Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2007 > September > 15 > Entry
ACL scene: Flags and armadillos, bikes and boys
On the whole, the locator flags at ACL are less elaborate than the ones seen at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. But one group that’s a veteran of both festivals turned up for Cajun band BeauSoleil’s rollicking set at the WaMu stage with a pole topped with a metal armadillo sculpture bedecked with Mardi Gras beads. The armadillo wore a rubboard painted with the years of Jazzfests attended. Multi-colored metallic ribbons fluttered and a variety of objects dangled, including a voodoo doll and fake butterfly. Runner-up: the pole fluttering with multi-colored feather boas, one supporting a blinking blue light.
A bicycle is certainly a pleasant way to get to and from Zilker Park for ACL — even if finding a parking place for it mid-afternoon Friday was like finding a spot for your car at the mall the week before Christmas. Then try finding it again at the end of the night, when it’s dark away from the once-crowded bike racks and you’re only sort of sure which distant railing you hastily locked it to seven hours earlier.
But riding home after the last show was a delicious way to cool off and wind down, and instead of trudging along in the shuttle line, I was spinning through the neighborhood behind Zilker — until I was flagged down by a couple teenage boys, asking me for directions. They weren’t lost, however.
“We live here,” one said. “We’re trying to tell these girls how to get here.”
“Where are they?”
“Barton Springs.”
I started trying to explain the route I’d taken, but one of the boys jammed his cell phone in my hand and said: “You talk to them.”
I started asking exactly where they were on Barton Springs, but the girl interrupted and said with exasperation: “We KNOW how to get there.”
I handed the phone back, and the boys thanked me. As I rode off, one of them called after me again, so earnestly: “Thank you, ma’am,” apparently suddenly realizing that maybe I’d been heading somewhere.
I hope the girls turned up.
(Photo by David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | | Categories: ACL Festival
