3 Rivers Arts Festival (Part 1)

Alright, Blog Readers! Here's a real post! This one goes back all the way to June.

Pittsburgh is a generally gloomy place, weather-wise. We actually get two more cloudy days each year (on average) than notorious Seattle. Perhaps as a result, when it gets nice here, folks make the most of it. Part of the local celebration of beautiful outdoor days is an annual festival downtown. The 3 Rivers Arts Festival is ten days of fair food, seas of local artist-merchant stands, and free live music!

This is actually from the Glen Hansard concert which will be featured in "Part 2".
Fun Fact: I didn't realize these were my friends, Kyle & Mikeala on the right until after I took the picture!

Some past years, I've simply avoided the crowds. (I don't do well with crowds, even in the nicest weather.) But this year there were two music performances I simply couldn't miss!

The first group were the festival headliners: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I headed straight to Point State Park after work, and ran into friends on the way!

Derek and Jenn being awesome (no idea who girl in tie-dye is)

We went to buy food and wait for Kira; and ran into more friends!

Ellie, Matt, and Brandi (Sorry, Matt. That's my best picture of you...)

In the following half-hour or so, I probably saw a dozen people I knew. When talking to folks later, I heard there were a bunch of friends there who I didn't see. We took a seat on the lawn just past the sound-booth-tent. "We" was me, Shane, Kira, and the lovely folks pictured above. Dan and Sarah came by later with baby Selah, who they were baby-sitting. I didn't get any pictures of them. Probably because I spent most of their time with us with Selah asleep on my shoulders.

Proof Shane was there too. No photo-love for Kira. I took some, but none turned out.

I was lucky to have found friends, and double-lucky they were friends with blankets. I had totally failed to consider what we would sit on! Then again, after the show started, there wasn't much sitting. I was also glad we arrived early. There were maybe 500 people ahead of us, but probably another 1,500 behind us!

 (Here is a map I made for your reference. The whole red circle was full, and then some! Source)

I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures of the band. But here's a cell-phone picture of the stage:

They had all sorts of fancy lighting effects!

Yes, that's a guy dressed as Jesus in front of us. I also saw a little boy in a Link costume, teenagers wearing tails, and girls in Japanese Lolita outfits. I guess something about a big event makes folks want to show off.

Anyway, the energy of the crowd was exuberant (and not too over-stimulating)! The babies were adorable and really into the music. I was impressed by their behavior! I myself had to wear earplugs to feel comfortable with the volume of the sound system. Their parents/babysitters took them home about half-way through, because they are babies.

The band played a good show. Not a beat or note was out of place. But they seemed a bit taken-aback by the size of the crowd. I guess no one told them they were going to be the main event!

(Part 2 coming soon!)