The East Atlanta Strut

After all that time spent at Bumbershoot and MFNW, it takes some adjustment to get used to the civilian life again - not getting up in the  morning a little sore and a little tired, but anticipating yet another long day of great music.  Not running into people on the street or in line that were at the same venues the night before, and instantly having something to talk to them about.

What I needed was at least one more day of festival, and East Atlanta Village came through today with flying colors by putting on the East Atlanta Strut - a festival not even remotely in the same league with Bumbershoot or MFNW, but with charms all of its own, and with a decidedly Southern accent.  

Here's Chickens and Pigs - that's the band's name, I'm not calling them "chickens and pigs," I'm calling them the amplified hillbilly stomp band named "Chicken and Pigs," and if that ain't Southern, nuttin' is.

This world-beat - reggae - funk band call themselves Wade In the Rhythm:

Retro-rock revivalists Myopic I were so authentic to their genre that they even featured an on-stage go-go dancer:

But the East Atlanta Strut is more than just a bunch of bands on a stage, there's food, art and crafts vendors, a 5k road race, and even a parade:

Of course, this being the South and all, the parade has to include some cars:

And what's a parade without it's queen?

Now, all children are rightfully afraid of clowns (fun fact: 6 out of 7 children have been sexually abused by a clown), but these clowns scared even me:

No North Georgia festival is complete without the Feed And Seed Marching Abominables, an Atlanta institution since 1974:

Meanwhile, back on the stage, the band played on:

And while the band played, various young women thrilled the crowd with daring feats of strength and grace:

Dudes entertained, too, but it just wasn't quite the same:

But I keep digressing away from the music.  There guys were called Jackwagen, and they played loud power pop:

And a few other bands whose names I didn't catch (sorry, guys):

Just because I don't remember the bands' names doesn't mean that they weren't good, although looking at these pics I can't help but thinking that some of the guys look like they stepped out of a line-up of suspects for your Dad's pot dealer. A younger band was playing on another stage, and I remember their name, Mourdella, because it was written on their bass drum:

I remember the name of another young band, Lucy Dreams, because I've seen them before at the day-long festival in Oakland Cemetery last May.

They're quite good, and the only band in the entire East Atlanta Strut line-up that I had heard of before, and it was great to hear them again.

As the afternoon crept towards its completion, people were partying and dancing in the street:

There was even one of those Urban Cowboy mechanical bulls for people to ride:

Day became night, and with the children all gone away the performers catered to a more adult crowd:

The final band of the night was called Sexual Side Effects, and they ended the festival on an exotic note:

And that was that.  It wasn't Bumbershoot and it wasn't MFNW, but it was diverting, it passed the time, and it was uniquely Atlanta.  I can't imagine anywhere else where all of those disparate elements would come together the way they did at the East Atlanta Strut.  And it was all free (and my friend Nick even stopped by and bought me my dinner and a beer).

This should be enough to get me through the next several days.