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The first-ever Athtoberfest kicks off
Friday, runs all the way through Sunday and
features more than 25 bands playing sepa
rate indoor and outdoor stages, including
Misnomer, Monsoon, Shehehe, Wieuca,
Four Eyes, Vision Video, Beast Mode, Jet
Phase, CannonandtheBoxes, Kxng Blanco,
Clip Art and other local all-stars.
In addition to the steady stream of
music, Akademia will be serving up a
special menu of German beer-hall-style
eats—think sausage, pretzels and kraut—
and Oktoberfest brews, like the Festbier
Marzen, all weekend long. Local vendors
will sell their wares, and the suds will surely
flow. Bring on those cooler temps. [Gabe
Vodicka]
Vulture Festival
ACC Landfill
Saturday, Sept. 28, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
FREE!
Vultures are “nature’s recyclers,” says
Athens-Clarke County Solid Waste Director
Suki Janssen, so it’s only natural that the
local landfill celebrates them.
The facility on Lexington Highway near
the Oglethorpe County line is home to
about 300 black and turkey vultures. While
admittedly “gross,” Janssen says, that may
be the reason they’re so fascinating to kids.
For example, did you know that vultures
have no sweat glands, and they cool off
by urinating on themselves and letting it
evaporate? Or that they scare off predators
by vomiting on them? “Once you get to
I ooking for something to do this
weekend? Partner, you’re in luck:
With UGA football on a bye week
and the mercury finally dropping
(kinda, sorta), local folks are taking the
chance to stage a whole slew of events,
from music festivals to cultural celebrations
to hot-air balloon gatherings and beyond.
Here are a few of those happenings; for lots
more, see The Calendar on p. 19.
Wildwood Revival
Cloverleaf Farm
Friday, Sept. 27—Sunday, Sept. 29.
$92 (three-day pass)
Before her self-titled third
album from 1988 landed
on UK punk imprint Rough
Trade, pretty much every
label imaginable, from cor
porate giants in Los Angeles
and Nashville to roots music
tastemakers Sugar Hill and
Rounder, turned away future
legend Lucinda Williams.
“It’s the classic example
of what eventually became
Americana,” Williams says.
“My music was literally caught in the cracks
between country and rock. The marketing
people didn’t know what to do with it,
because there wasn’t a market for what I
did.”
Over 30 years later, events like
Wildwood Revival, an Americana fest held
just outside Athens, welcome genre-defi
ant acts with open arms, from Grammy-
winning veterans like Williams to such
equally undefinable youngers as Lilly Hiatt.
In this setting, it’ll be more obvious than
ever that Williams was way ahead of the
times.
Williams’ Saturday set offers her a
brief respite from her lengthy, multimedia
anniversary shows for the legendary 1998
album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Fans will
more than likely hear “Drunken Angel” and
other favorites from ’98 anyway, sprinkled
into a setlist that on most nights includes
such politically charged anthems as Neil
Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” and a
new take on 2014’s “Foolishness” featuring
lyrics that slam racism, sexism and other
blights on our society.
“I’ve got to get out there and make a
statement about all the crap that’s happen
ing,” Williams adds. “Everyone feels it. It’s
great to see most of the audience standing
up and pumping their fists in the air.”
Whatever she performs, expect to hear
songs grounded in storytelling as akin
to Southern Gothic literature as folk or
alt-country and performed with the reckless
abandon of a punk rocker at heart. The sus
tainability-minded Wildwood
Revival also features Son Volt,
Shovels and Rope, Mandolin
Orange, Hiatt and lots of
other acts, plus craft food and
brews, an artists market and
more. [Bobby Moore]
Athtoberfest
Akademia Brewing Company
Friday, Sept. 27—Sunday, Sept. 29.
FREE!
Since opening two years
ago, Akademia Brewing
Company has made it part of
its mission to bring quality
arts and entertainment to the
strip-mall-laden Westside,
giving folks a good reason to make the
trek out Atlanta Highway—besides the
tasty beers, of course. Earlier this year, the
brewpub opened a dedicated concert space
informally dubbed the Odeon, and now, it’s
throwing a truly ambitious three-day party
to usher in the most eagerly anticipated fall
season in recent Athens memory.
Lucinda Williams
12 FLAGPOLE.COM | SEPTEMBER 25, 2019
SAVANNAH COLE