My First Pilgrimage (2019)

Hi blog friends!

If I haven’t told you lately, thank you for reading my blog. It’s a fun way to tell you guys more in depth what’s going on in my life. It’s not lost on me that you invest your time keeping up with my music/story. 

Today, I want to recap my amazing, first time experience at Pilgrimage! 

My weekend started out a little rough. Friday I had spent all day working on a big project for you guys. You’ll hear more about it soon! I had felt so great after putting in hours of work laying out my vision for this project and then I had a conversation with a friend. He talked about every way it could go wrong, miss the mark, and how I basically needed to do this project all in ONE DAY. God bless him; he was only trying to help. I left the conversation feeling really stressed out about logistics and I had no clue how it was all going to work out. 

Saturday, I was in a funky mood. The kind of mood that you can’t seem to shake. Everything feels a little hopeless. I get that feeling from time to time. I put so much time, energy, and hard work into my music and sometimes the uncertainty of if it will all pay off hits me like a ton of bricks. Plus, I really missed my family and friends back home. I tried my best to get out of the funk, so when my friend asked me to take her place in a writers round that night I told her I would. My first instinct was to say no and crawl under my covers. I wanted the day to end as soon as possible, but I pushed through it. Singing my songs always lifts my mood. 

The round was….. interesting to say the least. On a positive note, the audience got really quiet when I sang a new song of mine. It was the highlight of my night. I had a little moment during the round where I whispered a prayer to God- please help me get somewhere with this crazy dream. I promise I will use it for your glory but I need SOMETHING to help me right now. It was the kind of situation you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I laughed. 

That brings us to Sunday. My church didn’t have a Sunday morning service because we’re moving to our new sanctuary and we are in the in between stages of completion. After doing a few things that morning, I decided I was going to go to Barns & Noble. I had just bought a coffee and a cookie at the Starbucks inside when I got a message from one of the ladies I work with. She had a VIP pass to Pilgrimage and she knew I really wanted to see Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. I grabbed my coffee & cookie and took off to my car. I met up with her and she gave me the pass while I kept saying “THANK YOU” over and over. 

I’ve lived in Franklin for almost 4 years now and I’ve never been to Pilgrimage. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is, it’s a massive music festival that’s literally right down the street from where I live. I’ve never been able to afford a regular ticket so I’ve never gone. I called my Mom SO excited because not only was I going, but I would be VIP! You better believe that I said multiple prayers of gratitude to God while I was driving there, parking, listening to the music, walking around…. well you get the picture. I pretty much kept thanking God for the experience until I fell asleep last night. 

I had a VIP parking pass so I didn’t have far to walk. Lukas was playing at 3:15 and I got my ticket at 2 so I raced home, changed, walked Caroline, and flew to Pilgrimage. When I got there I was bursting with the kind of excitement that only comes from a big music festival. 

I realized quickly there were a lot of stages and I had no idea which one I needed to go to. Thankfully, my Mom had googled it for me and texted it to me (she’s the real MVP/VIP). I went straight to the VIP section (how darn cool does that sound?!) and there were free drinks and food. It was very obvious I have never been a VIP anything because I had the biggest smile on my face and I kept saying “This is free!?” haha. I got the closest a person could possibly get to the stage without actually being on the stage itself. I kept saying, “I can’t believe this.” to the point the people next to me started laughing. Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real didn’t disappoint!

It’s a very freeing experience to go to a concert like that by yourself. I’ve been learning a lot lately how to find joy in going alone to places and events. I LOVED IT! I could sing/dance/freak out as much as I wanted and I didn’t have to worry about what the person next to me thought about it. 

After Lukas was done, I started walking to the main stage because Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats were playing. I decided I would call my sister and tell her because she likes them too. While I was talking to her I heard them start playing my favorite song of theirs and I quickly screamed at her that I had to go. I took off running to the stage. There were SO. MANY. PEOPLE. I had no idea where the VIP section was so I ran to the opposite side of the stage thinking it was there…. it wasn’t. *insert face palm* So I ran back to the side of the stage I was originally at and found VIP Village. I thought it was fancy at the other stage, but VIP Village was a whole other story! They had so many booths and a big tent with couches/fans people could sit and cool off under. There were more free drinks/food stands. I got a free tote bag and a fun bandana that said Pilgrimage. I felt so fancy. 

I listened to the rest of Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats. The energy was crazy! After they were done, I decided to walk around. It’s such a massive festival that there was no way I would’ve been able to see it all. I couldn’t stop smiling. I noticed on the schedule Foo Fighters would be starting soon so I headed back to the glorious VIP Village and settled in near the stage. I knew the crowd would get big fast, and boy did it!

Dave Grohl ran onto the stage and it was the most surreal thing. I had watched countless specials on this band, listened to albums, read interviews, and here they were right in front of me!!! Watching the Foo Fighters in a sea of people was magical. It doesn’t sound like it would be but it really was. The thing that I will remember the most was how much Dave said thank you to the audience. He said thank you for supporting the band all these years, thank you for coming out, thank you for spending the night rocking out with them. I’ve been to a lot of concerts but not every artist/band tells the crowd thank you multiple times. That’s going to stick with me forever. 

When the concert was over I walked back to my car feeling like I was floating. For the next 20 minutes I talked to my parents on the phone telling them all about it while I let a majority of the cars pile out of the parking lot. 

I am so grateful to my friend Melanie and her husband for letting me have the VIP ticket. I was telling one of my friends today that I should probably go to concerts more often. They remind me of when I first fell in love with music. It was the live shows that made me want to do this. There’s nothing like the energy of a crowd listening to music. I want to create that same sense of unity and good time vibes at all of my shows. 

God knew I needed that reminder. 

I hope you guys enjoyed hearing about my wild adventure this past weekend. Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring. Thank you for supporting me and my music. I love you!

-Carson

The Heart Of A Songwriter EP available on all streaming platforms! 

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