Personally, I prefer to stay away from any San Mateo event. Too often you’re surrounded by hoards of teeny-boppers, too many familiar faces, and something we like to call disorganization. Add em all together, and you get a big fuckin’ mess. Or as they like to name it, The San Mateo Festival!
Yes, I skipped this weeks Haight Street Hop. No disrespect to Hawk or Tanoa, but I had to show some love for my area, right? Yeah… About that…
Now… This event was a hodgepodge of everything. Not sure what they wanted to do exactly, but they did something. With no actual direction with what this event was about, we went in with our guards up. I mean, if you tried to understand what was supposed to go on at this event, you’d prepare yourself for disappointment.
It was supposed to be a vintage car show/food truck event/street wear clothing faire/rockabilly show… What? I’m gonna try my best to break things down… I mean, really try… And believe me, it wasn’t easy!
One thing that concerned the group, was whether or not we had to pay to get in. For one, I’m not going to pay to get into an event, where I’m going to end up paying for food. I’m paying for one or the other, not for both. Luckily, this wasn’t an event you had to pay for! YES! +1 for this thing! So after a few beers at a pub down the street, we were off to venture out into this wild, wild place…
Some folks got word that it’s no less than a 45 minute wait, per truck. With a hungry group, most of them went back to the pub. Unfortunately for me, having ran into a few familiar faces and waiting on a buddy, I was gonna be stuck at this event for a while. Might as well make the most of it, right?
Where can I start off first… Ah yes… The food trucks!
Now, if you’ve been to Off The Grid, you must’ve seen some food trucks closed, right? Wrong. I’ve been to Off The Grid quite a few times, and each and every time, no food truck was closed. I understand popularity amongst a few of these trucks, but really? To close 3 hours before the whole event ended? What happened, you thought people weren’t hungry? With various food trucks closed, for whatever the reason may be, the lines for the opened food trucks kept getting longer and longer… You can only imagine how long the wait was…
Skipping through the lines of Filipinos (I honestly didn’t notice anyone else there. This was pretty much, a Filipino event!!!,) we somehow managed to fall into a shortest line there. No, not the beer line, that was a long wait too! But the Shwarma table! Got in and out just like that. Why? They had pre-made falafel shwarmas… In sort, it sucked…
Next to the shwarma stand, was the car show! Or well… Cars?
With now theme in mind, there were just a handful of nicely painted cars. Remember, no particular theme in mind! Apparently, choosing an era to base your car show on doesn’t work, nor does factory make, or anything. Just as long as you had a restored car, you were good for the show!
I mean, I understand car shows, it’s all about the details and workmanship put into the cars… I’m not complaining about any of the cars, as I’m jealous as any other guy who drives a shitty car. But still, some sort of organization or theme would’ve been nice. I’m sure some of the car guys were upset that some cars were getting more attention than theirs. If them slamming their hoods down and starting their engines to get the fuck out of there wasn’t a sign, maybe the disgruntled looks on their faces may have been one!
Enough of that… Let’s just look at the purdy cars.
After sticking around this event for a little too long, Mike Barbwire decided to join the band, back on stage. Playing some cool surf tunes, it got the crowd goin’! Well, it got my toe tappin’!
They kept insisting for people to get up and dance, but this wasn’t the crowd that has that sort of rhythm. Maybe if you played a beat they could break dance to? Maybe even freak dance? I don’t know… I don’t know what dance is cool, nowadays. Fortunately, the crowd understood good music, and appreciated their performances. But plenty of them were wondering, “when is he going to sing?”
The last leg of this event, was the showroom…
Outside you’ve got, a rockabilly band, random food trucks, muscle cars and old school rides. Inside, you’ve got streetwear tees, random jewelry, a bamboo bike, a breakdance floor, and a whole bunch of other stuff… Um… I guess the bamboo bike, is related to rockabilly, as it could be made into a tiki themed bike? Or was it bamboo because of all the Asians? Or are the streetwear t-shirts supposed to have the same color as the muscle cars? I didn’t see any neon green cars out there… Hmm… Not exactly sure what the point of the vendors was… Maybe it was to… Um… Uh… Rockabilly?
Overall, this very well may have been the most disorganized “event” I’ve ever been to. With no sort of synergy between any part of the event, it was hard to focus in on the event as a whole. Maybe that’s the appeal of it? I don’t know. All I know is I went home without trying some of that delicious gourmet food, coming out of that Armadillo Willy’s truck! Wait, what? Yeeeeaaaah… If this event is based around this, let’s just say, I won’t be returning anytime soon, and hope the organizers actually put their titles to use, as organizers.
Well, that’s all for now folks. Support your local events, unless they suck.
