ACL Fest round up

Random thoughts and observations from a 3-day weekend in the sun listening to live music with 79,999 other people.

*There is no better argument for a light rail than ACL Fest. Since there is barely any parking at Zilker itself, they tried to get everyone to park downtown and take a shuttle to the festival. Which is a good idea, except the shuttle route is horribly slow. The first day, we took the shuttle and it took 45 minutes to get from Waterloo Park to Zilker Park, which is probably a distance less than 5 miles. And that's just bus time--that doesn't count parking, waiting in line, and walking. Altogether, we left the house at 4:00 on Friday and were not at Zilker until 5:30. The next day we parked at a friend's down South and walked the three miles there. The last day, we just took a cab.

*People were out on all the walking paths to the festival fighting the good fight and registering voters. Not one booth had Republican gear--all signs point to Kerry/Edwards. Just in case anyone was left that thought all of Texas will vote for Bush.

*There was therefore a ripple of paranoia when the police helicopters started circling overhead. I said to a friend that it must be tempting for "someone" to wipe out half the Democrats in Texas.

*Despite the fact that heat really puts a damper on one's ability to dress funny, the Keep Austin Weird crowd was still evident. Winner of the weirdest costume AND probably one of the warmer outfits to wear on such a day was a guy running around in a pink leotard with a black tutu.

*I wish I could have brought a camera and done a quick photojournal of everything, but cameras were strictly verboten. Of course, you saw tons and tons of them anyway. We didn't try to sneak one in, though, because the fear of being turned away and having to go through the whole process of getting home and then back again was just too strong.

*Like last year, there were so many people using cell phones that the signals were completely jammed. If you wanted to call someone inside the event to arrange meeting somewhere, which you had to do a lot since it was easy to get separated, you had to hit redial a number of times and when you did get through, yell your location into the phone before it dumped you. Many people went back to older technologies like walkie-talkies, or even older ones like flags and I'm sure a few thought of smoke signals.

*I am not used to the big screens on stage that show the people in the back what's happening on stage. All the big, swooping camera angles were so dramatic that I kept breaking out in giggles.

*$4 a beer is a rip-off but an unexpected side benefit is it dramatically reduced the number of obnoxious drunks.

*The entrepenuers that clutter the sidewalk walking up to the festival are something else. Someone had a sign saying "Parking and Free Sex". Someone was offering "Free Advice". A very smart enterpenuer was selling straw hats at jacked up prices. One restaraunt was selling shots for $4, which made us gack--who finds a shot of Jagermeister to be a refreshing beverage?

*Out of all the airplanes that circle around with advertising for the poor saps on the ground, the hands-down favorite was for a church called Promiseland. I doubt the pulled in a single sinner, though, as the stew of partial-nekkidness, alcohol abuse, and rock music was putting people in a pro-sin state of mind.