What’s Going On?

Today I took a day out in the sun for some fun. I headed out the door from home to check out the festival at about 10:00am and got there about 10:30am. I lucked out and found all day parking and just walked four blocks. I know you’re probably saying, why don’t I take public transit, well to be honest, sometimes I’m just lazy and yes I did want to take public transit, but at the same time I brought two cameras with me and I didn’t want to hassle with the bulk of my stuff on the bus.

When I got to the fair it was already pretty packed with hundreds, if not thousands of people. The fair didn’t even start until 11am. I had on my pair of tennis shoes and I walked back and forth up and down Larkin St. from Eddy St. all the way down to Fulton St. By the time, I left the festival I could barely walk any more.

So what did I see? I saw lots of things at the festival. I saw music bands, company sponsors booths, gift vendors, food vendors, a little mini carnival, martial arts demonstrations, people dressed up in their native/cultural wardrobe, and last, but not least there was this awesome muay thai kick boxing exhibition bouts.

A majority of my time was spent watching muay thai. I’ve never seen a live match and it was purely adrenaline rushing. There were a couple rules that they had for the exhibition matches. There were two two minute rounds. There was to be no blows to the head on the first round, but in the second round anything goes. Lastly, there was no body slamming, but sweeps of the feet and take downs were okay. Several fighters got kicked in their balls and what the trainer/ref told fighters to do if they got hit in their junk was to jump up and down hard on their heels. Apparently, that knocks your balls back into place so I hear.

By the time I left the festival I was dead beat. I didn’t feel like doing anything. However, I saw Cherry Dr. Pepper being given out and I asked for two 8-packs (one diet/one regular). Let me tell you, it was a long four blocks back to my car with a case in each hand with my cameras slinged across my neck and back.

All in all, I had a great time. I’m glad that I went and I don’t regret anything. Highlights at the festival were mainly seeing friends and muay thai. Hopefully, next year I’ll get a chance to do more relaxing and listening to bands play. Oh yea, I should have brought a folding chair too.