I spent the first leg of this trip hanging out with Joey. He is my boyfriend and I promised I would teach him how to drive to Philly. So I came a few days early so we could drive together and he could get practice. We spent a lot of good time together. We went to a vintage store in Pittsburgh, where I proceeded to buy 3 Cartel CDs. We also spent some time making photocards for our best friends. I love hanging out with Joey, and I got to drive with him across the state back to Philly, where we first embarked on our Hellfest journey.
We woke up in the morning on Friday to pick up Oliver from the train station. I was getting goodies for some friends at an Amish market on our way. We ended up getting to Hamilton, NJ (Oli’s train station) at noon-ish. Kay’s flight that day was delayed, so we made perfect timing back into Philly to pick her up. I did a couple of donuts around the airport, though.
We ended up getting into Philly. The parking lots we chose were actually closed. So we parked on South Street and then took the subway to Chilis in Center City. We ended up getting into Philly, and Chili’s was great. We respectively tore up our meals. It was about 3 PM by the time we got back to South Street. We hit up the punk store, Crash Bang Boom, as well as South Street Art Mart; great local businesses. Some things were closed as this was July 4th. Eventually, Sera and Possum rolled up from Ohio, and we went to get cheesesteaks at the infamous Jim’s. Record store visits also occurred. Rachel joined us at the tail end of our trip from the South Jersey burbs.
Anyway, living in the Philly suburbs, I’m 2.5 hours from Rutherford, NJ. We all woke up and left the house around 7 AM. Picking up Rachel on the way. We got breakfast at Wawa. I was driving, and my friends were amazed by the employees who had to pump our own gas.
We pulled up to Hellfest after putting our stuff down at Phoenix’s house. Phoenix was letting some of us stay at her house. She’s a server member whom I’ve met IRL plenty of times- Happens to live right in town and was working the fest!
I really wanted to see Start Today, Missing Link, and Haywire that day. My main goal? Go to Madd Vintage and find a Damnation AD shirt. Whilst Rachel helped me peruse the shirts, I was missing START TODAY. Because one of the bands dropped out, Start Today went on early. My dumbass didn’t realize this, so I got into the venue just in time for their set to end.
I also got some great records from AJ at Preserving Hardcore. Great guy! We also met Weapon. I got to hold the original picture of Pete from ‘99 with his locs, lying in bed, which has been passed around the internet for god knows how long. Weapon also had a Polaroid strip with him and Pete. He let me have his gay This Is Hardcore 2024 shirt, which I changed into. He gave the rest of us Fuck City stickers! Joey’s gonna give me his so I can put it on my guitar amp.
We walked around a ton, but didn’t spend a lot of money, to be honest. Though we did get lunch at a restaurant nearby and it was great. I got a Start Today CD too. At this point, all of us had been in and out of the viewing area. Oli, Rachel and I had made our way back into the pit for Missing Link’s awesome set. Joey was watching us tear it up from the sidelines of the pit. Missing Link ended their set. At this point, those of us who had been moshing were super exhausted. I was on a mission to get Oli some water. When I returned, On Broken Wings was playing, and the crowd was chaotic. I came back to find out Oliver and Rachel separated, and I couldn’t find either of them. Little did I know that was the last time I’d be seeing Oliver for a while.
Eventually, Rachel left the viewing area for On Broken Wings. I was shoving my way between people, trying to find Oli and give him his water. I thought he was going to pass out or something. On Broken Wings ends, and it was strange not seeing Oli moshing at all. To make matters worse, I didn’t even see him scrambling to the other side to get up front for Haywire. At this point, I knew something was wrong. For the cherry on top, in between OBW and Haywire, I hear someone say into the microphone, “Oliver from Ohio, your boy is in the hospital.” All of the thoughts hit my brain, like, oh shit. Our friend used to live in Ohio for a large chunk of his life! So I immediately texted the group chat we had.
I am spamming the group chat like, “WTF?? ??? Guys??? Have you seen Oli??? ??? Hello???” And then everyone else collectively is like, “Oh shit.” Meanwhile, I’m still looking for him in the Haywire pit, and Weapon is about to shit his pants because he thinks I might die. I don’t remember what he told us specifically, but he heard something about hospitals and had a gut feeling something was wrong. We were all freaking out.
I get out of there as soon as the EMT confirms Oli is in the hospital. Phoenix immediately stopped working and helped us get out to the hospital. Thanks to the venue for not being assholes about that. Weapon ended up driving Sera over to Hackensack (which got confused for Hackysack, to which I genuinely had to ask “Are you /j or /srs?”). We just went home, and the vibes were obviously ruined.
We found out that Oli had a “minor” brain bleed. We were just glad he’s not dead. I ended up taking Possum and Kay back to their hotel. We made a little pit stop at Walmart so we could get Oli and Sera snacks, and we also got snacks for ourselves. We got Oli some vegan Reese’s cups, and Sera got yogurt pretzels.
The next day, we went to the SXE hangout, minus Oli. We all thought he wouldn’t be discharged until Monday. At the SXE hangout, we talked to Josh, and I played a bit of kickball. We met a kid, Aidan, from South Jersey, who graciously gifted me one of the vinyls that he won. We brought back a ton of free CDs for Oli, such as Earth Crisis and Tooth And Claw. Joey, Sera, and I rolled up to the hospital to give Oli his goods. We had been communicating with him via the hospital phone at this point.
Weapon had been sitting with Oli since the morning. Luckily, four guests were allowed, which totaled to the four of us. The others hung out with Phoenix until the fest started at 3 PM. Weapon surprised us with the fact that Oli was allowed to be discharged early: He was going back to the fest under the condition that he was sitting on the VIP balcony, which is super sweet of Josh.
Weapon wanted to surprise us at the fest, but he didn’t know we were coming to the hospital. He had a lot of surprises in store for us this weekend, I suppose. Anyways, I let Oli log into Twitter on my phone since his was broken (big mistake for him). Once he was done being chronically online, I posted a farewell tweet on his account before I logged out… Which he said he didn’t care if I did, yet he was salty about this farewell tweet. However, Joey gave me the nod of approval… That’s all I’m saying! I said I’d delete it anyway.
Twitter shenanigans aside, I got to see In 2 Again, who are amazing. I Promised The World is great as well. Both bands went hard as fuck. However, there was no pit for any of us that day. Sera also had a sprained ankle anyway, so she couldn’t mosh. Everyone was scared off from the pit after Oli’s disaster, regardless.
I’m kinda blanking at this point, but Eighteen Visions was great. Sera and I shared a pizza, which was good.
On Monday, we met up with Muttley, who is Oli’s boo. She lives in New York, about an hour away. We had a picnic on the Hudson. The most thrilling part of Monday was watching Sera and Rachel’s lesbian yuri-pilled plot twist. They were fimajoshing out with each other about Star Wars and Kuromi. I was excited, as Rachel is my best friend and was getting herself an awesome, hot, and stunning hxc GF. I had the most fun during our quick stop at Burlington, TBH. Sera got a Juicy hat, I got some really good aloe vera water, Rachel got pjs, and Kay got a new duffel bag after hers ripped. We dropped Rachel off at her house, and returned back to mine to sleep.
Tuesday, Sera and Possum dipped, and Joey left with his parents to go on college tours so he can prepare to transfer next Fall. It was only Kay, Oli, and me left. We met up with Rachel again in Delaware, where we went record shopping and also had rice bowls. Oli was staying at my house for a little bit since he was medically unable to fly a plane. Luckily, his plane was cancelled anyway, so I’m assuming refunds ensued. I had fun on Tuesday. Delaware has tax-free shopping, which is nice. We also had salads for dinner courtesy of my mom.
On Wednesday, I woke up at the crack of dawn to take Kay to the airport. I let Oli rest for the rest of the day. We did watch some hardcore videos on VC in the FOBAT server. Mainly, we spent time looking at train tickets for Oli.
Finally, on Thursday, we drove two hours to DC, thanks to my dad, to get Oli on the cheapest train possible. His train was like 28 hours long to West Palm Beach… I don’t know how he survived. We had a great meal at Pret A Manger. We both had chai/matcha lattes. I said my farewells to Oli after buying him a travel pillow.
All in all, Hellfest was scary. Not to get sappy, but I never realized what friendship looked like until one of my friends ended up in the hospital. I’ve never seen a group of people care about each other so deeply as I did that weekend. It was really unnerving when we had no clue what happened to Oli for a good few hours. Also, Weapon was so nice, and I could not explain just how grateful I am that he was there for us. He really is our hardcore dad.
I really love this group of people that I met on this trip. I know we are bonded forever. I’m glad Oli is getting better. Long live the Straight Edge Shield!