5 Surprising Things We Learned During Festival Season

The 2015 summer music festival season was a wild, weird, and wonderfully entertaining one. From Florence + the Machine’s transcendent performance at Bonnaroo to Sir Elton John’s fan-friendly sing-along at Outside Lands, it was definitely summer of music to remember. It was also a humbling and educational (that’s right, educational) experience for anyone who hit the road to brave unpredictable crowds and even less predictable weather.

Sure, there are obvious things that anyone will learn at a summer music festival (pre-packaged snacks are your friend), but there were also some lessons that took us by storm this year. (In the case of the Firefly Music Festival, it was a literal, grounds-evacuating storm.) As we reflect back at this summer’s music festivals — and look ahead to the 2016 season — here are five surprising takeaways we'll never forget.