Eagle Rock Comes Alive for Its 11th Annual Music Festival

Above, kids groove (including a few pint-sized breakdancers) to the husband-and-wife duo Ellen and Matt at the Eagle Rock Music Festival's Family Stage. The festival is an annual event for the Franklin Avenue Quartet, and as they get older the kids can appreciate the performers and music a bit more. (The Blogger Toddler brought along his toy guitar -- and got upset when the performers on stage drowned out his strumming.)

This year's event also included many more food vendors, in addition to the growing number of restaurants up and down Colorado. And once again, we got there early enough to find a parking spot a few blocks away (on Ellenwood). The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock does a great job in organizing the event -- although I do fear that it's getting too big for its own good. We left before 8 p.m., before things really got crowded, and if Tweets were any indication, it sounds like the crowds -- particularly, the young kids -- got unruly.

But as one of the most kid-friendly music festivals out there, the Eagle Rock Music Festival remains a "must" in our books. A few pics:


The group Gangi performs at the Kingsize stage.


DJ spins at the Low End Theory stage.


Bands perform at the Emerging Stage.


Mia Doi Todd at the Dublab "Future Roots" Stage


The crowds get bigger each year.


Nestled among the tables for special causes: AEG fielded a booth promoting its Farmers Field proposal, and asking residents to sign postcards of support. Hmm.


Also among the "causes": Folks holding a torch for high-speed rail in California.


Now here's a cause I can support: XL-sized chocolate chip cookies from Auntie Em's.


Eagle Rock has a storied history, and boasts a very active historical society.


Spotted on the side of the abandoned Blockbuster store near Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards.


Vendors included Amoeba Records.


Food vendors at the Eagle Rock Music Festival food court included Hawaiian food booth "The Haole Way." Now -- as a haole from Hawaii, I'm very suspect. WHY would you call your Hawaiian food business "The Haole Way"? That's like telling the world, "Yeah, I don't really know much about this food, but whatever. Here's some spam musubi." For the record: The spam musubi was fine, as was the chicken and rice. But the mac salad -- key to any plate lunch -- was not only warm, but tasted like it might be spoiled. I tossed it out. EH HAOLE, NO LIKE. NO BROKE DA MOUT.