If I told myself a year ago I’d be spending my final seconds of 2015 walking into a Denver warehouse party, hugging the man that put my wrist band on me exactly at the strike of midnight, to then ring in the new year all morning with perfect strangers, and then end up in the middle of debauchery on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that same New Years Day night, I definitely would not have believed myself. I haven’t celebrated a New Year in over five years, but that’s exactly what happened and how I said hello to 2016. I can tell you right now that 2016 will be THE year for me.
Since 2012, I’ve been making it a point to travel as much as I can, see as much live music as I can, study and create art as much as I can, all while striking a line through the plethora of festivals, parties, and epic life experiences off of my “living life” list along the way. Out off all the years that have past, every year has gotten better and better, as if it were fine wine acquiring better taste with age. It almost seems impossible to top each year the more I move forward on this journey through life…
2015, now, 2015, this was a weird one for me. It wasn’t my favorite that’s for sure, which almost feels wrong to write. However, all that happened was meant to happen in order to continue on and accomplish everything I am destined to. I am still very, extremely, grateful for it!
I’m convinced 2015 was a year of unexpected life moments. Moments worth laughing so hard it makes you cry, and moments crying so hard, you wonder how you ended up there. 2015 was a year of learning. Lots of learning about myself, relationships, and working hard towards goals and my future. As I sit here trying to perfect some type of writing skills to intrigue you about my life, and think about all that has happened, what I learned, I’ve come to realize that instead of continuously asking why things happen as they do, I need to release that need of knowing why, and recognize that I was meant to learn something from it all. Although 2015 wasn’t my most memorable year, it was still a great one, because there were a lot of moments that we’re meant for me to grasp knowledge from. Unconventional, in it’s own unique way, 2015 took many of my talents, pleasures and skills and incorporated them together. Another piece to the puzzle, a segment I should be proud of, and am proud of.
“Don’t ask to understand the secrets of the universe,
but simply to know what this moment means.”
JANUARY
Covering media for The Groove Cruise Miami!
Generally for the past three years I’ve spent the first several weeks of January working, saving money and doing nothing but slave for hours in my dining room creating costumes for the glorious, XXX-rated adult theme parties that The Groove Cruise Miami offers us. The day that I can have my own studio for all of my art, costumes, mohawks, festival gear and photo editing will be a great day in history because I’ll be capable of multi tasking and completing various projects at once, which will only bring me more sucess. The Groove Cruise is, and probably will be forever, one of my favorite festivals to ever attend, but this particular one, Miami 2015, will go down in history, and I will never ever forget it. I was offered a media pass to cover the event officially for this very blog PLANETPOOTS.com!
Circa 11am The Groove Cruise: Christian “Pridef” and Adam Cruz of COCODRILLS, Scotty Boy, Myself, and Sydney Blu during Incorrect after hours!
A major accomplishment, extremely exciting point in my career and the start of finally obtaining credit as a blogger, festival photographer, but more importantly, what I am most well known for on the boat for, my now OFFICIAL Unofficial Groove Cruise After Movie festival videos. Hard work certainly pays off!
A few weeks shy of the event I released this video to announce I’d be on board to film the madness and beauty that this event offers, which was so exciting, and great to get a ton of feed back and excitement from my Groove Cruise family!
What truly made this event so special besides spending time with a lot of Groove Cruisers that are very special to me, was sharing the stage with such large names in the music industry; Sharam, Prok & Fitch, Roger Sanchez, Ferry Corsten, along with GC Family resident favorites, Anthony Attalla, Michael Woods, Dean Mason, COCODRILLS, Doc Brown and Scotty Boy to name a few. It still blows my mind, that I was able to partake in this experience in a new light to advance my career. A wonderful way to start the year, and something I am very, very proud of.
Never give up on your dreams…
One of my favorite photos I shot during Sharam’s sunrise set on board
The Groove Cruise MIA during Incorrect Afterhours!!
THANK YOU!
The 2015 video, in my opinion, ended up being some of the best editing work I’ve ever done, and really pushed my creativity on. I can’t thank Whet Travel enough for the opportunities their company has provided me, and the relationships I’ve created with attendees, artists, labels + more.
FEBRUARY
Celebrating my little sister’s Birthday!
Follow me on snapchat: jessakapoots
February is usually a quiet month for me. I typically just anticipate attending the Winter Music Conference in Miami and start planning my festivals that will partake in the coming months. A lot of my time was spent at home editing my Groove Cruise Video and learning new editing techniques in Premiere Pro.
My little sisters birthday falls at the end of the month, and I love spending time with her. She’s a very special person to me, and her life is definitely one worth celebrating!
MARCH
Heading to the Affordable Art Fair in NYC with my sister and Mom.
Probably one of the strangest March months I’ve ever had. Just when I thought I’d never do St. Patty’s Day in Hoboken ever again, I did. It was different this time and I was shooting for an event. More work, less play, sort of weird for me.
My Pledge Sisters, Beta Mu– Spring 08′
I absolutely loved attending the Affordable Art Fair in New York with my Mother and Sister. We got #ArtHappy! That was a wonderful exhibit with a ton of art I wish I actually could afford. Affordable for most, not for me. This was also my first year not attending WMC, and it will probably never happen again so long as I’m in the country. That’s my favorite week of the year, and the trip that ultimately changed my life, and it was extremely torturous not attending the fine parties Miami offers during Miami Music Week.
I also got another addition to my branch, my Little 3, in my sorority and got to spend time with my sisters.
APRIL
Lombard Street in San Francisco with my PIC!
April has been a month for the books the past couple years thanks to my tour job and sister from another mister, Partner In Crime, Anita. If you’re curious how I landed a dream job as a tour guide with an Australian tour company, that annually runs music festival tours including our legendary, Coachella Tour, that travels through Los Angeles, Palm Springs, to Coachella and Las Vegas, you can read about it in this blog post by clicking here.
Visiting the Golden Gate Bridge!
Awake Tours Coachella 2015 goes to Disneyland!
Amazing time at the Fest300 Sacred Grounds pool party thrown by my friend, Art Gimbel
Another great day during this trip was attending the private Fest300 pre-Coachella pool party, hosted by Co-Founder, Art Gimbel. I can honestly say, it was fate going there that day and spending time with him and his friends. The music was so on point (of course) and we had so much fun living in that moment, that I didn’t go to Coachella until after 9pm that night. That’s the type of people we are, if we’re having a good time somewhere, we don’t waste it going somewhere else.
The two of us decided since we have never been to San Francisco we’d head out to the bay for the first time together, rent a car, and drive down the 101, stopping in Santa Cruz and Santa Barabra on the way to LA for our Coachella 2015 tour. Driving in San Francisco is scary, that is something I learned being there for sure.
The 101 California coast ride is just as beautiful as people say it is. I think it’s something everyone should experience once in their life!
My west coast #GCfam takes on SF!!
The Awake Tours 2015 Coachella group we’re a bunch of legends and the trip definitely goes down in the books as one of my favorites. We did a day in LA, the next day visited Disneyland, and had an amazing private hotel in Palm Springs while we were out in the desert for Coachella. I WILL be writing about this trip in the near future!!
Photo shoot, Day 2 in the desert… Coachella!
Art passed away in a car accident less than two weeks after we took the picture on the left. He is and will always be one of my favorite and biggest inspirations. I miss him terribly, as do so many people in the travel and festival industry! Check out all the amazing photos that Art took from the Sacred Ground’s Fest300 Pool Party by clicking here!
So I’ve got to admit as I said 2015 was the year of learning. This trip in April was what really, really taught me what Snap Chat was all about. My stories from Coachella and Vegas were almost unreal, a live documentary of my life, working my creative flow, everything was spectacular, and I really now appreciate this social media application, more than any other. No judgement, no opinions, just being me, just being real. As mentioned, more on this story in it’s own blog post, I’ll be sure to let you know about it, what a trip!
Snapchat username: jessakapoots
Here’s one more picture of my amazing Awake Tours group in Vegas! I loved them!
MAY
Bear Swing Swag at Mysteryland USA!
May is my birthday month, and surprisingly I never really do anything exciting. This year was a little different, I spent the day in Brooklyn at Verboten with a ton of Groove Cruisers that were throwing a brunch reunion party. My friends Damiano, Keith Christopher, JDisko, and Prizmatik were all on the bill, and we had an amazing time!
Birthday Girl with some Brooklyn Street Art!
One of my favorite pictures I took at Mysteryland!
I also mysteriously made it to Mysteryland USA, for the second year in a row! This year I covered media for the event, which was another unexpected accomplishment for me.
Sun setting over the Boat Stage at #MLUSA!
I wrote an entire blog post about how I ended up getting to the event and covering it on such short notice. You can read that blog post by clicking here.
You can find all the photos in this blog post on my instagram!
FOLLOW ME @jess_aka_poots!
JUNE
Always a pleasure linking up with The Festival Guy at events!
“Beautiful” on Broadway with my Dad and sister!
One of my favorite feather mohawks Ive made!
Well everyone knows that summer is just jam packed with things to do because the weather is just so warm, and there are endless activities and things to get in to! June was an extremely productive month, writing blog posts, creating festival gear, and of course attending music festivals!!
For Father’s Day, my sister and I headed to New York City with my father to see “Beautiful” on Broadway, The Carole King Musical. It was a really wonderful show about a musicical icon, her life, and music. Really glad I got to experience this with my Dad and sister. Music is something very big in all of our lives.
I made two new custom feather mohawks with fiber optic lights to wear at Electric Forest! I have so many feathers, and will be making a lot more to sell. I’ll be sure to tell you when they are available but please keep an eye on the DIY Festival Fashion section of my blog!
And of course, of course…we went to THE FOREST!!
I love these people, so damn much!
Electric Forest, it’s just one of the best festivals in the world. I probably won’t ever stop going… I wrote two blog posts about this years event. You can click here to read the post about how I started going and the recap of the event, and click here if you want to see my favorite photos I took!
One of my favorite pictures I took at the Forest!
JULY
So much love for my #GCfam!
July was a fun month spent with my family, sorority sisters, and Groove Cruisers! The first July in years I wasn’t gallivanting in some European country, I actually stayed in the states, and not only that, I actually stayed local in New Jersey and New York City! I loved every minute of it. This was definitely the month spent with FAMILY!
Red, White, and Sexy!
#GCfam Elevator Selfie!!
#GCfam at Avenue!!
Bedtime cuddles with my sister!
I surprisingly got off of work for almost all major holidays this year. Fourth of July, the Groove Cruisers flew in from all over the country and took over New York City with Doc Brown‘s premiere at Club Space along with Sharam! It’s always a fun time when we get together!
Take us to SPACE!
Another awesome night for the books, I took a trip down to see my best friend Ariel in South Jersey and we headed to Philly for the night with, some south Jersey Groove Cruisers. Of course we were headed out to see one of my favorite people to ever walk the planet earth, Mr. Anthony Attalla!
What an amazing Sunday Funday that was had at Avenue Beach Club, with, yup you guessed it…more Groove Cruisers!! Richie Santana, was just killer, I can honestly say this was one of my most memorable sets I’ve seen in 2015. The music was true to house roots, and overall it really was an amazing party. I really love where I’m from, and this day represented that well; New Jersey, true house music fans, and a day spent dancing on the beach of the beautiful Jersey Shore!
A beautiful day, for a beautiful girl!
More quality time spent with my sorority sisters at a beautiful Mexican themed fiesta for Christina! Was really diggin’ my outfit that day!
And one of the final weeks of July I spent a week down the Jersey Shore in Brigatine with my family, which was nice, quiet, relaxing beach days filled with lots of alcohol, duh!
AUGUST
NYC street art, that is now all over the US!
One of the many beautiful views on the High Line!
Road trip to Rhode Island!
One beautiful day my mother and I ventured into NYC to see the High Line, a 1.45-mile-long New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad. All I can say is WOW. I really need to write about this too, plus I have so many great pictures. Beautiful views of the city, amazing artwork and botanical gardens with fountains. Shout out to my Mom, for bringing me here!
Well not everything can be picture perfect in the music and event industry. Something extremely interesting happened this year at the Brooklyn Dirty Bird BBQ! Bad weather yes, but more importantly a terribly run event. I just was grateful the music was good and I was with better company. This was another event I covered media for, but someone didn’t like what I had to say about it. My blog post was reported as “abusive content” on facebook, leading my entire website to be blocked for over a month! I laugh about it now, only because that person couldn’t handle the truth. You can read that “abusive” blog post by clicking here.
A photo I took during Claude VonStroke‘s set!
Also got to celebrate my Big’s Wedding in Rhode Island, which was absolutely beautiful!
A beautiful wedding backdrop!
SEPTEMBER
When day turns to night. Verboten NYC!
Kite flying in LBI!
Just me and my date.
Spent a few days in one of my favorite shore spots, Long Beach Island, for my Dad’s Birthday!
Awesome sunset with my sister!
Mark and Christina’s Wedding was a lot of fun because it brought together so many college friends that hadn’t seen each other in years. Not to mention the food, music, and wedding was just beautiful! Was happy to celebrate this day with them and everyone from my alma mater!
Photo I took of Marcus Schultz at EZOO!
My favorite photo of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge!
My best friend Ariel won VIP tickets to EZOO for one day, so I finally got to check out New York’s premiere electronic music festival, after many failed attempts. Shout out to ROOMZ for taking me there! You can read my review and look at the pictures I took by clicking here!
Another amazing NYC trip with my mother and sister was when we sailed the Hudson River and got to see lots of this amazing city from a new perspective. I took a lot of great photos of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Statue of Liberty and everything in between!
Also had a special NJ/NYC celebration for Dave’s Birthday with my GCfam!
Forest Fam in BKNY!
Wow, what an amazing way to close out the summer this day and night was! An amazing line-up took over at 50 Kent in Brookyln including, Maceo Plex, DJ Tennis, David August, Rebolledo, and DJ Koze, who had my personal favorite set of the day! Beautiful weather and day spent with my forest fam with after hours at Verboten!
BKNY
Maceo Plex at Verboten’s StageONE!
OCTOBER
Work hard, play hard.
After I accepted the offer to train as a Flight Attendant!
Awesome night with Lee Burridge!
Also, THE wall, was really awesome! I love my city!
Mid month I had a really positive interview experience and accepted a contingent job offer to train to become a flight attendant for one of the largest global carriers in the world! A dream job for most started to become a reality for me!
I also got super creative with one of my most favorite Halloween costumes I’ve made! I was the solar system! Had so much fun coming up with this costume and got to wear it out to Brooklyn, where I celebrated my job offer with my Forest Fam and Lee Burridge‘s night saving set at Verboten!
Of course my face is the brightest star in the Solar System!
My colorful friends!
Celebrating my new job offer with my beautiful LITTLES!
NOVEMBER
Leaving for Flight Attendant training…
The entire month of November leading into December was spent in Houston, Texas, for Flight Attendant training! My class was a really fun, diverse group of people from all over the country and world. The program it self was very hard, exciting, and rewarding experience. Looking back on it now, I couldn’t imagine it any other way, with any other people.
1541 B
Matching and looking adorable!
When you pass a big test you eat a ton of pizza!
Enjoying some Texas BBQ!
Fun and smiles all day on our first observation flight!
DECEMBER
Got my wings!!
Getting my wings was actually very emotional! Being a flight attendant is such an amazing feeling and knowing I now have a life long career that involves being with like minded individuals that love to have fun and explore this world is a very special indescribable feeling!!
With my room mate, Leah, before we graduated!
And then…
we got our wings!
I got to go home for four days before moving out to Denver! I celebrated at Cityfox NY with friends. I think we went a little too hard because I ended up sleeping through my family party the following day and was over three hours late, whoops, sorry Ma!
No sleep till Brooklyn…
My amazing core instructors!
Fierce Flight Attendants!!
And then I got based out in Denver!
This is what I see when I drive home from work…
One of my biggest highlights of flying so far was seeing the Northern Lights and Mars from 30,000ft in the air from the flight deck during a red-eye flight! Incredible!!!! The job itself has been going well and I’m really, REALLY, looking forward to what 2016 is going to bring me!! After looking back and writing about this year, I’ve come to realize how truly lucky I am to have this life, it’s something so very special and irreplaceable, and the best part about it, is I’ve made it all happen. Only you have complete control of your life happiness…
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