Doing an 80/35...looking back

Doing an 80/35
by Kat Darling from The High Crest

Throwing these numbers around can be dizzying, especially when you are a musician. It might have even been a little surprising to be at 80/35, even for us. After a 10 year stretch for me and about 20 years of playing music in Des Moines for Aaron, we both found ourselves performing at one of the largest music festivals around – 80/35. How did we get here? We aren’t in Des Moines any more Toto!

And yet we were here, right in the heart of Des Moines, IA rocking out to some of the biggest bands, the most rockin’ hardworking locals and more music fans then I thought was even possible to fit into downtown. We were right there in the middle of this huge celebration of music in our home city. And better yet, we were playing it. Our name was on the schedule and being accessed by over 30,000 music lovin’ people.

I bet a lot of them were asking the question, who is The High Crest? I know I was asking who was on this line up and what did they sound like. This was our very first time experiencing 80/35. Summers are almost always booked full so our schedule never allowed us to line up attending 80/35. It is two days of straight up of non-stop really loud music. I loved it! Power to the music!

The major acts drew huge crowds. Wilco and Weezer were the end of the night headliners but so many more very popular groups were scheduled through out the day. You didn't know who or what you were going to see next? There was this feeling that someone just popped the lid off a container of crazy.  

Two free stages allowed access to anyone and that is where The High Crest performed. Each stage had such a variety of music that sometimes you'd get music genre whiplash, but this effect also added to the fun. We also got to play Iowa Public Radio Studio One Stage. Love that crew! For an event like this you have hundreds of tireless and passionate people working hard to create this musical dream. It was an honor to be a part of this event. 

Top two photos by Jeremy Kim

The picture I took right after we got done playing on the Nationwide Stage

Wilco in Des Moines, Iowa

Aaron and Abileen enjoying Wilco

Feeling good before our set on the Nationwide Stage at 80/35