So many rules must be followed exactly; perfectly even, to yield a sense of pleasure when they are broken. To arrive at the ecstatic point, that lovely moment on a Saturday when A$AP Rocky peels from the darkness, rappelling from a helicopter rapping “A$AP Forever” above tens of thousands of antsy fans who have been kept waiting for an hour eager to hear his first performance after being found not guilty—this takes a level of assuredness and practice only able to be executed by a select few organizations. This is the broad, excellent appeal of Rolling Loud and its many global iterations—if you’re willing to let loose and break your own rules; Rolling Loud is willing to follow their own, perfectly. As far as you skew from your own norms, they will tighten, offering more opportunities for guests to let loose; more ways for festivalgoers to explore their ideas of fun.

Perhaps this is why Rolling Loud is barely a decade old and has already taken the helm of the largest hip hop festival on the planet—the brand offers its consumers not just a singular festival experience, but a realm in which they are allowed to test the boundaries of their own appetite for risk. Last weekend, Rolling Loud Los Angeles offered Angelenos a playground for their own desires. Headlined by Peso Pluma (with special guest Al Alfa), A$AP Rocky (with special guest Skepta joining for “Praise the Lord (Da Shine) and Playboi Carti (special guest Skepta for “Toxic” and The Weeknd for “Timeless” and, for the absurdity of it all, Kai Cenat), the two-day event delivered on all of the promises of its playbill and more. 

YG brought out a Donald Trump impersonator. Sexxy Red brought out 03 Greedo. A young child came onstage to encourage the crowd to check out the Black Music Action Coalition (a group that champions survivors of the Altadena Fire and has a partnership with Rolling Loud this year). There was more, and more, and more: A horde of Ian white boy clones joined the young rapper onstage. Ski Mask the Slump God debuted a new song on the VIP section’s Gravitron. Soulja Boy commanded a crowd while holding an inflatable blunt.

Underscoring the entertainment: support for the crowd. Charging stations were plentiful; Bunny Zingler’s Bunny’s Bae Bar offered VIP guests exclusive, personalized access to salon-quality makeovers and feminine care products. Lines for the carnival rides were lengthy but social; small stages and food trucks set up along the side of the road drew foot traffic away from the main thoroughfare.

Rolling Loud is an all ages festival, a factor which makes it both a perennially cool/relevant event but also a demonstrably young one: pockmarked teens elbowed their ways to the front of the pit and clamored out of parents’ cars in the Uber Zone; young couples walked with hands in each others’ pockets; friends posed for 0.5 photos in the D’usse stage pit. Rolling Loud is actually worth the visit—because, not despite of, the youthful demographic—where the kids are all right, here, so are the adults. After all, in the case of Rolling Loud and in the case of teenagers across the history of space and time: Rules are made to be bent.