Mixtape Festival – Day 1
Katie Mixtape Festival started off a bit nerve racking. We asked where handicapped parking was to one of the attendants on the street and she very snottily said she did not know. Yet she was instructing traffic to parking areas… But once we found parking and got to the box office to get our tickets stamped so we’d have access to the ADA area, things went a bit smoother. That is until mother nature got involved and decided a thunder storm rolling through just before the acts were going to start was a good idea.
We went underneath the grand stands to wait out the storm and then headed back out a while later to catch Aaron Carter’s set. He sang only 3 songs because the weather cut his set short. I was annoyed because it was only a DJ up next and I don’t understand their purpose in life. The acts alternated on stage to stage so there was very little down time between sets which was really nice. After Aaron was DJ Cheapshot. We opted to stay on the south side ADA area for most of the day and could see both stages from where we were.
Next up was Steel Panther and I don’t get this band either. Are they a joke? I hope so. They are like the 2gether of metal bands. But with WAY worse lyrics! Their set seemed to go on and on and it would have been nice if they cut a little of their set to get Aaron another song 🙁
Carolina Liar was next up on the North stage and I wasnt sure I knew any of their stuff but then they had 1 single that I did recognize. Then back to South for DJ Pauly D. Again – don’t get it – but he had the crowd pumped the most of anyone at that point in the show. (Gary from Teen Mom was also in attendance – as a fan. I know OF the show but don’t watch it – my friend pointed him out to me. He also seemed to get the girls in a frenzy. Again, I don’t get it. He is famous for getting a teenager pregnant. Awesome.)
North stage had The Fray up next and they had a pretty long set. To the point that they did a bunch of songs that I didnt know from their albums to fill in time. I dont know if they knew what was going on at the show though because they kept saying Kelly Clarkson was up next. She was next on that stage – but NKOTB would be on the south stage next. They put on a good show though, it was just hard to get in to it being on the other side of the stadium.
NKOTB came in on some sort of car that we couldn’t see from where we were, and they all jumped on platforms in front of the GA area – in the back of the VIP area. They did their first few songs there which was awesome because they were so much closer to us! Then they made their way back on the stage for the rest of the set.
It was Donnie’s birthday (he’s 40 – again) and so we sang to him and Jon sang to him and then they gave us a gift which was to come back out on the platforms. Someone (Joe?) said – you are VIP but they are VIP too which was nice because the VIP people were being a bit rotten (not all, mind you) about being VIP because perks were changing in the days leading up to the festival.
We ended up heading over to the north stage to snag a spot for Kelly Clarkson and figured the guys only had to do Hangin Tough and would be done. Little did we know that they would be bringing 98 DEGREES out on to the stage to sing with them!
Donnie said to be sure to watch Kelly because they had a surprise for us. We had planned on watching Kelly anyway, but that definitely got us interested. It turned out that Joe Mac sang the Jason Aldean duet with Kelly. Kelly is so funny and I love that she chats with the fans throughout her set. She also had another special guest, Jordan Meredith from the show duets. They did a Miranda Lambert song together. Kelly always puts on a great show and this was no different. She mentioned how she didn’t know she was performing on the same bill as NKOTB and that her sister LOVED them when they were kids – they shared a room and there were posters every where so she had to call and brag to her sister.
After the show we made it out of the parking lot in record time! Then it was time to get some rest and do it all again the next day!
Some setlists under the cut – it was raining so I didn’t keep track of everyone.