A Day to Melt/Rage in the LA Sun: My Experience at FYF Fest 2011

Well, I had planned to write a long, drawn-out reaction to my first venture to FYF Fest this past weekend in Los Angeles. (Yes, the FYF stands for “Fuck Yeah Fest”, which is awesome. In fact, it is one of the main reasons I was enticed in the first place….)

But, after debating about the pro’s and con’s of this festival, which there were many of both, I decided against it. I mean, I could easily rip on the lack of food options, or the non-existent recycling options, or the “beer garden”…where you have to pound your alcoholic beverage BEFORE you leave. (“Let’s pound these 9 dollar beers, get all sloppy, and THEN jump into a crowd of people!”) Or the lack of parking in and around China Town, which equaled a sweet $25 parking spot from some dude at a dumpling restaurant.

Or the 55 person line for a drinking fountain. Or the $3 plastic bottles of water , with, you guessed it, no where but an overflowing trash can to throw them in. Oh, and it was HOT. Like, had a good sweat going within 30 minutes

But, I won’t.

Because, well, I realized something: Outside Lands spoiled me. Like, really badly, but in the best way possible. So, lets talk about the good things from FYF!

First, the line-up. I mean, come on. Kid Dynamite AND the Descendants? Its like a high school dream show. And since I know I will probably never see either of those bands again, I should take full advantage. KD slayed through their 40+ minute set, covering some of my favorite tracks (coming alive, news at 11) as well as basically every other song they have ever written. The Weakerthans played a soothing mid-afternoon set for a handful of people, which was, as Mikey put it, “like a glass of refreshing white wine”. Well said.

Other highlights were set’s from Cults, who sounded really good live, as well as YACHT, who I am rather enamored with at the moment. Weird, space-y, dance-y, all good things. We caught a few songs of Explosions in the Sky, as well as the whole set from Death From Above 1979.

Like I mentioned before, there really is no other festival like Outside Lands. And, while that kind of puts other festivals, like FYF, behind the 8 ball so to speak, I think it also leaves a great room for improvement.

I think with a better location and better accommodations, FYF could grow into the festival it always wanted to be.

-Reid

Tagged as: august 2011, chinatown, cults, descendents, explosions in the sky, FYF Fest, los angeles, los angeles music festival, reid horton, yacht