As the summer winds down in Los Angeles, it can only mean one thing: FYF Fest is coming.

FYF isn't one of those festivals that sells out in a matter of minutes, and it's pretty rare for people to fly overseas just for the weekend. But for those of us who live in SoCal, it's one of the festivals we most look forward to.

Seeing as we're now about a month away from the 2016 edition, let's look at some of the reasons FYF is the unsung hero of California's music festival scene.

It's Actually in LA

In most large cities, there's at least one venue big enough to hold a major music festival. Whether it's a massive public park or a giant athletic complex, there's almost always a spot where a crowd of 50,000 or so can pack in to watch the biggest names in music. In LA, that's not necessarily the case. Most big festivals happen an hour or more outside of the bulk of the city, as the surrounding deserts, mountains, and valleys have far more open space than the city itself. FYF is the exception, as it's still just small enough to fit smack in the heart of southern LA at Exposition Park.

Your Wallet Can Handle It

Don't want to spend $400 to go se a handful of bands you like and dozens of others you've never heard of? We don't blame you. After fees and everything, a two-day weekend pass comes out to about $240 for FYF. If that's too much, payment plans and single day tickets are also available (although they're now sold out), so you won't feel forced to sit through hours of music you could care less about just to get your money's worth.

There Are Local Artists

It still seems wrong for an area to host a music festival without a single local act on the bill. Aside from Kendrick Lamar (more on him later) headlining the first night, FYF also hosts local acts like Boogie, Classixx, Long Beach's Vince Staples, Laguna Beach's Ty Segall and more. That's a pretty good SoCal-based lineup for a truly SoCal-based festival.

It's a Mid-Sized Festival

Let's give some love to the mid-sized festivals real quick. With so many monstrously huge festivals out there (Coachella, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, etc.) and the smaller boutique-y festivals (just look around the nearest major city, there are too many to name), it's the middle of the road ones that are really beginning to stand out. Whether it's the punk rock-laden Riot Fest (in Denver and Chicago) or a multi-genre weekend like FYF, it's nice that there are some festivals out there that are big enough to bring in international stars as headliners but not so huge that you're constantly bumping into 100,000 of your closest friends.

(Almost) Every Act is Current

While many other festivals are selling nothing but nostalgia almost every act on FYF's lineup is current (or at least relevant in the last 15 years). There aren't any old fogies. Charles Bradley is timeless, so your argument is invalid.

The Hype Isn't Insane Yet

There's always a significant buzz preceding FYF, but it's nowhere near that of many other festivals. Tickets don't sell out in an instant. No one waits for hours to see if their little digital man will successfully walk across the screen. There's no international social media storm or massive streaming event. It's just a solid music festival that floats in a comfortable level of local, national, and international popularity.

It's About the Music

Let's imagine for a moment that anything with the words "music" and "festival" in it was actually focused on music. If you go on to FYF's website, there isn't a big list of food trucks that'll be at the event or muralists who are working on enormous generic artwork for the weekend. It's sad that it's so refreshing to see a music festival that's still about music, but it really is. Sure, there'll still be some people who go more for the Instagram selfies than to see most of the music, but at least the festival itself isn't promoting that.

Kendrick Lamar

While everyone else is busy using the same handful of headliners for each of their festivals (including LCD Soundsystem, who performs the day after Kendrick), FYF went out and got a hometown hero who happens to be one of the biggest names in music. Kendrick is a huge score for any music festival, but he's the perfect headliner for anything going on in SoCal. Yeah, FYF gon' be alright.