Wooooooof TA! Austin City Limits music festival beat the crap out of me! Every year I go I hope it’ll be easier, but it never is. I love the music & the break from normal life – but it’s H O T in Texas and that heat can really beat you up.
This festival came right on the heels of the Vegas catastrophe, which you couldn’t help but feel heavy about. My friends & I did our best to not bring it up but that’s hard to do when there’s thousands of people stuffed in on top of each other at a concert. I think that’s how it’s going to be from now on for our generation. It’s hard to honestly say otherwise. We have to live in a place where we’re cautious of our surroundings and listen to our instincts, especially when we’re in large crowds. Unfortunately, that’s where we’re at in America. Boo, all because of those mother fuckers.
One adjustment I noticed this year, I’m not sure if it’s new or just something I’m more aware of, is the huge crane overlooking the festival with police on it. They had a birds eye view of the entire festival and you could see they had huge lenses to see everything happening on the ground. That was about my only piece of mind.
On the 2nd night as Wafiq and I were watching one of the shows, we heard a huge bang come from the other side of the festival. We told ourselves if we hear it again, we’ll leave. Then we heard it again. And again. There were police near us that also looked concerned, as did most of the people around us. To make a long story short, it was pyrographics at the stage on the other side of the festival. I’m thinking (and hoping) this part of live performances will have restrictions in the future. I don’t think it’s worth it to risk confusing a crowd. With our tensions a little higher than we’d like, Wafiq and I decided to leave early that night. Again, we’re at a place where you have to trust your gut on certain circumstances, call us dramatic but I’d rather be the dramatic one all day than the one standing there when/if something happens.
I constantly brag about the incredibly insightful active shooter training I did with our city Fire Marshall – I need to do a whole post on that because it was way more helpful than I imagined it could be.
