For the record, I went into 2017 with an intention to try something different and step out of my comfort zone to attend events outside of Chicago.  Not that I never traveled, but it was normally meant as a work thing or a family thing.  It was absolutely never a thing where I sacrificed time and money to venture into something I had no experience in and also did not know if it would reward me as a blogger/writer/journalist/whatever.  This was meant as a gateway to hopefully open up some doors, in the most fun way I could think of.  2017 will go down as my biggest music festival year, and mostly because no way will I have the time or the energy to repeat what I did last year lol.  I had a blast meeting a bunch of artists and have a couple cool conversations, I had fun spending some hot days listening to some of the best music my ears have ever heard, and nothing can replace the experiences I had with random strangers and maybe a few celebs too!  Regardless, I didn’t think I could do justice the time and love that went into my features in Halfstack magazine’s quarterly issues, so I found a way to bring you the full issue with the gorgeousness that is the layout of all my articles.   Check out our fall issue with all my coverage of what felt like an endless summer of festivals.

I regret nothing.

A side note: Each issue we release is a representation of the issues and the topics we look to confront.  Typically our fall issue is our music issue; a recap of the city’s local festivals.  Yet, we had experienced one of our most violent and bloodiest years that Chicago had seen.  A lot of us at Halfstack are advocates for the youth of Chicago; involved in a variety of ways trying to positively impact marginalized kids and teens.  This issue was our heaviest yet that we accompanied with video testimonials of those that have been impacted by Chicago violence.   I accompanied all my festival pieces with a letter to the city with some events that had also impacted me as a long-time resident of Chicago and Chicago metro.  Feel free to take a read.

Thank you to my photographers: Ryan Siu @ryan.siu.photo and Alex Ochoa @alexadventures99