Friday, April 30, 2010

#27 - Inman Park Festival

Waking up to thunderstorms last weekend almost put a damper on my bucket list plans, but knowing that my adventure would be a brand new experience for me I had to pack up a weekend bag, get on the road and power through the thunderstorms for Inman Park Festival!

 
The event lasted several days and boy did they provide some bipolar Atlanta weather. Does everyone remember last Saturday? Yeah....day one was monsoon central. Street parking wasn't horrible to find but definitely took a drive by or two. 


Thanks to my previous roomie Adriatic, we had the festival at our fingertips, literally. Her house sat right on one of the busiest vendor streets! After a quick costume change, we headed out with our umbrella's to watch the parade...








Unforunately the majority of the vendors closed down early or were hard to get in and out of because of the rain, but we did make a quick cameo at the one's that caught our eyes.....and ultimately our wallets.

Amazing sculptures of people made from junk yard scraps!




Necklaces that can turn into headbands...made out of t-shirts.What a cute idea!



Day two was a whole new ballgame. Hello street parking, where did you go? I can't find you through the sea of vehicles that took over you. Horrendous. A 78 degree cloudless follow-up to the monsoon the day prior invited about 50 times the amount of people! Check out this crowd....


So if this isn't an obvious testament to taking MARTA, I don't know what is. Skip the stress of getting towed with your creative parking job and pay the $2 for a stress free transit. Get off at the Five Points station and you are steps away from hundreds of food, booze and white tents as far as the eye can see.

I was thankful for the rays since this girl can offird a sun bathing session here and there....not to mention I finally got to weave from street to street to see ALL that the local artists, cooks and entertainment had to offer. Jessie Parks, aspiring artists, photographer and all things adorable, served as wingman for the day.


It was hard to keep up with the crowd, but we did an excellent job of talking each other out of ridiculously expensive purchases. Here are a few that made my credit card want to jump out of my purse and into its Mecca.









 
Out of all the festivals I have attended thus far this spring, this one wins the best of the best...by a landside. Perfect mix of vendors, food and entertainment....but above all else LOCAL VENDORS. I can't tell you how many times my heart would skip a beat when I found myself falling in love with an item that my wallet said no to at Dogwood or 420fest. "I'll get that next paycheck" I'd tell myself. Really? You're going to drive to Minnesota to try on that dress are you? Ugh. I know we can all purchase our favs online these days, but we all need the touch and feel or a good old fasioned retail store from time to time right? Right. So thank you Inman Park community, for providing more local vendors than any other festival has this year. Well played.

Bucket list worthy? Rain, sleet, snow or tornados could not keep me from coming back next year. Definitely one for the books!