Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 Was Fun*3

Transmission Entertainment again produced one of Austin’s finest outdoor music events of the year: The 6th Annual FUNFUNFUNfest delivered it all: three stages + SLAYER + gourmet food trucks + Lykke Li + Ryan Gosling & Terrence Malick + Austra + an enormous multi-level mini-ramp + Danzig + Hot Snakes + Public Enemy + TV Casualty (aka Ted Leo & The Pharmacists doing Misfits covers) + hot antelope/jackrabbit sausages from Frank Grocery + Blonde Redhead + Boris + Black Lips + a stand-up comedy tent (featuring Henry Rollins & Brian Posehn) + Thee Oh Sees + Tinariwen + Four Tet + Diplo + 125 more musical guests…

We watched a three-day array of great bands from across the musical spectrum, wore makeshift masks (to cover our faces from the brutal Auditorium Shores dust ball), ate sausages and drank sweet tea, shot photos, shot the breeze, skated an amazing mini-ramp, and provided enormous boxes of Incase products to a wide variety of performing artists. Austin is a special place full of spirited music, gracious people, and fantastic food. We’d like to thank the City of Austin and everyone affiliated with Transmission Entertainment for another excellent visit. Enjoy our Flickr photo set.

Best In Show, the Trailer Space Records Party

On the off-chance you happen to attend this year’s SXSW music conference in Austin, TX, please do yourself a favor and pop into Trailer Space Records. On March 17-19th, during the hours of 1PM-to-8PM, Jonathan Harry Weinberg (Cold Showers & I Hate Rock n’ Roll), Volar Records and Col. Abe are throwing another free SXSW party. If you were there for last year’s event then you know this is great news.

With almost 30 bands spanning three days… this year’s party is quickly shaping up to be one of the best DIY events of the entire week. In addition to helping with the event production (back line anyone?), Incase will be on hand gifting a variety of Slider Cases for your iPhone 4 (yes, Verizon and AT&T compatible) and doling out cheap hot pink earplugs. Trust us, you’ll want both. And water. You’ll definitely want water. We look forward to seeing you next week!

A November To Remember: Fun Fun Fun Fest—Austin, TX

Alright, we know this Fun Fun Fun Fest post is mega-late. True enough, the fest happened three weeks ago already. Sorry! However, we’ve got a great reason for the lag. On the day after the fest, Transmission Entertainment’s Brendan Hannah went to India for three weeks for some much needed rest and relaxation. In the process, he completely dropped the ball on sending us his report from the field. Until now, that is. Brendan, take it away!

The first ever three-day edition of Fun Fun Fun Fest appropriately ended up being the most successful installment of this burgeoning annual gathering of music, comedy, arts (and everything in between) in Austin, Texas. The legendary “Weird Al” Yankovic kicked things off on Friday evening with an amazing two-hour set, complete with set changes, costumes, and of course, little blasts of “Al TV”.

On Saturday, indie-darlings MGMT had to play second fiddle to a fast and furious set by the ever-formidable Californian punk band Bad Religion as well as the visual and aural extravaganza that is GWAR.

All in all, however, patrons couldn’t have asked for a better sampling of the wide variety of genres on display. Sunday’s highlights included the first live performance in almost a decade by the legendary and universally beloved Descendents, a dance party curated by Yelle, and of course, the hard stuff courtesy of Mastodon.

Fans were also afforded the opportunity to indulge in a whole host of fun activities like euro-bungee launching, a mechanical bull, and the unmistakable “port-o-potty photo-booth,” plus an impressive sampling of some of the finest food and retail the city has to offer. When all was said and done, Fun Fest had once again proved itself as veritable purveyors of underground, emerging, and legendary acts, in one place, over the course of one beautiful weekend.

Thanks to Brendan, Michael, Rosa, and Graham at Transmission Entertainment in Austin for putting on another great Fun Fun Fun Fest. And A Horse With No Name Photography for the EPIC photos. We look forward to seeing you at the Mess With Texas Party in March 2011.

The Fun Fun Fun Fest Scavenger Hunt

Head’s up! On November 5-7th, we’re again sponsoring Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas. Last weekend, in the lead up to the fest, our friends at Transmission Entertainment threw a city-wide scavenger hunt. According to all participants it was a huge success. Here’s Transmission’s Brendan Hannah with the recap:

“Over the course of the last five years, Fun Fun Fun Fest has established itself as a veritable gathering of all things music, comedy, food, and arts come winter time in Austin, Texas. We truly pride ourselves on nurturing maximum fan interaction. So, in addition to the fest we also curate an annual Scavenger Hunt each year to offer fans a chance to obtain complimentary tickets, upgrades to VIP status, and win a whole slew of amazing prizes.

This year, Incase was a proud sponsor of the festival, and accordingly, Festival fans had a chance to score heaps of Incase swag at the 2010 edition of the Scavenger Hunt on October 15th. Keep in mind this isn’t your usual hunt – last year’s fans went as far as kissing senior citizens and indulging in hanky panky with the esteemed Stevie Ray Vaughan statue in town to obtain their rewards.

And this year was no different as nearly 200 participants knocked off the various activities on the ‘to-do-list’ with fervor and passion. One team scored big with their Fun Fest inspired tattoos, others arm-wrestled an immense bartender at the check-in point at The Mohawk, still others gathered miscellaneous items like a Corey Haim movie on VHS, and of course, quite a few took self-incriminating photographs of assorted variety to garner those elusive points. All in all, it was quite an amazing adventure for everyone involved, and of course the lure of Incase backpacks, among other things, was a truly motivational tool we were happy to provide.”

We look forward to seeing you at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Waterloo Park next week!

Mess With Texas Party 4

Photos from the 4th Annual Mess With Texas Party during the SXSW music conference, one of the most anticipated, best attended events of the weekend.

Fun Fun Fun Fest Scavenger Hunt Redux

According to Graham Williams at Transmission Entertainment there could’ve been no better way to kick off Austin’s 4th Annual FUN FUN FUN Fest than with the 1st Annual Scavenger Hunt around town. AT NIGHT!

More than 200 hunters comprising some 46 teams (that’s right, forty-six) took to the streets in search of several easy to find (and some not so easy) scavenger items. From all reports it was a rock solid primer for the FUNFUNFUNfest yet to come, Nov. 7th & 8Th. It’s not too late to fire up that last minute road trip to Austin. Enjoy more Flickr photos.

Bicycle Film Festival Hits Austin

Last week the BFF went to Austin. We added some photos to our Bicycle Film Festival Flickr set.

Tomorrow the BBF is starting in Chicago.