Defeating Festival FOMO

Missing a festival can be heart-breaking.

Viral, highly contagious, reoccurring, and debilitating; FOMO is the fear of missing out.
The disease is dangerous due to its extensive and varying list of triggers; travel, fashion, scandi furniture and matcha smoothie bowls can all bring on an episode of FOMO, and the effects are devastating.

To add to the already worrisome sized list of causes, serious festival FOMO is bound to infect many, and soon.

Splendour in the Grass is 20 days away.

And I’m on the other side of the country, writing a self-help article to myself.

At least I can watch my friend’s snapchats during Splendour though—right?
Surely they won’t cut me off.
Maybe I can ask them to keep their wristbands for me, so I can pretend I went.
Or I’ll lock myself in my room for a week, and no-one will know that I didn’t go!

Is this type of FOMO more of a social status thing, rather than a fear of missing out on getting crushed amongst a Kendrick Lamar mosh-pit?

Probably.

I don’t like Kendrick Lamar’s music—and I’m not a fan of bruised toes, knees and armpits.
Last year at Splendour, my fresh nose piercing got ripped out by a fellow moshers fishnet stockings.
Don’t ask.

Going to Splendour in the Grass is a thing—a big thing.
As shallow as it sounds, it’s lit to go to Splendour.
The 365 photos to post after it lure many of us into going, just so we can brag about it and say we’ve been there.

Of course if we go, we are also obliged to wear outfits we’d never wear out side of a festival.
They’ll stay in our wardrobes for the next 50 years, until our grandchildren find them and bring back booty shorts and glitter to the 60th year of the 21st Century. Win-win!

Sure, a lot of us genuinely go purely for the music and the arts—two key factors that make music festivals authentic, and not such superficial events that we all complain about, but are often a part of.

Overseas festivals may be bigger but for Australia, this is the festival of all festivals.
Splendour is its own over-populated rainbow mess of a town. It even has a newspaper.

There may be no complete cure for FOMO, because the cause of the disease is ever-changing and there’s always something.
But there are ways to help us cope through Splendour month.

I’ve made us two handy-dandy lists for when we feel festival FOMO symptoms come on.
Choose the list suited best to FOMO severity.

You’re welcome. I’m thanking myself too.

List one:

Get out and dance.
Even if it’s the only nightclub in a small country town—it’s dingy and reeks of beer and, sweaty rubber soles—go and boogie until FOMO quietens.
Live vicariously through the live stream.
It’s like being at Splendour, only without the tall guy in front of us—and we won’t have our piercings ripped out.
Live it through the hash tags.
Scrolling through the sea of Splendour hash tags can either intensify FOMO, or help us feel like we’re there—kind of.
We can comment and send good vibes to someone; sometimes they’ll pity us and comment back with positive words.
For instance; “Wish I was there, have a great time!” and people will comment back kind words like, “Don’t worry, you are here in spirit!”
How reassuring.
Sponsor friends who made it to Splendour, to keep us on a 3 day Skype call.
Through the long lined gates, the treacherous front of stage stomping grounds, to the bus ride home where silence is common (due to 30% satisfaction, and 70% exhaustion)—if our friends are true friends, we won’t miss a thing.

List two:

Get out and do something.
We can check our local newspaper or read through events websites, and go to one. If it sounds boring, we go anyway. It’s likely better than sulking at home.
Take a social media break.
Contrasting to list number one, I’ve got to say that checking social media can be a sneaky means to add fire to our already unbearable FOMO.
We can pick up a book. Call an equally FOMO suffering mate. Go on a hike, or host a movie night with old friends.
Create our own memories.
FOMO happens when others are creating memories that we can’t share. We can beat this by creating lasting memories of our own. We can plan a short road trip, gather our loved ones for a picnic by the ocean, or discover our town’s hidden treasures.
Be okay with being alone.
Being alone doesn’t have to mean being lonely. Let’s watch this video, and read this article. We can try to embrace being alone; sit with lonely feelings and question them. Let’s run ourselves a warm bath.
Realise that missing out on Splendour is in fact, not the end of the world.
How dare I say it?!
Work work work work work work.
We can take this time to earn some cash while Splendour-ites are losing it. Create some funding for next year’s Splendour or better yet, see the world!
Let’s do something that’ll give Splendour-ites FOMO (like the envious, infectious FOMO victims we are), and then direct them to this article.

So there it is—my definitive quick-smart guide to defeating festival FOMO.

May this article be of use during this tough time.

I’ll be using list number two—but I’ll be with you all the way.

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