Echo Park Rising: Connecting LA music lovers alike

Before coming to the United States, my teenage years were spent in Paris. I grew up near the Seine’s riverside in those beautiful and old districts. Every morning, I listened to this accordion player down my street on my way to go to school. I would dream while admiring each building and their perfect harmony together.

I have always been a music lover: I can appreciate any type of music because I love understanding what the artists want to tell us. I can understand classic music and hard rock, even if my real love is for jazz and soul.

After having a crazy summer in Europe, traveling all around the most famous cities with my friends, I returned to Los Angeles  and already missed my French life.

I was used to this casual life. I was used to walking in the streets and running into someone I knew well randomly. But then I moved to the United States, I didn’t feel the same way, and I miss it so much.

My friend called me saying there was a good show down the street in Echo Park. First I didn’t really wanted to go because it sounded like a hipster meeting or a place to show off money. How wrong I was!

The Echo Park Rising, a music festival in Echo Park opened for two weeks at the end of August.

This festival is free and full of  incredible artists. I loved it because felt the vibe of a European city. People are all out in the streets and there is music everywhere, and not just music, good music! I went to many festivals during my life, but I never really felt this for a free music gig. I could feel each drum beat in my heart.

I saw the Flying Hard, SadGirl, Meatbodies, but my favorite concert was the Paranoyd’s one! The crowd would become crazy when they got into the scene.

The scene decoration were amazing, it represented the band perfectly. I can’t explain the electric atmosphere or the emotions we felt because we all had something in common, we were all present for the same reasons.

I loved this atmosphere of everyone loving the same music, absolutely no tension, except our excitement.  It was the end of the holiday so we couldn’t feel the stress of people working or the stress of our lives.

From 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., this mini festival made us feel we are out of time, we are in another dimension just for a few hours. It was relaxing, people were here to have fun and to meet other people. No drugs, there was barely any alcohol, people were themselves, and just happy to be here.

There were also food trucks and lots of games organized all around. The bars were all opened, there were different stages for different types of music, which is the part I enjoyed the most. We could go on the third floor to listen to trance music and then walk down a few stairs and would be listening to hard rock.

How great it is to walk down a street in Los Angeles and run into people everywhere? I did not realize that there was a social life in Los Angeles because people are always in their cars, and we don’t really get to know the people because it is easy to get lost in the immensity of the city. We don’t realize how many people there are around us, except when we are stuck in traffic. It made me think about my European life.