I feel like I bought tickets for Kristi and me to attend Rock the Garden a long time ago. Then my coworker David went and won tickets the day before the show. He couldn’t make it, so luckily he let me use them to get a couple more friends in. It was a so much fun—and such a great day for it!
I recommend that you go look through the whole set on Flickr for yourself, but I’ve got the highlights for ya right here. (Though this will still be pretty image-heavy. You’ve been warned!)
We arrived by bus promptly at 3 p.m., and found a long waiting line. The gates hadn’t opened yet. I was happy to entertain myself by taking photos of Minneapolis scenery (the Basilica and Loring Park pedestrian bridge).
It was sort of funny to see really awesome food vendors next to typical fair food vendors. Vincent, Holy Land, and Joe’s Garage all had specialty items if attendees weren’t down with corn dogs and burgers.
I attended the 2004 Rock the Garden when David Byrne was the headliner. The Guthrie was still attached to the Walker then, so the street was the only place to watch the concert from and the stage faced Loring Park. Last year the grassy knoll was open for seating, but the stage still faced Loring Park. This year they got it right: the stage faced the grassy knoll. It was perfect.
In case my hundreds of other photos don’t prove that Kristi and I were there…
I purchased tickets at Minnesota Public Radio’s member price. David won tickets (which Mikey and Noah used) from one of the event sponsors, University of Saint Thomas.
I thought about trying a pork chop but I wasn’t hungry enough and I was afraid of spilling on one of the 9,999 other people.
I love a good zero-waste event! I also love corn.
Solid Gold played a great set, representin’ local music well.
It is dangerous to have a camera when I get a little bored and antsy.
I don’t listen to Mark Wheat’s set on The Current very often, but I enjoy him when I do!
Yeasayer was okay. I recognized a couple songs, but otherwise I got distracted by scenery and people watching.
I made Kristi take a lot of photos with me. We started getting a little punchy towards the end of Calexico. beer + sun + sitting for too many hours = antsy silliness.
Where can I get a cheap hula hoop? Because I imagine I’ll try it once for about 10 minutes (maybe 5) and then never touch it again.
I enjoyed Calexico, it’s just too bad I was so easily distracted during their set.
Then some friendly people behind us took our photo, and we returned the favor. I hope we didn’t block their view too much.
I listen to Steve Seel and Jill Riley on The Current every morning.
A volunteer was passing out bananas, which heightened the silliness. I ate one, it was refreshing (I guess).
The lines to use the “bathrooms” were sooooooooooooo long and I got bored (and broke out the camera again).
I missed a good chunk of The Decemberists’ set because I actually found someone else I knew. But the music was good, the decoration was interesting and colorful, and most people who were sitting for the rest of the show finally stood up so we had a chance to dance and work out some of the antsy-ness. It was difficult to get a good photo because they were sort of far away and the sun was setting. Or maybe I need a new point-and-shoot camera…
I love that they ended with a cover of Heart’s “Crazy on You.” That’s one of my favorites to sing at karaoke, I think.
I wish I had gone to see it when the cherry was being cleaned or repainted or whatever. It was cool to see it at night though, too.
At the end, instead of taking the bus home, Jared agreed to come pick Kristi and me up. We walked through Loring Park to meet him downtown because, surprisingly, it was less crowded there.
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