Lovers and Friends Festival

[Relaxing Cup]

I am supposed to be going this weekend but I think it’s a f**king SCAM. Literally none of the artists have confirmed. We bought our tickets a year ago

[Hurricane Lee]

Maybe because it's in Las VEGAS and you bought tickets for Las Begas.

[Relaxing Cup]

May 10, 2022 14:23:26 GMT -5 Hurricane Lee said:

Maybe because it's in Las VEGAS and you bought tickets for Las Begas.

same thing

[Hurricane Lee]

May 10, 2022 17:47:58 GMT -5 Relaxing Cup said:

May 10, 2022 14:23:26 GMT -5 Hurricane Lee said:

Maybe because it's in Las VEGAS and you bought tickets for Las Begas.

same thing

No, they're two entirely different things. One resides in the corners of your mind and the other is Sin City. Well, maybe those are the same, after all!

[Relaxing Cup]

May 10, 2022 20:15:31 GMT -5 Hurricane Lee said:

May 10, 2022 17:47:58 GMT -5 Relaxing Cup said:

same thing

No, they're two entirely different things. One resides in the corners of your mind and the other is Sin City. Well, maybe those are the same, after all!

Ok you’re right. Now is anyone going to the lovers and freinds festival? Lol

[Hurricane Lee]

May 11, 2022 7:46:21 GMT -5 Relaxing Cup said:

May 10, 2022 20:15:31 GMT -5 Hurricane Lee said:

No, they're two entirely different things. One resides in the corners of your mind and the other is Sin City. Well, maybe those are the same, after all!

Ok you’re right. Now is anyone going to the lovers and freinds festival? Lol

How is it?? Hopefully you didn't get trampled!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

I saw this today about Foxy Brown pulling out

[Hurricane Lee]

Why is this under Award Shows and Televised Events??

[Ling-Ling]

Relaxing Cup, you better give us some updates! How was it?

[Relaxing Cup]

I just got back from Vegas last night and wanted to give this a proper review once I got home. First of all, I feel pretty bad for saying here that this festival was going to be fake, a scam and the like, because it was nothing of the sort and since this was a Black run festival full of almost all of my favorite artists growing up -- I should have given it more benefit of that doubt; that's my bad.

Lovers and Friends was my very first festival ever and that's cause whenever I set a line up for a festival, I think "oh I like that one artist, but don't know or don't like anyone else". Lovers and Friends was the complete opposite. I found myself going from stage to stage, one set after the next, to try and catch all of my favorite artists -- it was an absolutely amazing once in a life time experience. I feel blessed, and I'm not exaggerating. cc: Ling-Ling Hurricane Lee

The Positives & High Lights:

The Bling and Crunk stages were a little smaller than the Lovers and Friends Stage, which was your typical huge festival set up. I spent most of my time at the former two because a.) most of my favorite acts where there and b.) the set up allowed for a more intimate crowd and a lot more room for dancing.

112 got the crowd so pumped, opened with Dance With Me and did all of their biggest hits. It's hard to believe these guys are pushing 45 because they had the kids dancing their asses off. NEXT blew the top off too and R.L.'s vocals were on point. Same with Donell Jones. I didn't catch Jon B, and from what I hear, he was cut from day 1, but I saw him recently in NYC so that wasn't a huge loss. Jodeci had all of us singing every single word, they were sooooo good.

Kelis was great, I caught most of her set but had to run early to get a good close spot for Mya.

Mya was probably the biggest highlight for me. She came on at a time that we were feeling absolutely exhausted from the 101 degree temperatures and were almost contemplating leaving, but I said lord not today, I gotta see Mya, and boy was I glad we did because she breathed new energy into us that lasted the rest of the festival. She sang all her hits, even FALLEN   and vocals and dance moves were just so good. This was my first time seeing her and by the end of her performance, me and the friend I went with were actually a bit emotional. This woman was so good during her hey day and still so so good today and I wish we'd kept her popular for longer but I'm so happy she's still giving.

Cassie also took me out. I don't think she'd actually performed in 10 or so years but she had the best stage presence and her dancing and stage set up was great. She did Official Girl, Long Way 2 Go and Me & U. Jordyn, that girl that's friends with the Kardashians, was right next to me in VIP cheering for her the entire time. At the end of the performance, she seemed surprised to see how much love she got from the crowd, which was lovely to see. I'm certain she lipped most of it but tbh, I didn't care -- she rocked it. 

T Pain and Sean Paul, were two of the acts I wasn't initially looking forward to but had the most fun watching at the Lovers and Friends stage. T Pain especially I was surprised by -- that man had HITS, both had the crowd jumping.

Ja Rule and Ashanti I had already seen live but they killed it this time, crowd knew every single word to every song.


The Negatives and Not-So-Highlights:

- We attended Day 1 so we were basically the guinea pigs. The festival took place at the LV Festival grounds and it was 101 degrees on concrete. By 3 PM, people who'd been there since noon, many were dropping like flies. This was my first festival but I knew we had to keep extra hydrated, which we did, so that's probably why I didn't pass out. But a lot of these younger kids filling themselves up with alcohol and likely not drinking water were passing out and going to the medic. I hear this is common for festivals, but if they repeat this (which I PRAY they do), they should pick a cooler set up. Also, shading spots were very limited.

- Amerie got cut short, didn't even sing "1 thing". I think she was able to Day 2 though.

- The sound at the Lovers and Friends stage, by the time Ciara got on, was horrible. Like, you could only hear vocals and could barely hear any music. They cut Nelly and Chingy short due to sound issues then Ciara came on right after and it was the same situation, mess! 


The Drama and Tea:

So one of the reasons I even wanted to go to the Lovers and Friends stage was to catch Lil Kim, The QUEEN BEE!!! They were setting up her stage while Sean Paul was playing and when he finished, we could see them disassembling it. That was a big red flag. 20 minutes later, T Pain started his set so we thought okay, Kimmy ditched her set, that f**king sucks. 

The festival ended up moving her set to 8 ish PM at the Crunk Stage and we happened to catch all of it just walking by. Kim started her set then mid way through The Jump Off, just said "sorry guys, imma be real, these shoes f**kin hurt" and took her shoes off lol. Then she brought out surprise guests Lil Cease for Crush On You and Ray J for Wait A Minute, which I did not expect at all. After those two songs, she told her DJ to play the next song and he started to play All About The Benjamins, and Kim turned around and said "what the f**k is that? that's the wrong f**kin song". 

She then told the crowd to put our middle fingers up, which we did, and say "f**k YOU DJ BOOGIE (sic?)" ....which we also did, reluctantly, LOL. I love Kimmy, but it was odd. He went into another song and she started bitching him out while the music played, he walked off, she finished the song and then said "bye guys see you later" and that was the end of her set. I assume he got fired....


Overall:

Regarding any articles about trampling, I didn't witness that. But I also don't want this event getting too much bad press because it was really special for all of us and I think people blow things out of proportion to get headlines. People fainting from heat exhaustion though, that was true, and I saw that several times over.

Lovers and Friends was easily one of the best experiences of my life, by far. I just feel so lucky to have seen live all these artists I grew up loving and still do, and to be able to be in a space with people who also love the music, same age as myself, as well as older and younger. I'm so happy I attended and I will never forget it.   I really hope they do it again...

[Relaxing Cup]

Albie should this go to the concert reviews part of the section? Can you move please

[Albie]

Fully agree with RC's sentiment about Mya. She 100% killed it. No contest from any of the other acts (though all were fine). But Mya was in a league all her own. I hadn't seen her before either so that made it all the better.

Kelis was pretty great too. She did quite the medley of songs (she was also the only act I saw that was late and only like 15 minutes. They kept that schedule pushing, otherwise).

I went Sunday and damn am I glad I did. Sounds like all the kinks were worked out from the previous day. Lil Kim was great and definitely no audio issues like that on Sunday.

Relaxing Cup I'm guessing you didn't see SWV? They were probably my second favorite after Mya.

All in all, a great experience with exception of the venue and/or time of year. Either put this indoors somewhere or move it to a more temperate time of year. It was hot as shit. And also don't set up water stations in which the water source is the fire hydrant.

[Hurricane Lee]

Sounds WILD! Thanks for the amazing review, Cup!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Awwwww...I would have love to attend this. So many faves in the lineup! I'll even say that this is way better than Coachella!

[Kishi KCM]

I went on Sunday and will give my thoughts more in depth at a later point.

I do wish I went both days and did VIP because there were acts that I didn't get to see (Nina Sky, Joe, T-Pain, Ne-Yo) and some full sets that I missed out on (Jon B, Ashanti, Usher). GA was annoying and I wish I had more personal space. But there were so many great performers. Probably too big of a line up to see everyone on one day, I did a lot of running and fast walking to get to each stage.

Ciara, Amerie, Mya, Keith Sweat, SWV, XScape, Monica, Mario, Sean Paul and Frankie J probably impressed me the most.

Was happy to see Warren G, E-40 and Wyclef Jean make appearances after not being on any billing.

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

May 20, 2022 17:17:37 GMT -5 Kishi KCM said:

I went on Sunday and will give my thoughts more in depth at a later point.

I do wish I went both days and did VIP because there were acts that I didn't get to see (Nina Sky, Joe, T-Pain, Ne-Yo) and some full sets that I missed out on (Jon B, Ashanti, Usher). GA was annoying and I wish I had more personal space. But there were so many great performers. Probably too big of a line up to see everyone on one day, I did a lot of running and fast walking to get to each stage.

Ciara, Amerie, Mya, Keith Sweat, SWV, XScape, Monica, Mario, Sean Paul and Frankie J probably impressed me the most.

Was happy to see Warren G, E-40 and Wyclef Jean make appearances after not being on any billing.

Lmao I can only imagine. You must have been exhausted having to go back and forth to each stage.

[Kishi KCM]

May 20, 2022 19:18:41 GMT -5 🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲 said:

May 20, 2022 17:17:37 GMT -5 Kishi KCM said:

I went on Sunday and will give my thoughts more in depth at a later point.

I do wish I went both days and did VIP because there were acts that I didn't get to see (Nina Sky, Joe, T-Pain, Ne-Yo) and some full sets that I missed out on (Jon B, Ashanti, Usher). GA was annoying and I wish I had more personal space. But there were so many great performers. Probably too big of a line up to see everyone on one day, I did a lot of running and fast walking to get to each stage.

Ciara, Amerie, Mya, Keith Sweat, SWV, XScape, Monica, Mario, Sean Paul and Frankie J probably impressed me the most.

Was happy to see Warren G, E-40 and Wyclef Jean make appearances after not being on any billing.

Lmao I can only imagine. You must have been exhausted having to go back and forth to each stage.

Yeah, both my best friend and I are still having some back and foot pain. They need more chairs and shade. Too much heat and too many hours.

[Hurricane Lee]

The new lineup looks like a fever dream.

[Private Dancer]

Yes, I'm living for the new lineup. They got everybody!!!

[Relaxing Cup]

I actually preferred last years line up but I am SO HAPPY they are doing this again! I don’t think I’ll be able to go, I got two Janet concerts in May.

[Kishi KCM]

Love the line up, but not sure I can make it. Mariah alone is tempting!!

[Ty]

They sure got bigger names this year but I feel like I prefer the lineup last year with more underrated/nostalgic acts.

[Relaxing Cup]

Jan 19, 2023 3:07:38 GMT -5 Ty said:

They sure got bigger names this year but I feel like I prefer the lineup last year with more underrated/nostalgic acts.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Amerie, Mya, Jon B, Donnell Jones, XSCAPE, Kelis, CASSIE....ugh, the line up last year was definitely better.

[nightshade]

Got my vip ticket. I can't wait.

[Hurricane Lee]

I forgot this was even on sale. I wanna go, but none of my friends want to and this is not something I would do alone.

Edit: Oops. It's sold out!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Vibe's review on Lovers & Friends Fest. Interesting read.

Recap of performances

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

The lineup just keeps getting better and better each year!!!!

[🇯🇲 lucy88 🇯🇲]

Mase and The Dream confirmed they won't be performing  at this year's festival.