Double Decker Weekend: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

It’s definitely been a month of April showers, and as they say, when it rains, it pours. But the end of the month brings another type of flood – a deluge of music, art, and sporting events all packed into one weekend. How do you pick and choose among so many choices? As with any other marathon, it’s important to pace yourself and map out a strategy.

First, figure out your choices.

The Double Decker Festival Arts Festival offers a fabulous array of food, art, and music. The booths open around 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and music starts at 10:15 a.m. Check the website – DoubleDeckerFestivalSchedule – to see which bands appeal to your tastes, which food booths tempt your taste buds and which artists are likely to tempt you to open your wallet. Most artisans are nice about letting you purchase and come back to pick up, so you aren’t stuck wagging that six foot bird feeder around all day, but you need to make sure you’re back before the close of business. And that’s key if you want to catch the baseball game that might go into extra innings.

You can watch the Diamond Rebs host Auburn at 6:30 on Friday night, at 2 on Saturday afternoon and at 1 p.m. on Sunday. It’s possible to be a die-hard Ole Miss fan and a hard-core music lover, but it will take some planning to be both. The easiest move, of course, is to wait until Sunday to hit LOU stadium, but that might not be feasible if you have to travel, or (like some of my students) have a paper due on Monday. Or perhaps you can attend Friday night, provided you’re not a Burnside fan. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Your plan may be even more complicated once you’ve seen the non-Double Decker music that’s happening this weekend in local venues. Cedric Burnside will be at Proud Larry’s Friday night, and Greater Pyrenees on Saturday. Government Mule is playing the Lyric Saturday night, as well. So many choices – so few hours in a weekend. What should you do?

Prioritize
Can you make it to Riverside Voodoos if you were at Burnside on Friday night? Can you make it back for your bird feeder if the Rebs go into extra innings? Go through the list of bands for Double Decker, check out the prices for the other venues, and look at the Rebel lineup to see when you’re most likely to see those Right-field showers rival the April showers we’ve endured. Most of all, pace yourself and hydrate. Always hydrate.

Remember, Double Decker weekend is a marathon-not a sprint.

Music – Riverside Voodoos – 10:15 a.m.
Music – Delta Springs – 11:30 a.m.
Music – Leo “Bud” Welch – 1:00 p.m.
Music – Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – 2:30 p.m.
Music – The Bellfuries – 4:00 p.m.
Music – Orgone – 5:30 p.m.
Music – Lettuce – 7:00 p.m.
Music – Michael Franti & Spearhead – 8:30 p.m.

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George Atkins is a freelance writer and instructor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at Ole Miss. She can be reached at gatkins@olemiss.edu or on Facebook at Facebook.com/girl.george.olemiss

Jeff McVay is a staff writer and graphic designer for Hottytoddy.com. He can be reached at jeff.mcvay@hottytoddy.com

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