My favorite! Licensed under CC, linked to source.

The Candler Park Music Festival was this weekend, and that means that summer festival season is (for me) officially kicked off. Atlantans love nothing more than standing outside and eating food from trucks while sweating, so we basically swarm street festivals all year ’round. I feel like–a month into being back–I am officially at home.

The kickoff to the festival was a stop at the first King of Pops cart I could find, natch. For those of you not in Atlanta, King of Pops is a local popsicle company whose umbrella-ed carts show up every time more than 20 Atlantans gather in a single spot. The flavors are on-point, the umbrellas are cheerful, and the popsicles are cold. I branched out a little, flavor-wise* and went with the (new this summer, I believe) fig, honey, and cream-sicle. Though not my usual bag (my usual bag involving graham cracker crust and/or as much sugar as you can put in a frozen treat) it was tasty.

My friends and I were actually at the festival to see the Futurebirds, which was fun. It was a fun show, and folks seemed pretty familiar with the band. (I was not, because I only learn of new music six months after my dad gets into it. True story.) A girl who was by all appearances schwasted climbed on stage during the last song and nearly knocked over the steal guitar/banjo player. So that was fun. The lead guitarist wore a suitcoat with the arms covered in feathers, because, y’know, Athens. Continue reading →