After every long, cold winter, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. The best part of the whole year. Festival season. It’s like Christmas, your birthday, and spring break rolled into one. If you’re that sort of person. 

As any seasoned vet knows, when you drop the big bucks on a ticket, you’re not just getting three straight days of music. You’re getting the vacation of a lifetime, dozens of new friends, and a party that (seemingly) never ends.

So, as we stuff our suitcases with as many crop tops, denim shorts, and heart-shaped sunnies as we can carry, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t excited.

But there’s something else we have to admit. A music festival might feel like a one-of-a-kind, life-changing opportunity… but if you think about it, they’re all kind of exactly the same.

Don’t believe us? We’ll prove it. Here are 27 things that happen at every music festival.

You could try to break the mold… but why not embrace it? Viva la Heineken, baby.

1. When the schedule comes out, you will be heartbroken about at least one conflict. To solve the problem, you will attempt to build a time machine, fail, and spiral into depression as you contemplate the onward march of time and the certainty of your own death.

2. One week before the festival, you’ll be too excited to sleep. Ironically, that makes the weekend come even slower.

3. You’ll pack all of your possessions, plus twelve of your friends, into a compact car that hasn’t been serviced in over a decade. Miraculously, everything will fit, and your car will not break down on the side of the highway in the middle of the night.