Take a look at some of these absolutely tear-jerking love stories that started with a music festival.
Festivals can be life-changing experiences, more literally for some than others. Over the last few decades, they’ve evolved from simple gatherings of music enthusiasts to cohesive cultural and social soirées that can be both altering and illuminating. Now part of the modern day cult, meeting the love of your life at a music festival, while not common, is not unheard of. The Sherp found some truly delightful festival love affair tales that will give you some major feels. Whip out some tissue papers and prepare to weep!
1. How Aaron Paul met his wife.
It’s famous knowledge that actor Aaron Paul met his wife at Coachella, and after a kiss at the archetypal ferris wheel at the festival, they fell in love.
“Me and Lauren are addicted to musical festivals. We met at Coachella. We fell in love at Coachella. We had our first kiss on a ferris wheel at Coachella. So anything that reminds us of that we’re very excited to do.” – Aaron Paul in this Reddit AMA.
2. Jessie and Dan’s tale of serendipity.
Jessie: “Before, my boyfriend Dan and I, we had tickets to go to Coachella, separately. We both posted on Facebook, ‘Hey, I’m going alone. Does anyone need a ride or want to go together?’ Our one mutual Facebook friend saw both of our posts and brought us together. Dan and I met up the day before we drove in so we could get to know each other. Went to a bar, had a couple drinks, got shit-housed, woke up the next morning super-early and drove here for Thursday camping. We camped with a bunch of our friends and ended up having a great time. The first time I ever took molly was with Dan at Fatboy Slim. That changed my whole life. We have matching Coachella shark tattoos from the year we met. So that sealed the deal, and we’ve been together ever since, every day. It’s been three years now.”
Dan: “Since then, we’ve been to multiple Coachellas. We went to Bonnaroo last year. This year, we’re doing Coachella and staying in Palm Springs for our anniversary.” —Jessie, 28, and Dan, 26, Phoenix (via Cosmopolitain)
3. The infamous Woodstock couple.
Forty-five years ago, a photo of a young couple embracing, wrapped in a well-worn quilt, with a backdrop of the reverent laziness of festival attendees laying on the muddy hillside emerged and was featured on the official Woodstock ’69 LP. Over 45 years later today, Nick and Bobbi Ercoline, from the photograph, are still as much in love as they were when they went to Woodstock at the age of twenty.
“I know some people would say Woodstock changed their life,” says Bobbi. “But I don’t think it contributed to who I am or who Nick is. I think we became the people we would have become anyway.”
4. This honest confession.
“In 2004, I went to Coachella for the first time with three friends–one of whom I was in love with. We had been interested in each other for a year or so at this point, but our story was complicated. It just so happened that everything came together in just the right magical way at Coachella 04, and we officially became a couple on that trip. We have come to Coachella every year since then–and we’ve now been married for a year and a half.”
5. This impromptu wedding.
“In Sweden I gave a girl a glow-stick (fnar fnar, dirty minded bastards) and she full on proposed to me, so there was a mock ceremony and we were pronounced man and wife. I even had a plastic wine glass that I crushed with my foot. Oy vey and all that.”
Via: photos.bestival.net
6. Bear and Katiyana’s fairytale-like romance.
One of the most famous Burning Man love stories, Bear and Katiyana met on the playa, fell in love on the playa, and soon after, decided to spend their lives together. It’s a truly heartwarming story, read it here!
“[Katiyana:] We welcomed my birthday as the sun rose and he serenaded me with an improvisational birthday song which brought tears to my eyes and deepened my attraction toward him. He convinced me to go on a sunrise dune buggy ride to the temple… We got 500 feet before the dune buggy broke down; we laughed so hard we almost cried, and then there was a silence as we stared at each other and gently had our first kiss. It was perfect. We spent the next 3 days together meeting each others’ families and friends, excited and filled with a new love energy that even I questioned the longevity of the connection.”
Bear & Katiyana | Fest300
7. This adorable couple you can’t help but root for.
“I fell in love at Bonnaroo my first time going with a girl who came alone and camped right next to our site. We were volunteering and she joined me and my buddies for most of our free time around the festival.
“One second we were strangers and the next we were pretending to be airplanes running through all the crowds, chasing each other. We rode bikes in the sky outside Allen Stone and talked to the Canadians who were fascinated by what we were doing. We tripped to Wu-Tang, Sir Paul, and Pretty Lights equally fascinated by the acts as we were with each other.
Burning Man/Facebook
“She saved me from a huge spider that was freaking me out in my tent, and inspired me to rid a black widow from a volunteer tent later that day. And when my tent got flooded because I was too dumb to bring a tarp, she was the nicest in inviting me over to share her tent for the rest of the festival. We talked literally every night until the sun rose and shared kisses only the last night, which was definitely a result of a fear of getting too attached.
“On the last day, after Tom Petty, we walked the closing festival grounds and talked as much as our post-festival hazy brains allowed us to before heading back to camp and goodbye-ing to our festival friends as we began to pack up. The rain in the morning as she left was so cold, and that goodbye was one of the weirdest moments in my life to date. “We carried our affection over to the real world, keeping in contact through letters via snail mail. We rendez-voused at one other festival that summer and the experience was much the same.
“I live in New York and she in Tennessee so any reunion is a bit tough with our broke college student status and so we haven’t been together in a year and a half. We just recently started to have phone calls and really getting to know her has been so very rewarding. We’ve got plans to see each other again this summer for a long while. The whole thing has been crazy romantic though to be honest!”
8. This magical forest affair.
“So this past year I caravaned into [Electric Forest] with a whole lot of people I’ve never met. (They’re the greatest souls ever, by the way) This couple that was within this massive group had an interesting Forest love story. They’ve known each other for quite a while, years .. at least 5. 2012 was their first forest together, and they came in as friends, left the forest holding hands.
“This past year, I witnessed the guy go on one knee at the Heart and proposed to her. The feels I had were inexplicably great. Undoubtedly it was more intense with them. Finally, they plan on having a Forest wedding in 2015. I cannot wait.”
Via: notey.com
(Note: Stories that haven’t been credited have been picked out from Reddit forums. If any of the words above belong to you, we will be happy to give credit where it is due. Peace and love, folks!)