My cousin works at Budweiser, and she got us some VIP tickets for the Los Lonely Boys/Carlos Santana concert over at the Taste of Chicago today.

I think the last time I was at the Taste on a Saturday was maybe 5 years ago.

I now remember why.

We took the Red Line there and got in at around 3:45 - the concert was at 4:30. I had persuaded Dave not to eat a big lunch because we were going to the taste. Little did I know we'd be waiting 30 minutes in line just to get tickets to eat. Then it was another 15 minutes to find something we could eat as we headed to the Petrillo Band Shell, where the concert was taking place and where the Budweiser tent was. Add in the 20 minutes it took us to get through a block - a block where about 1000 other people were trying to get through. Were they going to the concert, too? Nope, just other people who were trying to get in/out/around the Taste. It was pretty frustrating.

Note to you all out there: NEVER EVER bring your kids to the Taste on a weekend. Especially if they're in a stroller. They'll get stepped on. People will swear at you. You'll get stressed out. You'll want to leave your children in the middle of the crowd so you can just get out of there. Children who aren't in a stroller will be scared of all the people, walking around in a daze. You might lose a child or two. It's next to impossible to maneuver a stroller around when you're in a mass of people. Same thing for anyone who's handicapped - several people in wheelchairs were stuck in the crowd, it was ever man for himself so people weren't as kind as they normally are.

We had no idea where the Bud tent was, so we ended up entering the Petrillo area (after the 20 minute block ordeal) only to be told that we had to go BACK around to the special entrance for the Bud VIP tent. Fuck that! I thought I'd rather take 20 minutes and walk around the whole Petrillo perimeter and keep on moving than be stuck back in the people traffic.

Finally, we got to the Bud VIP entrance, and got in with our handy dandy "I'm VIP and you're not" wristbands. Inside they had a nice spread of food to eat - all sorts of pasta, chicken wings, chicken tenders, sausages, pizza, enough to make me wish I didn't spend so much money buying tickets for the Taste, since this buffet was free. Since it was the Bud tent, the beer was flowing freely, and my companions had a lot of it!

The concert was great. I don't know much of Los Lonely Boys' music, but I thought they did a great job. We actually saw them as they were leaving, and they seemed like really nice guys, signing autographs and stuff. Carlos Santana & Co (I guess they're all just called 'Santana') was AWESOME. It was incredible to see so many people out there in the audience - the place was totally packed. The picture I have is seriously about 1/25th of the audience. I got some pretty good shots since our tent was next to the stage (but we were still pretty far and there were a lot of heads in front of me).

So here's my pics from the day. I've got a couple stories, but I'll save them for tomorrow!

Posted by Yano at July 3, 2005 03:25 AM

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