The Hangout 2011

You just can’t go wrong when combining live music and sandy, white beaches. And this, my friends, is what makes picking my favorite memories from the 2011 edition of The Hangout Beach, Music, and Arts Festival so difficult. But I’ll give it a shot.

Favorite show: Avett Brothers. I love them everywhere, and that includes on the beach. They played some of my favorites just as the sun was setting, and it was lovely. Their encore introduced me to the appropriately titled song, At the Beach, and I have been singing it ever since.

Favorite morning: That would be a tie between the morning of my sunrise run and the morning when my condo-mates and I set out early to play games on the beach before the festival. In the span of a couple hours, we managed to play bean bag toss, volleyball monkey-in-the-middle, frisbee monkey-in-the-middle, and frolic in the ocean.

Favorite ride: In a burst of randomness, my ladies and I decided to hop on one of those amusement ride towers that slowly takes you higher and higher into the sky (stunning view of the ocean, I might add), holds you there until you can’t stand it, and then drops you in a terrifying plummet that makes your stomach fly into your throat. I love that feeling.

Favorite dance party: Girl Talk. As is always the case with Girl Talk, we danced our faces off. Only complaint: we were lucky enough to get inside the tent for the show, but the lack of airflow was nearly suffocating. By the time the traditional closing song came on, we were all ridiculously sweaty messes. Luckily, this was easily remedied by jumping in the pool at our condo and listening to The Black Keys, which was blissfully refreshing.

And that is only scratching the surface. There’s much, much more, and if you are lucky, I may even post about it. The weekend was sheer awesomeness, and I thank all of the people who made it such a blast!

Hanging Out at The Hangout

Our trip to The Hangout Beach, Music, & Arts Festival was a combination of sunshine, sand, dance parties, hilarity, rocking music, and awesome friends. I have been challenged to somehow select some of my favorite memories from the weekend, which is a difficult task considering the amount of laughter that filled our vacation. However, I have attempted to compile a list below for your vicarious enjoyment, presented in random order.

1) Girl Talk. My favorite show of the festival was Girl Talk, who is  a single musician specializing in mash-ups and digital sampling. Basically, he splices together familiar songs to create combinations of music that you have no choice but to dance to. Prior to this weekend, my knowledge of Girl Talk consisted of one song on a mixed CD, and that was the extent of it; by the time we made it through two solid hours of nonstop grooving, jumping, shaking, and dancing, my muscles were sore, I felt like  a noodle, and I had discovered a new artist whose tour dates I will definitely follow. Awesome, intense, dancetastic show.

2) Epic Beach Frisbee. Saturday morning, our crew headed down to the beach (which was conveniently located directly outside our back door) for what turned into the most epic, evolving, adaptable game of beach frisbee ever played. We formed a large circle and tossed around the disk, all the while playing keep away from two people on the inside, monkey-in-the-middle style. The monkeys could get out of the circle only by snagging the frisbee away from the others, which naturally involved body slams, floundering in the waves, splashing through the water, sand burns, and frisbees to the head.

3) Surprise Fireworks. Every evening at the close of the festival, we were treated to surprise fireworks (well, the first night they were a surprise, after that they were just highly anticipated). The firework shows were directly behind the main stage, which happened to be about a quarter inch from our condo. The shows were impressive, both from our balcony and from the beach blanket below. At one point, we were even graced with a sand angel from one of the Local Boy’z.

4) Designated Dance Lane. Our condo was about a half mile walk from the festival entrance, complete with a bike lane painted on the street, which we immediately deemed the designated dance lane. We girls danced our way to and from the festival and asked (a.k.a. demanded) that all pedestrians use the designated dance lane for its intended purpose only. If you were caught dancing outside of the dance lane, chances are you would be the reason we can’t have a pizza party at the end of the year.

4) Elevator Dance Party. Our condo was on the sixth of eight floors, which gave us the perfect amount of time to pile into the elevator and dance insanely while singing/chanting “elevator dance party’ as loudly as possible. We made sure to stop at every floor so we could sing into the hallways, which in hindsight was probably not the most neighborly thing to do. This happened multiple times, and always ended with us hysterically and breathlessly heading into the condo for at least 45 minutes before we could organize and collect ourselves for our next adventure.

5) Apples to Apples. Before heading out to the festival Sunday, we all gathered around our coffee table that was crafted perfectly for board games and played a great interactive game of Apples to Apples. Apples to Apples involves describing words in creative and unexpected ways, which leads to some pretty humorous conversation. My friends are hilarious, I love words, and I’m always up for a fun game, so this was an obvious winner.

6) Farewell Ferris Wheel. As our parting goodbye to the festival on Sunday evening, a group of us rode the ferris wheel while Trey Anastasio rocked the crowd below. Insert another dance party (we were all about the dance parties this weekend). We circled through the air and took in the aerial view of the festival, mourning the end of our weekend.

Luckily, we still had an authentic seafood lunch to look forward to the next day. Here I am with my beach beauties just moments before consuming sinful amounts of fresh oysters, shrimp, fish, and crab:

There are countless more stories I could share, and I hope to at some point, but for now I will leave you with this picture of me and my sweetheart at the beach.

The Hangout Beach, Music, & Arts Festival

Bikini? Check. Flip flops? Check. Sundresses, sunglasses, and sunscreen? Check, check, and double check. My gas tank is full, my beach bag is packed, and my friends are ready. In less than thirty minutes, we are checking out of Memphis and road tripping south to Gulf Shores, Alabama for an extended weekend of sun, fun, and beach bums. Our destination is home of the first ever The Hangout Beach, Music, & Arts Festival, a three-day seaside music festival featuring tons of great artists. Think Bonnaroo, but on the beach. Plus a condo overlooking the ocean. Bliss.

We’re not sure exactly what to expect, but we’re positive it’s going to be a blast. Anything involving sunshine and dancing in the sand with some of my favorite guys and gals sounds like a win to me. As we collect adventures and experiences, I’ll be sure to share them on my trusty blog.

Bonus: In light of the recent oil spill, all proceeds from the festival are being dedicated to coastal conservation and restoration. In fact, the festival has recently been dubbed the “Concert for the Coast”.

Happy weekend, friends! If you are going to be in Memphis, enjoy the BBQ!