So... What next?

06/10/2009

I know I owe you guys a bunch of updates from burning man onwards (and they are coming, don't worry), but I just HAD to tell you about the past few days.

This past weekend has probably been the most exciting and fun-filled weekend of my life! I kid you not! Is it really possible to fit more than 100 bands playing live, crazy twister games, a Charlie the Unicorn themed party,



endless amounts of cake,



several beers and a party on a bridge in 65 hours? Apparently it is...

Friday morning and I'm up fairly early. ACL is about to begin. What is this? It's the Austin City Limits Music festival, (yes, I am back in Austin by the way) a musical extravaganza in the greenest park of Austin that lasts three days and hosts some of the biggest names of the musical world.



And the festival kicks off with names such as Mishka, the Avett Brothers, Phoenix, Thievery Corporation, Kings of Leon and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! And by around midnight that the music ended, I went to a friend's place where we thought the most normal thing to do is play twister at 3am.

Saturday, festive day (did I mention it was my birthday that day? No? Well, it was! :) ) and the music begins once again. Bring it on !!!, Airborne Toxic Event, Flogging Molly, And you will know us by the trail of the dead, Ghostland Observatory and so many more. And the best part of it? All of those under the pouring rain!




Austin city centre is just behind us.


I'm not crying my eyes out. I'm just really exhausted. And no, that's not sh1t on my chest.

Thousands and thousands of people jumping, singing and crowd-surfing, wet to the bone and knee-deep in mud.



And as if that was not enough, come the end of the music, a friend comes to pick me up. He takes me home to have a shower (believe me, I needed it) and gives me a set of white clothes to wear. (??) We then drive out to some house where I've never been before, go walk around the back and suddenly two girls jump out of nowhere and shout "Welcome to candy mountain Charlie"! They dragged me into the house, only to find that the two girls were L. and D., disguised as unicorns and they had thrown a Charlie the unicorn-themed, surprise birthday party for me.






The unicorn possy

Unicorns, bananas, candy and starfish all over the place! I couldn't believe what they had put together! So many people, so many costumes, so many sweets and the biggest cupcake I had ever seen in my life to top it all! The whole thing was just surreal.




Candy mountain in the flesh!


The biggest cupcake I have ever seen!!!


And then my face in it!




The choo choo shoe is back!

Sunday and final day of ACL. To be honest, I did not care about most of the bands. I was only waiting for Pearl Jam to come on, closing the festival and sending us to awe-land. And indeed they did. And there was no better way to end this extraordinary weekend, than by having a few beers at one of my favourite spots in town. But then, as I was moisting my throat with the delicious, cold, amber-colored, wheat-based drink, the phone rang, only to invite us to a... bridge party!
The name of it explains it all. It's a party. On a bridge. With DJs, speakers, sound systems, lots of people dancing etc. INSANE!!!

I got home at about 4am again and by that point, I could not feel my legs. After 65 hours of constant craziness and jumping around, recovering was in order.....

M.

P.S.1: ACL photos taken by Hillary Jenkins. Party photos taken by Tabitha Halfmann and Brent Thomas

P.S.2: If you have no idea what I'm on about when talking about unicorns, bananas and starfish, do yourself the favor and get educated.