Forget Your Uncle's BBQ!!!

Please listen to Rhymes x Hannah Wants Chris Lorenzo while reading.

DIRTYBIRDY!!!!! My favorite record label. My favorite group of artists. My favorite songs. I LOVE ME A SLICE OF BIRD (but only this bird since I am vegetarian)!!! If you can’t tell, I fuckin love the Dirtybird record label. LOVE. If I was a DJ or producer I would 100% wish to be apart of the Dirtybird record label or even foreign family. I LOVE DB. Lol. The birdhouse was established by Barclay Crenshaw aka Claude Vonstroke with co-founder Justin Martin back in 2005 out of San Francisco. In 2013 an LA based office was then opened to help expand the label. Some artists you might recognize that are a part of the DB flock are (alphabetical order) Christian Martin, Dateless, Dusky, Gene Farris, FISHER, Hannah Wants, J. Philip, Justin Jay, Kill Frenzy, Kyle Watson, Sacha Robotti, Shiba San, Walker&Royce, and Will Clarke (shoutout to my fav English bearded man).

I have attended a lot of dirty bird shows and seen various artists at festz and what not, but this year I had the chance to attend an event that was EXCLUSIVELY DB….DirtyBird BBQ in LA. It was held at LA Exposition Park on Sunday May 5. The fucking park is massive btw and the spot they chose was incredibly difficult to find and super small due to the size of the event.

The line to get in was fine. There were signs everywhere promoting DB Campout in October. I walk in and go straight to the merchandise tent. All the merchanidse I saw was fucking ugly which was very disappointing and I wish I got a photo of it lol but all of it was basically released in their store about a week or two later. There was nothing special. The jackets were ugly. It would have been cool if they made jackets or shirts specific to the BBQ with the red plaid picnic trimming or something different and fun BBQ attendees would be able to purchase. So that made me sad. But I was able to find a super sick gold and black pin and a few patchers for a potential project I am working on.

Lets talk food and drinks. The fucking drinkz were so expensive I lost it. Like fucking COACHELLA prices, maybe even worse. They were themed though which was cool but too expensive. There were literally only 2-3 food truck options one had like tacos and burritos and the other I can’t even remember. Again expensive. And not very vegetarian or vegan friendly. They also had a $20 meal ticket you could buy a head of time for their catering BBQ event. The voucher came with an entree and a side. From what I heard it was not worth the money and you could’ve spent less at the food trucks. So FOOD TICKET NOT WORTH IT LOL.

DB BBQ hosted the Fungineers. They are a crazy group of men and women dressed in pastel colored outfits who work out of an “ice cream truck” and run around the festival entertaining people. They play music and one guy was beatboxing and making music and sounds from random things in the truck or instruments strapped to his body. Very cool. Very different. I hope to see them at the West Coast Campout later this year.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST PART OF THIS EVENT WAS HOW THERE WAS ONLY ONE LINE OF PORTA POTTIES BUT SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE SO EVERYONE WAS CROWDED AROUND THEM TRYING TO PISS WHICH JUST CREATED A HUGE BLOB AND WAS TERRIBLE. After 6pm literally impossible to use the bathroom. They shold’ve moved them to a different area further from the stage or put a row on each side to help spread the crowd out and prevent these massive lines from forming. The amount of times I pissed in a cup under my skirt because I couldn’t wait in the lines was unreal. There was also a medical tent that was near the porta potties making it difficult to get to, but every time I walked by I did not see any medic or EMT even occupying it.

At DB BBQ they also had a Sizzle stage where the games were held and a costume contest! The winner received DB Campout tickets. There were some pretty awesome and detailed costumes. One of the judges and a fav dj of mine and a friend was Will Clarke. It was great seeing him since I hadn’t seen him in a few months. Around the stage were a bunch of round tables with red plaid picnic clothes where people could sit and watch or enjoy their overpriced drankz and food. The weather was overcast and it began to rain at one point so I swiped one of the table cloths to use as a jacket and rain cover. I grabbed the last cloth left because other people were using them as blankets as well lol.

The music was so fucking good. JJ’s set (Justin Jay) was so techno funk I was smiling the entire time! It was also like a 2 hour set lol. Justin Martin was also throwing us some great mixes to dance too before Mr. Claude hit the stage.

Overall, I think this event could have been planned out and executed better. So many little details that were missed that could have brought this event from a 4-5/10 to an 8-9/10 based on experience. But I guess that is what DB is. A party filled with people who just want to dance and listen to some great music and be with each other no matter the circumstance.

Catch me at West Coast Campout in Modesto, CA, Oct 4-5.