Food for Thought: Sonic Temple & Music Fests
If you've ever met me in person and there was a plate of food in front of me or a bowl of snacks in the next room you absolutely know that I am a human trash can and I will critique every single bite that I take. It's never about what will I eat but more of a case of what won't I try to eat.
Now, the end of May turned out to be a spectacularly busy month. I got to attend not one but two music festivals two weekends in a row! Right in the middle of the month we had Poorcastle, who's 3-day lineup included a menagerie of musical performances by new musicians, upcoming bands, and even some legacy acts performing reunion shows - all from the Louisville area! If you, for some reason, were unable to attend Poorcastle You can give your earbuds a taste by listening to my playlist here! It has at least one song from most acts throughout the weekend ranging from folk, to hip hop, to punk, to more than one kind of rock!
Memorial Day weekend held the serendipitous opportunity in the form of a free ticket and a lot of last-minute shuffling to go to Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio to revisit what I consider to be my musical roots in alternative and metal music.
Both weekends had evocative performances that moved me in some way!
Both also, unfortunately, had some pretty terrible food options.
I don't mean that the food was bad and its taste nor do I mean that it made me sick! The food was bad because it's not what is needed on a hot summer day when you're spending 8 to 12-plus hours in the heat dancing and moshing to your favorite songs.
It's also not as inclusive for any of our friends who have any sort of dietary restriction. The options aren't not there, but they are also extremely limited! Limited and infuriating enough that I even made the decision to go vegetarian at home!
The food at Music festivals
Chances are in the year of our Lord 2023 that you have attended an outdoor music festival or concert. If you haven't, please don't let the opinions and ramblings of some rando on the internet about festival food keep you from going out and supporting local music & food trucks!
But we all know what kind of food is served at these events. You got your standard pizza, burgers, tenders, fries, your nacho tent, maybe some soft pretzels, and bless any and every festival that has free water stations! Y'all are the real heroes here! I've even seen hibachi steak, noodles, and oddly enough hot poke bowls.
There was a theme amongst all of this between both festivals. All the food was hot and very little of it wasn't fried meat-stuffs.
And all I wanted in the heat of summer with no shade in sight was a cold, crisp salad!
What I wanted to eat at my music festival experiences.
SALAD?! A controversial opinion, I know!
I hear the arguments from both sides.
"Vegans and vegetarians deserve more than salads!"
“Salads aren't a fun fair food.”
“Salads are hard to walk around with.”
“Salads will wilt really quickly in the heat.”
I hear you, and I think they're lame ass excuses because they're obvious problems with your bias against salads and the problems have solutions!
Vegs do deserve more than just salads, but salads are just super easy to make in such an environment!
Sure salads aren't a fun fair food cheat meal, but you'll have a lot more fun throughout the day if your tummy doesn't hurt and you’re not feeling sluggish!
Why do you need to walk around with a salad? It's cold, eat it in 20 minutes, you're fine! If you're carrying around a salad all day you're doing something wrong in the first place, see my complaint on wilted salads.
But that's not the point. The point is, I wanted something cold to combat the heat, something filling to combat the hunger, and something light so I could mosh and headbang to my heart's content without feeling like I wanted to hurl!
I was just hoping that most veg options wouldn’t be as heavy as everything else.
Where we've gone wrong about music munchies.
There's probably some fiscal factors that go into the kinds of food that are offered at these kinds of events. I'm certain that another obstacle is scheduling for the food vendors themselves. However, I don't and never have run a business like that, so I don't know how those kinds of decisions are made.
What I do know was that I was getting extremely cranky wandering the pavement by myself for close to an hour reading menu after menu, praying for a refreshing option. It didn't have to be unique, it wasn't even about the cost, nor did I mind to wait in a long line. The fact of the matter was that after about an hour I had only found one location that was clearly serving vegan options and two others that had vegetarian options that they weren't sold out of.
I wanted a map and wished that I could have planned out where I wanted and where I could eat. I ruminated over the meals that I did get to eat at Sonic Temple about the comparative food offerings at Poorcastle. How I was happy to support not only some local music but also some local food trucks, but also how hard it likely was for our vegan and vegetarian friends that are more strict in their diet than I am. Don't get me started either on heavily fried foods and our pals with medical issues that are often impacted by food like diabetes or IBS!
The more I think about it the more I feel like I could go on ranting about how the food offerings that I saw between both festivals could have been improved.
Where Sonic Temple had a far larger budget and tons more food options available, they could have made it easier on fans by including at least a handy list of food vendors with links to their menu items so that people could plan ahead.
Poorcastle, honestly I don't think I can critique them as much! I didn't really find that I had these opinions on food until I attended Sonic Temple the weekend after. But looking back, it seems like they had most of their bases covered! It's a much smaller festival with a much smaller budget so there were only about three or four food trucks there anyway. And one was solely focused on coffee-like drinks! In fact, I wish I would have at least paid more attention to the Spinelli's truck. I know they offer a vegan pizza, but I don't know if that was on the menu for the weekend. Perhaps my hope for them is that as Poorcastle grows, it also expands the list of food trucks invited!
Don't worry, I didn't starve.
Poorcastle and Sonic Temple - two music festivals with drastically different production budgets and fan turnout. Both offered really similar and standard food fair that you've already heard me rant about above.
But for all of my complaining about wanting a salad in the heat of summer, delicious food for everyone can still be found if you can be patient enough in the heat to read the details on the menu.
Poorcastle: Fryers Club, Disco Fries (Dusted) $12
Waffle fries, mozzarella cheese, curry sauce, topped with peanuts and chives.
Veganize this dish by holding the mozzarella cheese.
A more unique vegetarian option that I was able to find was from Louisville's local Fryers Club - who actually specializes in fried chicken.
Waffle fries are the superior cut of fry, and I will fight everyone on this opinion! They are sturdy enough that you can scoop most sauces and food stuffs with them and large enough that if you do want to eat it with a fork to cram as much in your face-hole as possible, by all means!
The curry sauce was delightfully warm and spicy. Had I tried this in the middle of the day in the heat it probably wouldn't have had the impact on me that it had. But at 8:30 or 9:00 in the evening when it's just starting to get cool it was immaculate! The chives added an oniony brightness and the peanuts retained the crunchy texture while the waffle fries at the bottom soaked up the curry!
The fact that this dish came double layered meant that no bite got left behind!
It is big enough to share, though I doubt you'll want to. The only downsides to it have to be that I wouldn't eat it directly before any performance in which you believe you will get swept away in the pit, nor is it a dish that I would trust my friend to hold on to while in the pit … because it would be gone!
Sonic Temple: Dirty Franks, Chicago Dog (Vegan) & Tater Tots (+ Vegan Cheese & Coney Sauces)
Hot dog topped with fresh tomatoes, diced onion, sport peppers, sweet relish, dill pickle, yellow mustard, & celery salt.
Traditional tater tots topped with chili (coney) and cheese sauces. Regular, Vegetarian, and Vegan options for both menu items.
I can't quite remember how the prices divvied up for this meal, but I believe including tip it came out a little over $20 - which seems to be about the same as what every other food stall wanted you to pay for every other thing.
This was my salad compromise. A warm vegan weenie that wasn't going to feel too heavy in my stomach when I ran for the crowd to go listen to Grandson. A pretty standard classic that every hot dog food truck should have. The cold combo of veggies on top eased my happiness and cooled me down! The vegan weenie itself was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly, honestly I could barely tell It was meatless at all!
As for the tots, no notes! I'm just a sucker for chili cheese tots. And even though it wasn't a wise decision to snarf down 20 minutes before The next set I wanted to capture, I can't say that I regret them because that would be a lie.
Full & Fulfilled
I love Music festivals and outdoor concert experiences of all kinds because oftentimes it brings together the community, local performers, and neighborhood food trucks! The community that comes together around an outdoor musical event is second to none.
I just want my food options to encompass as many tastes as there are in music (and not hold me back from experiencing the performances to their fullest).
Album Artwork Inspiration: Mortus Viventi
Mortus Viventi is a unique apparel vendor in that all of their proceeds are donated to local musicians in their hometown in Southern California to fund their projects (like press & video shoots, design, or recording time). They were doing free one-card tarot readings at Sonic Temple as a marketing tactic to bring people over to their booth. Smart move!
But, what if they had an album bringing all of their sponsored artists together?
Inspired by my card draw from the festival, is a highly textured and re-colored take on Mortus Viventi’s own branding and Hermit illustration. The white and red were chosen to feel at home in their branding, but contrasting enough to stand out as a unique or limited edition compilation vinyl. The album named Temple since, well, seeing them at Sonic Temple.
Visit their site, buy some merch, support them & the local music scene!
This is a fictional, self-directed design project and is no way officially associated with Mortus Viventi.
