Fan Fest Invades Rainey St.

Rainey-Street-Fan-Fest-2015It is Formula One weekend. Do not get scared and stay home; go out and party among the race fans. Put on a fake accent and pretend you are Dutch, yesh? Make some new friends for when you travel to Mexico, Brazil, Germany or the UK. Apologize about the weather as the last few races at COTA have been blessed by perfect sunshiny goodness.

Here is a quick rundown of the Rainey St. Bud Light stage headliners…

Tonight!
8:20 p.m. Elle King
9:45 p.m. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

Friday:
7:00 p.m. Money Chicha
8:30 p.m. Ozomatli
10:30 p.m. Mayer Hawthorne

Saturday:
7:00 p.m. Holiday Mountain
8:30 p.m. A-Trak
10:30 p.m. Public Enemy

There is also a show at ACL Live for you willing to shell some jack to have an evening with Lionel Richie on Saturday and plenty more shows and offers tied to Fan Fest at venues you know and love; for instance Dan Falconberry at Mohawk or Gang of Four at The Parish on Friday. You’ll notice there is nothing planned for Sunday. If you get a Sunday F1 ticket, you can see Elton John post-race. They are using the Super Stage set up Metallica and Nicki Manaj had during the X Games. I’ll be there wearing big sunglasses.

ATH @ X Games Austin 2015

ATH was invited to attend X Games and we agreed based on the strength of he local lineup that graced the big stage during the day leading up to the headliners and then on to the Super Stage mega headliners. The cool part was that my access allowed me to moonlight as a sports photographer. We all have a history of skateboarding or riding a bike or something rad like that, don’t we? I worked in a bike shop to buy my Haro freestyle bike and still have my Lance Mountain special edition in the office. To get to see some guys like Dennis McCoy and Tony Hawk still riding and skating at a high level and catch the innovation coming from so many guys from Austin along with rally car and truck racing and maniacs on dirt bikes, it was an exciting change up to my usual subject matter. I got a little twitchy not shooting f2.8 or bigger and ISO 200? What is that? I don’t leave the house for less than ISO 2500. #concertphotographerjokes

So join me as we take a trip down memory lane and talk X Games…

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I Was A Tourist In My Own Town

Formula OneI know FFF9 is upon us, but I would like to reflect on Formula One. It is something you here on the news. It is what many of you mistakenly call that thing out there on the east side of the airport. A long time fan, F1 weekend is just like a music festival to me. It is three days of party and day-drinking. But F1 weekend, with help from Transmission, has actually been able to provide a bit of music festival to go with the festival of speed.

You see, having Circuit of the Americas in Austin is a rather special thing. It is the only track to host Formula One in the United States and that means nearly a half-billion worldwide viewers know where we are and what we do. It hosts MotoGP, Tudor United and World Endurance Championship. It also has a big-ass music venue and that cool Loch Ness monster looking tower. Like I said, it is kind of a big deal. COTA is also nice enough to host Fan Fest downtown. This year, I hit night one with the Haloween crowd Friday and was lucky enough to check out Duran Duran Saturday. You will get a few DD cause I already posted the big gallery, but you will get plenty of Broncho, Devotchka, De La Soul, crowd shots and stuff from the track. I skipped Kid Rock, though regretting that a little. O_o

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Show Pics: Duran Duran @ ACL Live (11/1)

Duran DuranIt was Formula One weekend in Austin. If you are oblivious, F1 is the biggest thing to hit Austin from a worldwide awareness perspective, ever. People from everywhere know that Austin is Live Music Capital of the World and has the best BBQ, period.

One other thing F1 brings is a few added festival type events, we’ll get into Fan Fest in a later post, but a special event like Duran Duran at ACL Live? I gotta go. I have proclaimed my love of DD before when they came for SxSW a few years back. They have influenced so many of the current crop of indie/pop/dance acts out there, no doubt. Throw in getting to see local boys Knifight open was an added treat.

Click through for pics and more thoughts on the evening from me and +1.

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