Over the Labor day weekend, summer sessions were awaiting to begin, full of holiday partying that again takes away from the true purpose of celebrating a historical event. Naturally.

That didn’t stop the second year with the most talked about music festival and collaboration between an American brand beer and an American born rapper. What was first a clever idea in creating a spin off to the popular Coachella events, a business creation brought about a concept for Los Angeles locals to experience a more personalized round up of top performance artist at a much reasonable price. Excluding the obligation of transportation, hotel stays, gas and personal hygiene, I’d say that fits a bargain.

Last year, Downtown Los Angeles hosted the  Made In America event, which has since been discontinued due to complications with agreeable terms, and has temporarily been moved to the city of Philadelphia. The line up comparisons from last year to this was like ying and yang while I hate to admit it, but Philadelphia got the better deal. Aside from that, Los Angeles wasn’t excluded from what was happening 2,700 miles away, where we got second hand to a private event that allowed attendees the privilege of a live concert viewing.

Earlier in the holiday week, I received an invitation to a Budweiser event for a 4D viewing party. It didn’t occur to me that this was the time of the year for another Made in America music festival. Because I had missed last years event, I was stoked to be a part of this years experiences. My best friend Efrem got word from our friend Dave who then relayed the message to me in order to get our group on the list. Once I received confirmation, we were all set and ready to go. I remembered that I owned a pair of Budweiser high rise shorts and wanted to represent that night to its fullest. Based on the flyer, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew that something was much different from this event compared to last years. It’s 4D, there’s a water show, and wait a minute; there’s no artist lineup. Once I began researching, I started coming across other articles from multiple sources stating that MIA would no longer be returning to the city of Los Angeles. The initial event was actually being scheduled to open in Philadelphia, but, they dare not leave out the original contractors of Los Angeles just four years shy of the contract agreement.

So this was basically a hand me down concert with a big screen to compensate not actually being in front of the artist the line-up.

Even after receiving confirmation, the organizers made sure to keep all their confirmed guest in the loop with updates in order to get to and from the party. Now, for many, Malibu isn’t necessarily a hop, skip and a jump away; and as much as it can be a joyride cruising down pch: Pacific Coast Highway, the traffic gets really stupid at times. Not too many escape roots you can take. Either it’s off a cliff or into the ocean. So options were very limited with driving.

When I received an email specifying the protocols for transportation, it seemed pretty easy to follow. Either you had to be the first 100 for a shuttle or you take an Uber. Simple right? Yeah that’s what we all thought.

I’m naturally a planner. I like to have control and structure at all times until everything is situated. So when I get a phone call from my friend Heather in regards to the hear say of how everything was operating, my nerves became rattled. I don’t like when changes are being made in the midst of a countdown. Either have that shit together or figure it out fast. At one point my anxiety levels started sky rocketing due to this unorganized event which Heather unfortunately declined due to the stress of not knowing what to expect. The area in which the event was being held, I was told that the location was deep in the Malibu mountains and there was no where to park. Plus, The event didn’t start until 7, but apparently people had already arrived hours earlier in order to catch the shuttle which only left the option of an Uber ride with the code BudMalibu. So what was the problem. Well other than the stress of my head being pulled in different directions, supposedly the code for the uber wasn’t even working.

My calm before my storm

Efrem and I both tried to use the code but the app kept stating that you had to be a first time Uber user. Really?!? What clown promoted this idea for hundreds of people. At this point Efrem, Leigh-Ann and Laquan jumped into my car once I picked them up and headed down to the chaos in hopes that everything wasn’t as dramatic as it seemed. We parked at one of the destination spots, Shore Bar, and took an uber the remaining miles. This place was Timbucktoo far! Honestly, there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d want to drive that far into what looked like the wilderness, but of course a few more miles up the dark road was a parking lot with a parking attendant after all of that. I called bullcrap on this event thus far.

Good thing we enjoyed our Uber driver since there wasn’t a silent moment during the entire time. He and Efrem fa la la la laing to every 80’s rock band they knew made it enjoyable. They were having a Glee moment.

For the amount of land, I understood why they might’ve chosen this location, but, they didn’t make good use of every inch of grass field. Everything was too spread apart and either there was more grass field than there were guest or their creative personnel was a major bust.

Once we checked in, we were handed wrist bands that would allow us to enjoy (1) burger and (3) beers. Since when has there been a limitation of how much you can eat and drink at an event? One lousy burger wasn’t enough if they knew our appetites. I’ve tried these Baby Badass Burgers before at the Fox building, and they were delicious, so we went ahead and started off with those.

Guest who had been there earlier were walking around with Budweiser gear. We missed that part of the evening, but I was more interested with the music and photo booths. We ran into a few friends and unfortunately, some didn’t make that good of an impression on my circle of friends due to obnoxious annoyance. I could hear the music from where we were standing, but everything was so dark that I could barely see from where I was standing.

I wanted to get our photos out of the way so we headed over to the photo booth near the Budweiser tent. Once I heard a roar of cheers and saw a crowd of shadows in the distance, I noticed that the Bey Nation was in army mode for the queen bee herself to step on the invisible stage.

My body raced to where she was performing on screen. Hoping I wouldn’t trip, fall or roll down the hill due to the amount of speed I was running, I started to levitate with movement. There was an entire crowd of people watching from what looked like a stage barricade. At first it really didn’t phase me once we started dancing from behind the sidelines to the lyrics of Who Run The World, while the guys stood back and watched the girl power motion. Even though we were close enough, something just didn’t feel right from where we were standing. I curiously walked over to investigate and what would you know, VIP section only.

Wow… really?! Here we are at a private event for a bootlegged screening of a concert and they have the audacity to section off an area for the über exclusive attendees. Leave it to our friend Dave to get us into the VIP area by texting us to go to the entrance and we of course didn’t miss a beat in our step waltzing through the security entrance. Once Dave got us in he disappeared into the night and we made ourselves even more comfortable contradicting our initial displeasure.

In the background is where we were originally standing watching from afar.

Leigh-Ann and Efrem

I can see why there was a bit of a separation just by the aura of that particular crowd. Couches and lawn chairs were spread out as if people were watching the concert in the comfort of their own home entertainment room with Budweiser beer bottles in hand. You also had the undiscovered back up dancers who didn’t get to make it on tour with Bey herself. Instead we danced our hearts out as if auditioning for our lives at Millennium dance studio .

The water show was also interesting enough that it gave people an option of sitting alongside the grass field over looking a lake of Beyonce heavenly glow. And of course we had our own personal Budweiser bar that encouraged an uber ride all the way home, but I would’ve enjoyed a bottle of water over some beer.

The moment could’ve been any real life commercial as we danced and sang the night away to a phenomenal female standing in front of her empire. As soon as it was time to wrap up, we gathered our group and started making our way towards the front entrance before a crowd started forming for an uber pick-up. Before we made our way over, I wanted to get some last minute photos with the ones I love. Leave it to me to draw attention to the photo booths right when everyone wanted to get their last moment of the night as well.

Once our uber arrived, we made our way to Shore Bar where my car was parked in valet. Instead of grabbing my car and leaving, we decided to stay at Shore Bar for the remainder of our night.

Aside from all the confusion, chaos, false advertisements, and a $100 fare ride, we had a decent to a great time. Next time, I’m going to the real thing since Philadelphia got the better deal.

Make sure to check out further details about Budweiser and the Made in America tour in my Tequila Tuesday! post. And always remember to drink responsibly!

Xox