Summer Festivals, both Tamale and Tie-Dye

What a great time of year in Columbus...Believe it or not, Columbus is never in short supply of summer fun (granted, it's not a three hour session of getting my ass kicked by the pier, followed by a cold Budweiser at Blackie's, but it's fun nonetheless).

Just two weeks ago we headed down to our first event of the season, Festival Latino. That place was a madhouse! TONS of people, loud music, food, dancing and plenty of daddy drinks. Unfortunately, when you're married to somebody like Rachel, the food part will always be a big letdown. I'll eat her homemade salsa as soup if I can!

Then this past weekend (everybody's favorite weekend) we loaded up the Radio Flyer, lathered our bodies in patchouli oil, and drove the Prius on down to COMFEST 2007!!!

Describing this event isn't exactly easy....It's somewhere between a poor man's Lollapalooza and a cover band singer's Monterrey Festival. From the website:

It’s a place and time where you can kick back for a few hours or three full days, soaking up the vibe of an enviable exercise in participatory democracy.

Volunteer committees work for most of each year to attend to the thousand details involved in making this annual event come true: organize vendors, seek out and schedule bands, arrange permits, organize activities for children, collect ads, produce a program, and contract for a range of services ranging from safety and sanitation to utilities and sound. And this isn’t half of it. It’s a big job, but to celebrate the ideals that shaped the first ComFest in 1972, it’s worth it.

Why is ComFest fun? Well, think of what it would be like parked on a sun-soaked blanket for three days straight, surrounded by good food and plenty of beer, watching hundreds upon thousands of these guys:

Believe it or not, Captain Skullet [Skullet = Half Skull + Half Mullet] is the mildest of the group.

Seriously, for those of you that have never been, the people watching at Comfest is phenomenal! Some items/people/things include, but are not limited to:

Art Cars (cars affixed with doll parts, mirrors, stickers, doll part, plastic toys, etc).

Naked people in body paint.

The "Flaggots," Columbus' own gay color guard.

Human-size elephant ears.

Dancing Hamburglar.

People that don't need music to dance to music (This guy went on and on for hours! Have you ever seen the movie Can't Buy Me Love where the nerdy-now-cool guy does that African tribal dance at the school homecoming? Yea, it was a little bit freakier than that).

Blue and black beer tokens.
Over-sized 32 oz. beer mugs.

The "Random Act of Kindess Lady."

Preggo Belly Dancers.

Dogs in tie-dye bandannas.
Corn dog-eating Lucha Libres.

White guys with dreadlocks (by the hundreds).
Wonderman.People with snakes, raccoons, and other various reptiles and rodents as pets.
55 minute long port-o-potty lines (they definitely need more next year!).
Ice cream and punk rock.

A 15-person long silk dragon.
And last but not least, baby hippies.

For a complete COMFEST slideshow-o-fun, check out The Kodak Gallery.

Here's a quick video from our blanket. Notice how off-key singing makes Tenzin cry.