Living out Raleigh :: Hopscotch Festival.

One of the perks of D's job is that we get to do all kinds of awesome things in Raleigh.  Once I get myself a fancy camera (oh one day...), I'll get better about documenting these events.  For now, let's check out the iPhone documentation of Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival.

We went last year, when Widespread Panic was headlining.  This year's festival was two weekends ago.  It's a three-day event full of music at different venues in downtown Raleigh.  I don't think I could say it better than this,

"Now in its third year, The Independent Weekly's Hopscotch Music Festival brings 175 bands to 15 venues in downtown Raleigh. Intended to highlight the Triangle's music scene by pairing exciting local talent with notable national and international artists, Hopscotch offers choices in just about every genre imaginable—rock, hip-hop, alt-country, metal, dance, punk, classical, noise, drone, folk, and more. It is a festival that thrives on the variety and quality of its lineup, and this year, with roughly 35% of the musicians hailing from Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and other nearby locales, it's a testament to both this region's musical diversity and its national relevance." 

I didn't participate in any of the festivities until Saturday, but oh it was one hell of a Saturday.  I had just come off of being sick and may have jumped in a little too quickly.

Since I work with little ones all day, I don't get much chance to "fancy up" and look cute.  I donned curls (which fell out way too quickly) and lipstick!  Oh and this outfit.

One of the cool things about Hopscotch is all of the day festivals.  Terrapin (see all those taps!) sponsored this show at The Hive.  We literally got there at 11:30, which means a long day of drinking ahead.  We started with bloody marys in fitting fashion.

It was totally ok for us to spend almost all day at The Hive.  And that we did.  Side note :: what the hell is up with the uber poor quality of the front camera on the iPhone.  Whoa.

In between shows, we stepped over to the street party in front of the Raleigh Times.  Here's a peek at their new awesome expansion.  I'm over the moon about how much more room they're going to have in there!

With my fringe & leopard, we hit up another street party sponsored by AC Restaurants, Videri Chocolate, & Mother Earth Brewing.

If you're real fancy, you can get a three day pass to all events or you can get one that is just for certain shows all three days.  They're real fancy with those bracelets too!  I might even want to wear it again.

After all of our day partying, we headed over to City Plaza where the "big stage" was.  New Belgium always sponsors the city plaza parties.  I didn't even know it was going to rain, but the clouds started rolling in and the rain plummeted us.

We're big time, so we hung out in the VIP tent with food and "champagne bombs" for the boys.  I just enjoyed the champagne & food (duh).  What is it about Red Bull that the smell still saturates my senses with cheap college bars...and I never even had a "bomb."

And so even in the midst of the downpour & braving the destruction of my new loafers, we trekked into the hotel bar.  I'm going to say this is where things went downhill for me.  I won't go into details, but imagine this scenario...me rolling out of bed on Sunday, frantically searching for my phone.  I'm forced to enlist the help of Find my iPhone.  Fast forward to a queasy me & D literally tracking down our cab driver and finding my phone wedged in the back seat.  Whoa.  I'll just stop there.  Suffice to say it was a rough day at the bar (yes, the effing bar) watching football.

Don't worry, I did get to watch some of the headliner, The Roots, in City Plaza after the rain ceased. Hopscotch is a must-do in Raleigh!  Check out this year's line-up & keep an eye out!  They'll be posting their 2013 dates soon!