Fertile Ground: Cooper-Young Recap

Last year I complained about the kids' area, so this year I will complain about something new. (Although the kids' area still seemed extremely lame.)

Of the 90,000 visitors, I'd say most of them drinking. (At least the afternoon crowd was!) I noticed the fancy aluminum Bud bottles and thought to myself, "That's smart. Aluminum can be 100% recycled and is more profitable than glass." Then I had another thought, "Where %#&* are the recycle bins?"

Seriously, a festival the size of Cooper-Young should be able to get someone--the City, a beer distributor, etc.--to provide recycle bins and/or collect recyclable items. There's a drop off center right there at First Congo!

The organizers of Elvis Death Week can get recycling, why can't Cooper-Young?

Pshew, now that I got that off of my chest let me just say how sad I was to discover after the festival was over, that The Natural Learning School on Nelson was offering childcare during the festival! It would have been SO nice to drop the monkeys off for a bit while Warren and I did some shopping. (Or pretend shopping, at least.)

And in the make lemonade out of lemons department...the traffic was insane. INSANE! However, it inspired me to ride my bike from my house to the festival for my shift at the CPOP booth. This was the very first time I actually used my bike as a mode of transportation rather than as a recreational vehicle. Sure, I got super sweaty and felt extra grimy with a layer of dirt on my face, BUT I also felt like I was putting the green in Greenberg.

If about 10,000 other people would decide to ride their bikes next year, it would definitely make the festival more enjoyable. Laugh now, but if Anthony Siracusa has his way, Cooper Street will have the first bike lanes in the entire city! (It looks like the Midtown Development Corp is also on board with this idea.)

Okay, and now for the highlights:

Soul Fish on a stick. Brilliant!