Lowlands Festival, also known as Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, is an annual festival in the Netherlands, that takes place every year. It's mainly focused on rock, pop, hip hop, dance and alternative music and also offers cinemas and theatres. About 55,000 people attend the festival every year with over 200 acts and more than ten stages. This year I got the chance to be there and see my favorite band while I followed them on their festival tour through Europe. 

After I had enjoyed my day off, I left for the Netherlands around 3am in the morning. The bus was filled with people, so I didn't get the chance to have two seats for myself and get the rest of sleep I was missing. We had a little delay and when I arrived in Amsterdam at 10:30am, Charlotte had already been there for about an hour, waiting for me. We met up and then messaged Dina and Aileen, who had been there by car, that we both arrived, so they could pick us up and drive to the festival with us. We met up and then made our way to Lowlands Festival in Biddinghuizen, about 80km from Amsterdam. 

We had a pretty fun ride to the festival as we were all reunited again and even though I almost fell asleep in the car due to lack of sleep, since I left at 3am in the morning. When we arrived we parked the car and went straight to the Guest List/Crew/Artist check-in to get our wristbands and go inside. We went up to the guy in the tent and told him we were on the guest list for The NBHD and told him our names, when he told us he couldn't find us or a guest list of The NBHD and that we would have to wait for the Band to arrive in order to get it. Mostly confused, we went outside again and waited fot the Crew or Band to come to the check-in, even though we doubted them actually coming there anytime soon, as it was only about 12pm. 

We waited for about an hour to an hour an a half in the rain before we decided to go back inside and ask if he had gotten any further information. When he still couldn't find the list we were on, he just wrote down our names and gave us our wristbands and we were finally able to go inside. 

It had been raining a little bit when I arrived in Amsterdam and as soon as we entered the festival the rain got harder and didn't stop. We took some group pictures and then made our way to the tent The NBHD was supposed to play at, but since it was raining so hard, all the tents were filled with people and there was no getting inside, so we just went into the Guest barn, where we had wifi and a place to sit at. 


We chilled there until the rain was over and then went to the tent, which was empty by now, as no one was performing there and it had stopped raining. Unlikely to the other festivals there were barley people waiting in the front row, so it was pretty easy for us to get there and wait for The NBHD. We had three hours to go and even though we had so long to wait there was only one band playing before The NBHD. We watched them play and then got excited for our favorite band to come on, especially because it was Jesse's birthday. 

The crew started building up the stage when the Tour Manager of The Neighbourhood came down to us and asked us where we were the day before, since all four of us had decided to skip the festival in Poland as it was too far away from the Netherlands to get to Lowlands in time and also too expensive. We explained to him and he said that we had a point there, before telling us that he thinks it would be a great show because Jesse's in a good mood. Just in time the sound tech guy, who had seen us from the stage, came down to us to talk to us too. He gave all four of us a high five and then talked to us for a moment before both of them went back to their work and preparing the set of The NBHD. 

When The NBHD came on stage the four of us, finally seeing them together again, waited for a perfect moment to sing Happy Birthday for Jesse, who didn't seem to be in that good of a mood anymore (understandable if you have to perform on your birthday instead of celebrating it the whole day). After a few songs we had finally found the moment of silence we were waiting for and started singing/screaming Happy Birthday and while Jesse ignored us the rest of the band laughed at us. Realizing how ridiculous we actually were, we stopped singing and pretended like nothing had happened. We went back to enjoying the show, before it ended. Jesse didn't talk that much during the show and it kinda seemed like he wanted it to be over faster, but I didn't mind, since I was seeing my favorite band and that's all that matters to me. So I had fun at the show, sang along to all the songs, danced and fooled around with Dina, Aileen and Charlotte before another show of our tour was over. 

After The NBHD I only wanted to see Foals, who were playing almost right after The NBHD. I had never seen them before but I love their music so I was more than happy to finally get the chance to see them, especially because I knew it wouldn't be the only time because they were also part of the lineup of Zurich Open Air and Reading & Leeds, our next festivals. I took Aileen and Charlotte with me, while Dina went to see an other band. I was majorly excited and didn't mind about standing in the back. When the show started I had the time of my life. I had always only heard about their great shows and was sad I couldn't afford seeing them earlier this year, but now I finally had gotten my chance of seeing them more than just once. Their show was completely insane. There were people from all ages, between my age and the age of my parents or older and everyone danced and sang along. My favorite part about those mixed ages shows is that no one is stressing. Everyone was chilled and having the time of their lives, while Foals was playing old and new songs, giving their best on stage, with an amazing lightening show. I had the time of my life at the show and especially enjoyed their song "Spanish Sahara", which is my favorite Foals song of all time. 

After the show was over we met up with Dina again and left the festival, since it was pretty late, Charlotte had an exam the next day and Dina, Aileen and I had to get to Cologne. We searched for the car and when we finally found it, we ate and drank something and then left and after bringing Charlotte to her station we drove about 1 - 2 hours more until we had gotten to Cologne, where I had taken a hotel for two nights, before Zurich Open Air. They dropped me off at the central station at 2am, since I still had to wait until 2pm to get into the hotel. I spent the 12 hours waiting by sleeping, buying bus tickets for the next festivals and doing sightseeing in Cologne. I was more than happy when I was finally able to check in to the hotel and get some sleep and spend the next to nights there before leaving off to Zurich...