Positivus 2010

This post is about my trip to a music festival here in Latvia. I went to this festival with Justas Sauka and one of his friends from school. Positivus is one of the biggest and best music festivals in Europe and has been nominated for the award of "Best European Music Festival" two years in a row. There were about 50 bands and supposedly 50,000 people in attendance. Yep, it was kind of crazy. The crazy part about an event like this is that not only are there 50,000 people there, but it seems like 85-90% of them are drunk. To be one of the only sober people in a group like this can be pretty frustrating. When I was younger and even more immature than I am now, I probably would've laughed at how these people were acting. But now I just see how foolish it is and don't want any part of it. It just doesn't seem funny anymore. I guess this fact is one of the many pieces of evidence to how God has matured me so much because of my relationship with Him. The festival was two days long so I left on Friday and came back Sunday morning. We slept in a tent for these two nights, and I couldn't really sleep the first night because I was so cold! I wish that I had a sleeping bag here but I don't, so I just slept with a sheet around me. Oh well. Most of the music was pretty good, and some of it was very good. "Muse" was the headlining band (Thomas I know you're jealous), and of course they put on a good show. They have very high energy rock music and they had a pretty amazing laser show. Another big band was called the "Scissor Sisters". Their music was ok but their lyrics and their show were pretty evil. I did not enjoy them. One cool thing was that a band from Riga Reformed Church played at Positivus. This may have been the only Christian group there, I'm not quite sure. They were very good (though they were on a small stage and the sound wasn't all that great), and I was able to talk with them afterwards so they know that I supported them. Probably the most enjoyable part of this festival was the opportunity to share my faith. I got a couple of opportunities because when people heard that I was from America, they always wanted to know what I am doing here in Latvia. I met a young man my age that lives right next to RRBC, who wants to come to our young adult discussion nights on Wednesdays. He seemed like a pretty sharp guy and I really enjoyed talking with him. He is very open to and interested in Christianity. Please pray for this man, and pray that he would come to our young adult program. Anyway, once the event was over it was time to catch a bus back to Riga (the event was north of Riga, near Estonia and it's about a 2.5hr bus ride). I needed to be back in time for the teen meeting so Justas and I planned to catch the first bus home at 6:21am. We packed up our tent and got us and all of our stuff to the bus stop by 6:10am. We thought that this would be ok, but there were a bunch of people waiting on this bus. When the bus got there, they filled up all the seats and then filled the aisles with people that were standing. I actually got on the bus but the bus driver asked me to get off because the bus was full. There were only four people left to get on the bus, and I was the first person that was turned away. The next bus was 3 hrs. later at 9:15am! So Justas and I sat on the curb right where the bus door would be when they pulled up. We were the first two people on the next bus. I was a little late to the teens meeting because I went home a took a much needed shower and ate some food to give me strength, but better late than never! Well I guess that about sums up Positivus 2010!