Who's going to Atlanta/ Chastain 5/27?

[UGAPhan]

Hello Atlanta Phriends. I'm a long time stalker but first time poster. It looks like a friend from Alabama and I are making last minute plans for the show and we're looking for tickets if anyone needs to sell a pair. Looking forward to a great show tonight. See yall there!

[Cuervo]

Heading to lot B for the tailgate. I also heard there is a pre party at the Horse Barn. Where ever that is? have fun!!!!

[conched]

Have a great time at the show. I think this venue would be special.

[dnw]

Hope everyone is having fun.

[spucketts]

Observations from the Atlanta/Chastain show:

We got there around 3:30 and the four Chastain parking lots had signs stating that no one could park there until 4 and it had a list of rules, No loud music, no RVs, no tents, no fires and similar. We went a mile up the road to where there's some restaurants and pubs and I thought they'd be packed. Fellini's Pizza was empty and the only Parrothead we saw was a couple that went to the BBQ house next door.

So $20 to park and that lot had maybe 30 cars in it. Some decorated the rear of their cars but most only brought chairs and coolers and made the best of it. I talked to a guy who had called the box office repeatedly the week before and he stated that they had only recently come to an agreement that would allow limited tailgating from 4-8 so the word didn't get out. I'm sure the homeowners in that area were happy about that. Police presence was strong and they were enforcing the rules to the chagrin of those that had planned on cooking up a burger or two. We had a good time anyway and those in attendance were friendly and were sharing the bounty.

The majority of people began showing up around 7 and there was still a heavy flow entering after 8. We stopped at a margarita stand at the rear of the venue and the guy stated that "according to 'Jimmy Buffett' all drinks had to be poured into a plastic cup". This really slowed service down and lines were long, hot and confusing with lines for food and drinks becoming twisted and intermingled. While inside the venue I visited this bar and another full service bar for a frozen margarita, I didn't see any Landshark or Margarittaville products being poured or even available. Nor were these manufacturers present outside the facility like they usually are.

The concert was great and the band sounded really good. Mac, Peter, Nadira and the rest sounded fantastic. I didn't get to hear much of what Jimmy was saying between songs because of the amount of chatter that was going on in the audience. But I guess if you can't tailgate and meet your friends you do it during the show. Then again Chastain is known for lack of audience attention and I heard one attendee state that the reason Buffett hadn't played here in so many years is that he hated looking out only to see people eating and doing other things. And on that topic, how many selfies and group pictures does one person or a group of people need? These people in front of us must have taken over 50 shots at different times just to get the band in the background. I'm like, "Hey don't mind us, you're much more interesting than Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band and your flash doesn't bother us one bit".

All in all it was a great show and we had a lot of fun. Got to listen to the show again, along with Jimmy's comments, on Radio Margarittaville on the drive home from the show.

[ATLparrothead]

Thanks for the update. I was wondering how the tailgating or lack thereof would go down. Not exactly the atmosphere that most of us have come to enjoy. Hopefully next year it will be back to Lakewood!

[spucketts]

Thanks for the update. I was wondering how the tailgating or lack thereof would go down. Not exactly the atmosphere that most of us have come to enjoy. Hopefully next year it will be back to Lakewood!

If I'd have known what the rules were going to be we'd have done a bit more. Funny, during the concert Jimmy talked about his time in Atlanta, music written here, the Fox shows, the Bistro where nobody showed up, previous Chastain shows, but he didn't mention Lakewood at all.

[coconuttelegraph]

I voted with my wallet on this show and I am still scratching my head at this decision. If he is open to the idea of other ATL venues, why not the VZW in Alpharetta? Not sure again why Chastain was chosen, but would love to see the official explanation. Phins up!

[ATLparrothead]

If our source at Lakewood is telling us the truth, they don't even know why. As much as I hate driving thru the ghetto to get to Lakewood, nowhere has as much space for tailgating. VZW would be great as its 15 mins from my house and the facility is so CLEAN compared to Lakewood, just not sure they would allow us the same liberties when tailgating (i've not seen any RVs there) but anything seems better than Chastain.