Music Midtown final lineup (Atlanta, Dunwoody: credit, house, to buy)

[testa50]

I agree the execution was great. Allowing reentry, pricing not through the roof for food and drink, good selection of food on sale (I had Fox Bros also--extremely good sandwich), and the crowd was a good size in relation to the size of the festival area. Easy to move around, but also enough people that it really felt like a massive event. The layout of stages, sale items, and bathrooms was also good.

Far and away the biggest annoyance was cell phones not working, but as a Midtown resident I'm used to that during big festivals. It just makes planning a lot harder.

[Hoapres]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

It was awesome. Major win for Atlanta, judging by the success, I'm sure it will be done again next year. Things I noticed about Music Midtown:

1) I don't know when festival planners finally learned, but everything was done right. Plent of port-o-potties, a huge variety of food choices from great local restaurants (I had Fox Bros.) and everything was priced reasonably, bottled water was only $3, there was plenty of free water too, there was plenty of space to walk around. It seems like the days of $15 carnival food and $7 bottles of water are long gone, and good riddance to them. They even had portable ATMs, clearly marked exits, and you were allowed to bring in outside water (so long as it was still sealed). I also saw one tent that was like a little drug store, where you could buy aspirin, Skittles, even toilet paper. Exit and re-entry was also allowed. Great job by the organizers on all this.

2) This was one of the whitest crowds I have ever seen in Atlanta. Even though T.I. and Ludacris were performing, I barely saw any black people. Even if there were no hip hop artists, I still would have expected that Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, etc. would have a certain number of non-white fans. The crowd was so white it was almost unsettling. I felt like I was in Wyoming or something. Maybe one of our black posters can explain this....do black people not like music festivals? Do they hate Pearl Jam so much they would not go see Ludacris just because they were there? I really can't figure out why everyone there was white. There were hardly any Hispanics or Asians there either. I would say that less than 2% of the crowd was not European descended Caucasian. And that's liberal, it was probably more like less than 1%.

3) Once again, driving was more efficient than taking MARTA. Yesterday I left a bit early and said what the heck, I'm going to try parking, knowing that I had enough time to drive to a MARTA station if I couldn't. I immediately found a place to park. Then after the show, I got right out. So I did the same thing tonight with the same results, straight in and straight out, no muss, no fuss. What was striking was last night I left at the same time as a friend who parked at Dunwoody and took MARTA. We left the show at the same time. By the time he texted me and told me he was at the Dunwoody MARTA station, I had already driven home to Gwinnett county, showered, and was going to bed. Apparently, MARTA was so jammed you had to wait for a couple of trains to come and go before you could actually get on one. Another friend told me that 10th street was absolutely horrible, but as long as you know where to park and how to get in and out of the park only using Piedmont or Monroe, there was no problem at all.

I can't wait to see who is on the line-up next year.

Black people have broad tastes in music and don't just show up to events becuase "hey there are rappers there dawg".

Ludacris and T.I. like most huge rappers have way more white fans then anything.

[ATLTJL]

Black people have broad tastes in music

That's what I thought, too! Apparently, not many have tastes that include Joan Jett, Foo Fighters, Neon Trees, Pearl Jaml, Florence & The Machine, or Adam Ant. I would have thought that even without TI and Ludacris some black fans of rock would have shown up. I know they're out there.

[Ant131531]

Yup, I was one of those "rare" black people there and still had fun.

[westau]

Overall I liked it but I did think there weren't enough port-o-potties Friday night. I parked at Lindbergh and took Marta and it actually worked pretty well. I did walk to the back of the park at about 10:50 and walked very quickly down 10th street as soon as they stopped playing. I got into the station and a train was there already and I got on and actually had a seat for my 2 stops and it wasn't crowded at all. I am sure if I had stayed up front until the end that it would have sucked though.

I do wish it was in the spring so it doesn't keep interfering with college football but oh well.

[Hoapres]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

That's what I thought, too! Apparently, not many have tastes that include Joan Jett, Foo Fighters, Neon Trees, Pearl Jaml, Florence & The Machine, or Adam Ant. I would have thought that even without TI and Ludacris some black fans of rock would have shown up. I know they're out there.

I don't personly know white or black people who like bro band like those. Yuk.

[ATLTJL]

I don't personly know white or black people who like bro band like those. Yuk.

There are at least 50,000 people who don't agree with you.

[erick295]

Originally Posted by Hoapres

I don't personly know white or black people who like bro band like those. Yuk.

I don't think you know what a bro band is. Pearl Jam? Foo Fighters? Florence & The Machine? Joan Jett and Adam Ant?? Yeah, no.

Some of those aren't even bands. I don't think you know very much about music

[Hoapres]

Originally Posted by erick295

I don't think you know what a bro band is. Pearl Jam? Foo Fighters? Florence & The Machine? Joan Jett and Adam Ant?? Yeah, no.

Some of those aren't even bands. I don't think you know very much about music

Yes, all the cool the people "in the know" with music are listening to Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters.

Yeah, man you know your music.

[ATLTJL]

Yes, all the cool the people "in the know" with music are listening to Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters

The point of Music Midtown is to fill Piedmont Park with people. That means that thousands of tickets have to be sold.

The "cool" people "in the know" are listening to bands that have trouble selling out the Earl or Variety Playhouse.

I just don't get some people. Joan Jett and Pearl Jam are seminal performers. When I was a douchebag college student young 20-something year old, bands like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones, and Aerosmith weren't considered "cool" anymore. But everybody who knew anything about music certainly understood the relevance of them and would definitely see them perform if given the chance.

That's why nobody likes hipsters.