'April 3rd and 4th Rain or Shine,' said the white ticket for the annual Tempe Music Festival. Well rain or shine, literally meant a down pour or brilliant sunshine. Nothing in between like gray skies, or a nice breezy day with not a lot of 'shine'. Friday's escapades proved just this when the festival was cancelled due to weather conditions, even though it hardly rained another drop that evening.
After inquiries with hassled security guards at the entrance to the park, ticket-holders were made to wait around for an hour or so to find out if the show was to be re-located. They were finally informed that the three main performers (by some miracle string pulling) were being moved to the Marquee Theater. With the redeeming fact that the Theater is less than a minute up the street, the scatters of people made their move there without much grumbling. The line grew rapidly within a number of minutes, and soon the crowd waiting to see Cake, The Ataris and Ima Robot, was out of the parking lot.
Radio vans made their maneuver from the park to the theater and set up with music and freebies to keep everyone amused. They even resorted to card games and tricks with music prices, to keep from the mob going crazy with frustration at not being let in as early as they were told. As it began to spit rain, people started to leave in bad grace with some 'none too pleasant' things to say about the happenings of the festival so far. Some tried to scalp their tickets, assuming their presence at the festival the next day was not deserved.
But Saturday turned out to be slightly better. While the weather reports were wrong (again), the sun shined and the park was getting some festival action once more. Local high school bands threw themselves around the smallest stage of the three, screaming their hearts out in a punk rock manner, while brass players in the ska band synchronized jumps to their lyrics. The Beatles tribute band, Twist and Shout, put on a brilliant cover show on the main stage that made an audience of all ages flock. From 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' to 'Please Please Me' the band harmonized perfectly and even looked like the original John, Paul, George and Ringo. The only thing giving away their un-authenticity was the Americanized Liverpudlian accent, which slipped into the witty conversation every now and then.
Compared to the success of the day before, no one was going to complain about the line-up being 20 minutes behind schedule. Stands popped up all over with everything from the Jamaican Kitchen to the Marijuana Glow Novelties. To entice all age groups to the festival, there were mini stages set up in the 'Lil' Rockers Zone' with instruments for kids to play and feel, for a few minutes, the power of being a superstar (even if the cheers were from their parents). For that hard core posse was the Extreme Sports area with BMX Skating. Set up next to it was the stage where Pennywise was to perform later that evening, but Incubus-esque bands filled some of the time until then.
So from slouching around disappointed in the rain, to snoozing on the grass while the 1960s came back to take a hold of the scene, the festival did lift off on the second day. People got to support their favorite bands like Sugar Ray and Unwritten Law and receive plenty of free soda samples, and radio stations 'bits and bobs'. There was a much smaller crowd than expected due to the weather and the assumption of an unorganized second day. While people may think twice before buying a ticket for next year's festival, we can safely say the music is not the reason.
Reach the reporter at carley.partridge@asu.edu
