My IAMBIC shoes transformed my festival experience at Just Like Heaven. For the first time, I managed to enjoy every moment without worry.
Intro
If you’re a music lover, then you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of the all-day music festival. And if you’ve ever been to one, then you know how overwhelming and grueling the experience can be, especially the ones that go all weekend like Coachella.
Background
As a former music journalist, I’ve covered a lot of live music events across my decade-plus career. While concerts offer their own unique challenges, they barely compare to those of an all-day (or weekend) music festival. When covering festivals, being nimble on the feet is a must. Need to photograph two bands playing at the same time on stages 15 minutes apart? No problem. Do that, then run to the press tent where there’s some WiFi, because you haven’t been able to get a cellular signal to post a photo for hours. I had to be on my feet for 12-16 hours a day enduring this grueling mix of both business and pleasure, so comfortable festival shoes were essential.
Part of what drew me to IAMBIC was my experience with fit-related shoe issues such as discomfort and injury at these events, and how these issues not only put a damper on my fun, but also hindered my ability to perform the job. As someone who has what’s basically an 11.5 extra-wide foot that has to size-up to 13 due to width, I struggled throughout my life with shoe fit. For my job, this meant inevitably having to deal with pain and blisters that slowed or stopped me from catching every set I wanted or needed to see.
Heaven, or Just Like It
Fast forward to 2024, and here I am at Just Like Heaven, a millennial indie sleaze nostalgia festival, armed with my Executive model of personally-fitted IAMBIC shoes. Since “Buford and Bernardo” were AI-tailored to fit my unique foot shape and preferences, I theorized they’d get me through the day without being in pain or once again needing to visit urgent care the following day to take care of any giant blisters.
As an idiosyncratic non-conformist with esoteric tastes, there was no way I’d be able to just stroll into this festival later in the day for the headliners like all the normies. Why not? The bands I wanted to see the most were the ones playing earlier in the day.
CSS, or Cansei de Ser Sexy, were playing Los Angeles for the first time since 2012, and it was my first time seeing them since 2008, so I was not going to miss them. Singer Lovefoxxx rocked multiple outfits throughout their brief set of mid-2000s bloghaus bangers that still sounded fresh and fun in 2024. Unfortunately, I had to depart their set early and missed Lovefoxxx’s crowdsurfing finale, but on the bright side, I still had plenty of strength and no physical complaints.
The scheduling gods were especially cruel this surprisingly hot day in Pasadena, and Warpaint’s far-too-short set started on the next stage over midway through CSS. Forced to make this Sophie’s Choice and miss the last 15 minutes of CSS, I made the 10 minute hike to the second stage just in time for Warpaint. Luckily an old friend was in the front and saved some space for me.
Warpaint became an all-time favorite when I saw them for the first time in Barcelona at Primavera Sound back in 2011, and even though I’d seen over a dozen times since, I couldn’t bring myself to miss their set. The dreamy, trippy Los Angeles quartet ran through a 35 minute string of crowd pleasers like “Elephants” and “Disco//Very,” which kicked off with an epic jam that had the crowd looking for something to smoke.
After Warpaint, I remarked that everything else was just bonus from this point on, but I still had plenty of energy and no still pain from being on my feet for the past couple hours. I took the opportunity to explore the grounds in search of photo ops for “Buford and Bernardo.”
One thing I learned over the years was the futility in seeking the most comfortable festival shoes, or the best shoes for standing all day, because everyone is different, and a solution for others wasn’t necessarily going to work for me. Thanks to IAMBIC, I believe the dilemma of the perfect festival shoe has been solved. Although there can never be a festival that’s perfectly curated to fit a choosy festival goer’s particular tastes, IAMBIC can make a pair of kicks that are as one-of-a-kind as they are.
Once I had my fill of the view and post-Warpaint comedown, I returned to the crowd to catch Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene joined by Metric frontwoman Emily Haines for a rare performance of “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl”, followed by the indie pop 1-2 punch of Phantogram and Alvvays.
By the time Metric wrapped up their set, my camera’s battery died. But something that wasn’t drained? My energy. The sun was getting ready to set and I still felt great enough for the night’s main attractions in Death Cab for Cutie, Phoenix, and The Postal Service.
Conclusion
Looking back, I can confidently declare that my IAMBIC shoes transformed my festival experience at Just Like Heaven. For the first time, I managed to enjoy every moment without worrying about my feet. If you’re on the hunt for the best shoes for music festivals, IAMBIC’s custom-fit technology might just be your answer. With shoes perfectly fit to my unique foot shape, IAMBIC empowered me to stay energized and on the go. The experience made me lament all the past festivals where I missed an amazing set, or could not fully let loose during a favorite band because I was too sore. And best of all, they’d have matched all my past festival fits.
At IAMBIC, we stand for you so you can do more, and that includes dancing all-day at a music festival. Learn more about every pair is an Edition of One crafted with AI-precision to match your unique rhythm.
