So, yes, I attended Sun God Festival 2009, despite my usual aversion towards parties (who am I kidding, social events generally; but I have made progress). Unfortunately, my MMW 3 paper was also due that day in section and I also had an Algorithm Analysis quiz that morning, so it was not ideal. I had almost no sleep the night before, save a brief ~3 hour respite, as I worked on completing my paper, which probably impacted my quiz performance. In a twist of fate, however, my schedule inadvertently let me dodge a serious bullet.

You see, since everyone was anxious about getting into the festival, they started lining up in front of the box office early in the morning; by around 11 or so, this line stretched down from Ridge Walk down to Peterson Hall, turned the corner, went down past Geisel and the Price Center, and, for at least a time, continued into Warren Mall. To paraphrase Garrett Berg, it was as if everyone in school had gotten in line. At once. Needless to say, there was some criticism of the wristbanding system afterwards. The sheer mass of people (in contrast to the usual relative dearth of students) led me to momentarily ponder whether some people enroll just to go to Sun God. Needless to say, the line complicated my movements to-and-from Geisel to research and print. Now finally to the “fortunate” part: due to my classes, I didn’t go to get my wristband until around 1PM, by which time the line had disippated entirely and getting into the festival was a breeze (rumors of insufficient wristbands being available were greatly exaggerated).

So, on to the festival proper: Ironically, I liked the Midway tent and its performances rather than the headliners, which makes sense considering I’d only heard of 2 of the headliners and I’m not a fan of hip-hop. Highlights from the tent include:

• Cirque Berzerk: sort of like Cirque de Solei on Goth crack, it featured some amazing fire acts
• Kaba Modern: an astounding Asian dance group whose impressive performance just kept on going (every time I thought they had come to a reasonable stop, there was a brief pause and the music changed)
• A performance by UCSD’s Cheer squad (IIRC), which featured an (appropriate for UCSD) lab coat-themed suggestive dance
• A great comedy routine featuring Horatio Sanz, a guy who was literally butt-naked save for a fannypack, and a good bashing of Communications and Poli Sci majors (hehehe ;-)

The main stage  was not completely ignored by me, however. In between a ~3 hour nap to make up for the insomnia, I saw:

• Augustana, whose vibe was entirely enjoyable as I laid on the grass listening, although the lead singer’s fangirls were a slight annoyance
• Sara Bareilles (I have no idea how you pronounce her last name), who agonizingly delayed her ultimately poppin’ performance of her Love Song…song with less famous filler and finished with an unexpected but certainly unique rendition of Rihanna‘s Umbrella (of all things)

I managed to avoid alcohol and drugs myself (unlike many apparently; suffice it to say I saw a few “men down” in apparent need of aid while walking around), instead opting for a fresh but entirely too large funnel cake. I also been there, done that, got the T-shirt and got dinged for an excessive surcharge at the on-festival ATM.

All in all, it was quite a fun day, sleep deprivation aside, and I look forward to next year. Now I just need to actually visit the beach one of these days…