LA's Detour Festival

Second (hopefully, annual) Detour Festival was Saturday in downtown LA. Went last year and had a great time, so decided to check it out again. Heard that 25,000 tickets were on sale; doubting that many people were there (which was nice).

Found some new acts to further investigate (Shout Out Louds, Noisettes). Finally got to check out Autolux and Teddybears live. Autolux probably would be better in a small theatre venue, but still liked. Had to see the Teddybears finally. Had a scheduling conflict at Coachella this year so missed their set (but did, literally, run into one of the Bears near the merchandise tent at Coachella). They were fun. Also saw Bloc Party for the second time. Saw them at Coachella in 2006 and was (unfortunately) underwhelmed. Love their albums, but wasn't impressed then. So, was a little wary this time around. But happy to say they were much better Saturday night.

I'm so glad that Detour returned for a second year. LA needs a high quality music festival, and this is definitely it. Also, it's great that it's downtown and not on the Westside or in Hollywood. Downtown needs some love.

Okay, now the negative (nothing major, but little nitpicks):
--First, way too many teens!!! I was seriously feeling old! And why did they all seem to have a fondness for 80s fashion? There is no need to bring that decade back!

--Second, would it kill the organizers to mark the stages in some way. A map that says "City Hall South/East/West" or "Stage 1/2/3" doesn't help if the stages aren't marked. Yes, I did eventually remember to think Disney Hall is east, mountains are north, so this must be "City Hall East" stage. But still, I had two different people come up and ask me which stage was which, so I wasn't alone.

--Third, a little disappointed that they moved the site a block north and blocked access to the CalTrans building. Losing the CalTrans building was unfortunate since last year it was a great place to sit and eat or hang out. Besides, it's a cool building that should be a centerpiece of the day.

--Fourth, the loss of St. Vibiana's. Admittedly, as a former Catholic school girl, I was a little weirded out to walk into St. Vibiana's last year to find a rave going on. Seemed a little sacrilegious. But still, once the Catholic guilt subsided, it was really kind of cool.

--Fifth, how many people really needed press passes? While I was waiting for the Autolux set I counted at least 15 people go to the front of the stage with a press pass and a camera. It seemed like EVERY other person had a press pass and a professional camera. Do we really need that much documentation?