Echo Project -- In like Flynn...sort of

Make no mistake, the South Fulton County farm playing host to the inaugural Echo Project music festival is an Atlanta locale in name only. I've been here less than an hour, but it took me a good 45 minutes to get from I-85 to the media area that thumps and bumps with the backbeat from a couple of nearby stages. Among my misadventures, finding the proper place to park (still not sure I did that right), finding a lift from the parking lot to the festival site (thanks catering guy) and a stealth run through the backstage areas to the rather non-descript media tent. Still, I've managed to make it and have a couple of first impressions to share.

The Echo Project footprint is large, far larger that required for the few early adopters here for the initial set. I feel certain things will fill up some as the day progresses, but my thinking is this layout has been developed with further growth in mind. It will be interesting to see what sort of elbow room there is once the event is in full swing, but so far there is none of the toe-crushing clausterphobia often associated with a mega-fest.

Clearly, this is an event marketed toward the neo-hippy patchouli set. If it had an official flag, the colors would be tie-dye. If it had an anthem, it would include a 20 minute guitar break. Halfway across the midway (I dig the carnival allusion) and I had already noted a couple of heated-if-mellow hacky sack matches, an enthusiastic, if unskilled, hula-hoop girl and the occasion scent of mysteriously acrid smoke riding the breeze.

Still, there are worse places to be. The weather is beautiful in the way only autumn in the South can be, the setting is spectacular and the music I can pick out from my folding chair sounds sweet. It's a good, if somewhat disorganized start. I'm off to check out some tunes. More later.