I must say that I lucked out. I got a call from a friend late last night wondering if I wanted a ticket for ACL Fest today. I said sure, knowing that my son was pissed that I had already turned down one free ticket– hey I had things to do this weekend–I thought we had better go. After figuring out a schedule of acts to see (I love the feature on the ACL Fest website where you can hear snippets of the bands), we went to fesitival land. I’ve got to get a bike soon so we can ride to the festival next year, we don’t live too far away, but it’s really not walkable.

We stayed for only four hours, but we did see Buckwheat Zydeco, who was great; Sylvia St. James and The The Gospel Stars, who were amazing along with Sylia’s completely outlandish outfit; White Ghost Shivers were very enjoyable and the racy lyrics kept my son’s eyebrows raised the whole set. Heard a little of Son Volt, they’re kind of boring to me; my son kind of liked the New Pornographers–too poppy for pops though. We left before seeing the New Orleans Social Club, who I really wanted to see. And one look at the sea of humanity at the AT&T stage gave my son the idea that maybe it was time to leave without seeing The Flaming Lips (and they’re even on a Sponge Bob CD). We had a good time, but my son was getting freaked out in the crowds, he said he doesn’t mind big crowds of kids but big crowds of adults make him nervous.

It is fun, but a little odd to find tens of thousands of people in your neighborhood park. At least it was a short drive home.

Wednesday, I had a fun afternoon helping Kayci Wheatley of Moxie and the Compound and Kathie Sever the woman behind Ramonster setup their booth at the ACL Fest market. What a great way to spend a few hours, outside, great weather, and with two hip, funny, artistic women. They both had a nice selection of their best clothes and accessories. Kathie makes some of the greatest western wear I have ever seen. She describes her designs as one-of-a-kind indie/Americana themed clothing for men, women and children. She even does custom work–cool!