Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

​Fun Fun Fun Festival Celebrates 10 Years

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In 10 years, Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Festival has grown, not only in size, but also in its continued promise to give festival goers three times the amount of “fun” than any other festival on the planet would give.

With the presence of a skate park, a wrestling ring, a taco cannon and four different stages for different genres of music including a comedy stage, no one had an excuse to complain that the festival did not appeal to his or her sensibilities.

For the festival’s 10th annniversary, festival goers were eager to see what bands would be booked for the special occasion. This year’s set of headliners spread once again across three stages, ranging from legendary performers like Ms. Lauryn Hill and Jane’s Addiction to newer fare like Schoolboy Q and CHVRCHES, though it was the smaller bands and stranger artists outside of the norm that gave this year’s festival its distinct charm.

Friday night’s performance at the Blue Stage from Peaches, the Canadian electronic musician and performance artist Beth Nisker, delivered on her artistic vision that made her a standout performer back in 2000 with the single “F— the Pain Away.” Dressed in a pink costume resembling that of the anatomical female member, Peaches proceeded to perform a variety of songs from her newest album in six years, “Rub,” even inviting a duo of dancing vaginas out to dance with her for the aptly titled “Vaginoplasty.”

Saturday night presented a current vision of the future that Peaches predicted in Grimes, Canadian singer and producer Claire Boucher’s stage name.

Accompanied by her own set of dancers and a backup vocalist that recalled her stylistic predecessor, the 27-year-old became a whirlwind of exuberant energy When the opener, “laughing and not being normal,” signaled her arrival to the stage, the performer stopping every so often to show gratitude to the audience or explain some interesting context behind new songs from her newest album, “Art Angels.”

“This one is about a vampire romance,” laughed Grimes before she launched into her newest banger, “Kill V. Maim.” Grimes’ shift from falsetto to ear-bleeding screeches kept the crowd bouncing and dancing, confirming the art weirdo’s placement as leader of the pack that day.

By Sunday, the hangover from two continuous days of partying begins to drain the energy from any sane festival-goer. Thank god, then, for the queen of bounce, Big Freedia, who got the audience to get low like the Sunday evening sun behind the Austin skyline.

Bringing with her the sounds of New Orleans bounce music of which she helped popularize, Freedia brought the biggest dance party of the festival to the sunset slot at the Blue Stage.

“I’m that queen that’ll make ya bounce,” Freedia repeated throughout her set with the confidence of someone sure of her ability to make an audience move their butts and other loose appendages with that same assuredness.

By the end of the set, a large amount of the crowd was on stage with Freedia, twerking the night away with the queen herself, with only one rule: “I don’t want to see no faces,” yelled Freedia at the enthusiastic crew of dancers.

And they obliged, rears in the air, the perfect ending to Fun Fun Fun’s 10 year anniversary.

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