ACL Fest - Will 2009 be Known as the Mud Year?

I survived ACL fest! Saturday was full of rain and Sunday was full of mud, both were an experience!

On Saturday my dad and I went ahead and staked our area under the big tree near the BMI stage. While we were setting up the chairs my dad sat in his and it promptly fell apart. This to most people might seem like am alarming situation where you might be concerned about the safety of the person. Not me, I sat there and just laughed, so did my dad. After using his handy nail clipper/multi use tool to fix the chair, we went back out to meet up with my mom and family friend, Warren.

On the way out we saw a huge happy face on the ground, the exit security guy had gathered the grass clippings and made a smiley face. It was so cute I took a picture of it.

We enjoyed a drink at Chuy's before going to an Austin Monthly, VIP Hospitality Lounge at the Barton Place Sales office where we learned about the condo's for sale and saw some great interior design elements. It was a nice retreat from the rain, we didn't stay long though, and we had music to listen to! We donned our yellow ponchos and headed towards the entrance. I would have thought yellow ponchos with Mickey Mouse would be easy to spot in a crowd but as it turns out, there were lots of people with yellow ponchos with Mickey on them! It's a good thing we mostly stuck together or we might have ended up with the wrong group of people!


We saw Alberta Cross, whoever was on the Raveonettes stage - they weren't that great, Cotton Jones and Papa Mali.

Cotton Jones

Alberta Cross

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

B-52's

Sunday was pretty much a mud fest from the start. When we got to the entrance they had rerouted everyone to a single line to reduce the amount of traffic on the already worn grass and they had moved the entrance lines to the side, we suspected because the other entrances were worn down and muddy.  After we got in, our suspicions were confirmed, it was indeed muddy! Wow was it muddy. The worst spot early in the day, an maybe all day was around the food area. Every step was met mud coming up over the shoe and in my case, flipflops! Mud oozed between my toes and seeped into the tiniest places between the sequins of my shoes.  And joy, the City had used compost and waste to help kick start the grass so the entire place smelled like a barn and cow manure. NICE!

Even so, we stayed until almost 4:00 pm and as we left, more people were still streaming in. The mud didn't seem to faze too many people. One kid next to us was covered in mud like he has been rolling around in it. Other people we saw went to a different extreme and wrapped their shoes with plastic baggies. Whatever way works right? As long as you have fun. 

ACL Fest is never boring that's for sure. Whether there is a dust cloud, mud or scorching heat, you can always count on good music, great people watching and long lasting memories.

My Fitflops after Sunday! :( A good scrubbing got most of the mud off.