FYF Fest, an overview: 20,000-plus delight in a day in the park … Are you ready for two days next year?

Kevin Bronson on
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[Our first installment of coverage from FYF Fest … more to come:]

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As the half moon set over the downtown Los Angeles skyline on a crisp Saturday night and Austin’s Explosions in the Sky launched into their rapturous set, I thought to myself, “FYF is dead! FYF is dead! Long live FYF!”

Sean Carlson’s DIY enterpise went off with barely a hitch Saturday at L.A. State Historic Park, drawing a crowd of more than 20,000 and prompting him to tease in an e-mail today, “Can’t wait till next year. Two days?” As opposed to the debacle the previous two years (when the weather was almost 20 degrees warmer): Lines were manageable; there were portable toilets aplenty; there was no shortage of water; sets ran largely on time; sound problems (except during Death From Above 1979’s set) were scarce; complaints were few. And that’s what happens when a DIY enterprise is no longer a DIY enterprise.

During his band OFF!’s afternoon set, veteran punk rocker Keith Morris – the unofficial godfather of FYF – took great pains to thank Goldenvoice honcho Gary Tovar as well as everybody from FYF. It was clear even by mid-afternoon that Goldenvoice’s involvement in running this year’s festival had paid great dividends – a mini-Coachella in downtown L.A. that fans could (and did, in droves) attend by riding the train.

Certainly the lineup deserved a tightly run ship – eclectic fare that nodded to old-school counterculture (the Descendents, the Dead Milkmen), experimentalism (the Olivia Tremor Control, Four Tet, Nosaj Thing), new-school retro (Ty Segall, Tijuana Panthers, the Strange Boys, Japandroids), dance music (Simian Mobile Disco, Dan Deacon), hipster darlings (Cults, Smith Westerns, Yacht) and some L.A. standouts (Cold War Kids, No Age, Fool’s Gold, Avi Buffalo). And that’s not even counting hall of famers Guided by Voices and two bands that ought to be invited to any festival, Explosions in the Sky and Broken Social Scene.

So FYF is DIY no more – and it’s OK to care not a whit about it. Because good taste is always more tasty when you actually taste it.

Gallery of random images from FYF by Bronson