When life feels a bit overwhelming and stress seems never-ending, it’s always nice to have something to look forward to.

It’s what helps us see past the chaos of the present and allows us to find joy in the fact that the future will come.

This week, I brought that joy to life with the purchase of tickets for a music festival.

The festival, Lollapalooza, is held in Chicago every year during the first weekend of August. It’s a four-day event filled with plenty of music artists performing on the numerous stages. There are also various food vendors with unique cuisines throughout the park as well as beverages — both alcoholic and non. There’s just so much to see and do.

I went in 2023. It wasn’t the first music festival I’ve been to, but it was certainly my favorite, and I’m beyond excited to be going again this year. Just ask my coworkers — I haven’t shut up about it all week.

On Tuesday, the festival shared its lineup with the artists that would be performing. From the minute I saw the lineup, I was giddy.

I sent it to some friends who expressed interest in going to the festival if the lineup was something they were interested in. When I saw two of their favorite artists listed as headliners, I had good faith that I’d be able to convince them to go this year.

And, thankfully, they needed very little convincing.

As young adults, I know we’re all trying to save money, and this festival is not a cheap endeavor, so I wouldn’t have blamed them if they said it was too expensive. However, they surprised me by saying, “We’re young. Let’s just go!”

It’s all still a little stressful — at least buying the tickets was. Waiting on the presale site for 30 minutes before it let me in just to have the tickets in my cart and my cart expiring while trying to put in my credit card information. When that happened, I lost hope a bit, but I kept trying, thinking that maybe someone else might face the same thing and the tickets would be available.

To my luck, they were. I wasted no time putting them in my cart and paying for them. I couldn’t help the smile on my face.

But then came the stress of finding the right hotel to stay at. Knowing the tickets sold out within an hour, we didn’t want to waste any time searching for a hotel in case they booked up or became even more expensive.

Finding a hotel is always difficult, especially when we had plenty of factors to consider. Since there are three of us going, we were looking for a room to fit us all comfortably without going over budget. We also wanted to be as close to the festival as possible so we could walk back and forth as needed. We had to take parking into account, too, since it’s never cheap in the city and we needed somewhere to put our car for the weekend.

Eventually, we landed a hotel that seemed best for us. It was still pretty expensive, but we were certainly invested by then, and there was no going back.

I exhaled in relief when I got the confirmation email that our room was booked.

Now comes the excitement, saving, and planning.

I’m overjoyed to have something I love to look forward to. It’s like a happiness that lives in the back of my mind even when the forefront is overwhelmed.

And, with plenty of time before the festival, I can save money where possible, putting myself more at ease to reimburse myself for the ticket and hotel as well as prepare for the money I’ll no doubt spend when I get there.

I’m also really excited to start putting together outfits and gathering all the supplies I’ll need. Since my friends have never been to a festival before, I’m also excited to be their guide for all things Lollapalooza. I’ve already started putting a list together of things I suggest they consider before we go.

Along with the material things, I plan to explain to them that doing some research on the music artists isn’t a bad idea. It’s something I wish I would have done the first time around. I noticed last time that I saw some artists that — at the time — I only knew a few of their songs. Now, they are some of my favorite artists. I think I would have appreciated it more if I put a little more time into preparing myself in that aspect.

So I’m looking forward to doing my own research. And, it’s not like it’s homework since I love music.

Who knows what I’ll stumble upon and it may just increase the joy of looking forward to the event even more — if that’s possible.

Torianna Marasco can be reached at 989-358-5686 or tmarasco@TheAlpenaNews.com.