the night with goosebumps. Looking back, Day 2 had a better lineup. Most people were excited early on, but you could feel the exhaustion in the crowd later. Day 1 was fun as well, but it wasn’t as exciting. Those are really the only negatives about either day. What I liked was the people if some got hurt in a mosh pit or the crowd then they would help. Instead of continuing to rage, they stopped, picked up the person who fell and kept on going. In the end, the concert was truly worth its price.
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