Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Red Bull Flugtag 2007

I had an idea to go to the Red Bull Flugtag (German for "flight day") as it was in Austin this year at Auditorium Shores (near Town Lake...whoops! I mean Lady Bird Lake).



It's called a flying contest, but it should be called a falling contest. Participants create these elaborate contraptions, perform skits and then push their creation, with a pilot, over a cliff to the roaring approval of the crowd.

My idea was to have a nice family outing with something cool, interesting and Austiny. It was definitely interesting, and totally Austiny, but waaaaay too many people. A lot of people were smoking, as well as smoking, if you catch my drift.

We only managed to stay for a few entries...Team Chupacabra had the...pilot...dressed as a, wait for it, chupacabra, and "he" attacked the rest of the group, who had rigged some sort of gushing blood apparatus around their necks. I mean these were arterial spouts a few feet higher than their heads. How was their craft going to get pushed off the cliff when only the pilot remained alive? Well, he resurrected his teammates to the sound of Van Halen's Jump and off they went. Some other team pushed a giant vacuum over the cliff. Good times? There was a giant video screen set up showing the teams, but we couldn't get very close. We never were able to see the water until we went back to the parking garage (no on-street parking, of course) and waited at the top level.

See more photos at my first Googletastic Picasa Web Album!

2 comments:

Michael said...

Wow, it did look rather crowded and not setup properly for that many people to see the action. Looks like they could have used a few more big screens out there and some bleachers.

I've seen this on TV before and it was rather amusing to watch. Probably not near as much fun in person in the sweltering heat, smelly people, and all "smokers" about.

Good times!

Anonymous said...

I think i will pass if it comes around again while I'm living there.

Crowds of that size (and type) aren't my thing. That's why I don't do rock concerts, etc.

Keith