Ashvegas trekked down to Hotlanta over the weekend to check out The Echo Project music festival. Our beloved Avett Brothers performed there, so we had to go. We had a good time in a beautiful setting, though a few things could have been better. Let us explain.
This was the first year for the Echo Project, an ambitious festival with an incredible musical line-up that included everybody from Phil Lesh and Friends to Cyprus Hill to the Avett Brothers to Afromotive to the Flaming Lips… on and on. It was set just south of the Atlanta airport on some 300 acres of rolling land dotted a couple of lakes and edged by the Chattahoochee River.
The organizers were clearly ready for the masses and the music. Five wonderful stages were set nicely across a vast meadow. There were plenty of food vendors and porta-johns. There was also plenty of dust on the water-starved landscape. And there was precious little shelter from the sharp October sun.
Word around the festival was that only about 10,000 people bought tickets to the festival. Organizers were hoping for something like double that number. But they’re competing with football and weddings in October, so it will probably take a few years to build this one up.
In terms of working the festival from a photo standpoint, we were disappointed on a couple of fronts. First, there was a strict limit – usually the first three songs – then all photographers were kicked out of the pit area. If you showed up late, you were out of luck. Shooting photos from the crowd was fine, but we were asked twice to stop shooting video from the crowd. This, despite the fact that everybody was shooting video. That, and the fact that everybody – and we mean everybody – was smoking marijuana all around us, something security turned a blind eye to. You could fire up a bowl, but you couldn’t fire up a video camera. Go figure.
All the pot smoking was fine. We were just shocked at how open it was done. And the fact that literally every other 20-something had a pipe and a stash. Was it like that when we were in college? Damn that short-term memory loss…
3 Comments
good vibes, clean air, clean earth, awesome music, and cool ass people.
thats what festivals are all about…ECHO def brought that to the table. i LOVE bonnaroo.. but ECHO is def the best festival so far….. if only ALL festivals could pull off what ECHO did. WHY NOT? 🙂 peace love to all
i will see you next year. fo SHO
-Corey (ATL)
ohh and ASH. about the openly smoked herb…. Welcome to Atlanta 😉
I was at this fest but with only a regular ticket. I went to the first 3 Bonnaroos. The last, I was working and had a photo pass. Our restrictions were the same as yours. Echo was probably the best fest I’ve ever been to. It definitely had the best vibe of any larger festival. As for the pot smoking. I didn’t think it was nearly as obvious as any of the Bonnaroos. Which of course the Roos are known for their plethora of drugs avaliable.
Granted it was much more than any recent NC fests, at least since the NC ALE ruined the rebelious spirit of the Smilefests, Dead shows, Panic shows, and the like.
If Echo Project is on next year… to quote the Dude, "I’ll be there maan."
Dust, not dusy…which, speaking of, the front page of Friday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution had aerial photos of the low lake and resevoir levels. Supposedly, Hotlanta has less than three months of water supply. No word on what happens when it’s gone!
Looks like a fun fest!