Battle Of The Saturday Festivals: Spamarama v. Lone Star Round Up
Austinist was eager to get outside yesterday and take in an outdoor festival. We consulted the IST-list and found ourselves spoiled for choice: The Austin Fine Arts Festival, Spamarama, and the Lone Star Hot Rod Round Up were all happening downtown yesterday! We chose to hit both Spamarama and the Hot Rod show (which we'll refer to as HRRU for brevity), and found them to be about as different as one could imagine. Here's how it went down:
- The Park: Spamarama was at Waterloo Park on 15th Street, which was nice enough and had some shady tree-lined areas. The main activity area was flat and hot, though. HRRU trumped this by locating on the shore of Town Lake at Festival Beach just East of I-35. Trees were everywhere, water surrounded you, and there was a nice breeze.
WINNER: HRRU.
- The Crowd: Spamarama was full of families, hippies, and UT students who walked over from their apartments. HRRU was full of bikers, dudes who looked like The Fonz, 50's-retro girls, and dudes who looked like they were from Pantera.
EASY WINNER: HRRU
- The Entertainment: Spamarama had some jam bands, a DJ, and the Spamalypics (sporadically). HRRU had amazing people watching, 500 tricked out cars, Doyle Bramhall, and old-school L.A. band The Blasters.
WINNER: HRRU
- Intangibles: Spamarama had free Spam dishes (if one waited through a 30 minute line), and Strayhorn volunteers asking for signatures. HRRU had lots of biker and hot-rod clothing and poster booths, and had Kinky Friedman folks. Concessions seemed average at both venues. HRRU had an awesome event T-shirt, Spamarama...not so much.
WINNER: HRRU
- Magic Moment Factor: On our way into HRRU, we were passed by a low rider full of bandana-wearing, black clad dudes blasting Spanish music and making heavy-metal signs. They then stopped two people walking in front of them at a stop sign to pour them a shot of Jager. And both dog walkers gratefully accepted. This all happened in about 20 seconds.
WINNER: HRRU
- The Cost: $5 for Spamarama, $10 for the HRRU.
WINNER: SPAMARAMA
- Beer: Spamarama had Bud and Bud Light for $4. HRRU had Shiner and Lone Star for $3.
BIG WINNER: HRRU
The upset winner by a count of 6-1: Hot Rod Round Up. Who knew? We know this doesn't help you now, but file it away for next spring...Austinist is just lookin' out. One final note: we're not giving Spamarama a hard time - people seemed to enjoy themselves, and the weather was nice. This Austinist writer simply thinks that the Hot Rod Round Up made for a more enjoyable Saturday afternoon. Now we're off to the Arts Festival at Republic Square.
Photo via LoneStarRoundUp.com
