Wednesday October 29th, Tampa Florida:

We get up early to set up the photo booth. I even get to check out the hotel breakfast. It’s okay for the price. Waffle maker, toast, cream cheese, orange juice. American hotel breakfasts are horrible, but it’s included, so no reason to complain here. Mikey decides to stay, so it’s just Robert and me.

The hotel is a different one from last year. This one looks really nice and fits the Fest a lot better! Plus its right next to the area where all the shows take place. I think if its the same setup next year, I will consider staying there. Seems really convenient! (more about this later). Turns out our spot is right across from the registration desks. The room isn’t exactly big, so we have to squeeze in a bit. First this seems like trouble, but it all went well. Just like last year the Pre-Fest photo booth is a rather relaxed thing. Registration is busy for a few hours, but then it dies down and people just trickle in. There’s time to breath, time to meet and greet. The atmosphere is just not stressful, which is nice. There is one time when we have some technical difficulties. So we bought a second printer last year. Cause the other one was getting old and had already been a great companion for a multitude of photo booths’ by now. But the new one broke after the Pre-Fest. We sent it back and got a new one as replacement. But this was after Fest and the replacement just sat in Roberts closet for a year. When I tried it in Orlando it worked, but as soon as we hit Tampa it makes problems. It would print a couple prints just fine and then stop. I could get it back to work by uninstalling and installing the printer, but I hated it. Meanwhile my trusted old printer did just fine. Stupid printer. Anyway. All the Photo Booth pictures can be found on www.festphotobooth.com ! Here’s everyone’s favorite shot of Danny murdering Robert:

Then it’s time to go out and see some bands! Hell yeah! FEST! YBOR CITY looks something like this, I especially like the guy with the giant trash container:

We start with two of our pop punk favorites: Rational Anthem and Lipstick Homicide. Not only are all the pop punks here, this is the earliest show, so the venue really filled up. It’s semi indoor, outdoors and full of people. Good sets I gotta say. I think I got some food after that and then went to a new venue – Tequilas. This one wasn’t part of Pre-Fest last year. It’s weirdly big, but I don’t like the stage and the bad light. The Awkward Age are opening this show. Followed by New Strange, which are a replacement for the Cincinnati Royals I expected to see. At least they feature another (temporary) member of the Dopamines. Up next are Laura Palmer from Australia.

Then I run into Robert who says to me “I would actually be okay with going to the hotel now”, he says it half-jokingly. My reply is quick and definitive: “Let’s go!”. I have to admit, I am really tired. The overnight drive, the short hours of sleep, a full day of work has worn me down. It’s maybe 9:30 p.m. at this time. If even that. We decide to go to the hotel, take a nap and then return for the bands that play late. In between nothing really interested me. And the same is true for Robert. So we do the 15 minute drive to the hotel and I set an alarm for 11 o’clock and then its nap time. Sweet sweet sleep…..

I wake up around midnight. Turns out I set the alarm for 11 a.m. instead of 11 p.m.! To my defense: Who sets an alarm for 11 p.m., like ever? I tell Robert and we decide to just forget about going back to Ybor. We’re just tired and don’t want to go. So yeah, my first day of Pre-Fest pretty much ended by 10. p.m. sleeping like a baby. Cool story Bro. Maybe staying at the Ybor hotel would have prevented this. Maybe not. Let’s try this next year.

Rational Anthem

Lipstick Homicide

Awkward Age

New Strange

Laura Palmer