How often can you say you spent your Monday night sitting in the park with Kelsea Ballerini? She hosted two intimate fan events to promote the new EP Mount Pleasant and I was lucky enough to snag a pair of tickets to the second show. It was the day before my birthday, which made it even more special.

The event started off with a behind the scenes video, showing how the EP was made. Fans were gifted with picnic baskets full of snacks and a nice phone wallet. Some of the baskets even had tokens for a free pair of Durango boots. There were photo ops everywhere from swings to park benches to a digital photo stand. She had a few of her dresses on display. A gigantic LED screen depicted a night sky. It truly looked like a park. But the icing on the cake? Kelsea herself performed on a swing, looking gorgeous in a very revealing olive-green dress. She played the entire EP from front to back, six songs.

It was stripped down. It was raw. It was vulnerable. And it was magic. Just a small room of people sitting cross legged in a circle surrounding Kelsea’s swing.  No stage. No barricades. No special effects. Just a girl being real, sharing her music with us in the most authentic way. We heard stories about the songs and the big feelings behind them. And we sang along to an EP that had literally just been released three days before.

Kelsea shared with us what she went through after her headlining tour and how this EP came about. “Instead, I just sat in it. And I had really big feelings. And really big crash outs. And I apologize for none of it.”

She talks about running into a family at a park in Mount Pleasant one day and the effect it had on her. “This is me realizing your allowed to have more than one dream. And I think life is full of question marks that deliver themselves a little more loudly the older you get. And I think that’s kind of the point of this project. This is my chapter of my question marks. And thank you for being safe enough for allowing me to give them to you.”

Thank you, Kelsea, for welcoming us to Mount Pleasant. It’s a great EP, and an experience I’m sure all of us there will always remember.