Festival fatigue has lingering effects that last for days and beset even the staunchest of music fans. The consecutive days of blaring bass, constant standing while nodding along to whatever beat’s playing, shaking more hands than a stumping politician, the lack of sleep & the consistent blur of it all create a war of attrition that few if any can survive without coming back feeling that perpetual motion feeling that’s similar to initial few minutes after having exited a swimming pool. Even days later, my wife yelled to have me assist with a chore and I immediately threw my hands in the air as if she were an emcee dictating what my response should be.

But it’s all for the good.

I came away from A3C with more CDs, business cards, shared experiences and endless gigabytes of photos and video. However, it now all lays aside my desk like a waste treatment plant, staring at and challenging me to attempt to sift through it. Countless items on the to-do list versus an overwhelming inbox, zero video editing skills and another flight out in the morning for a short trip.

While we continue to recover, we didn’t want to leave you hanging for recap information because there’s plenty of it. Of the 200+ artists billed to attend the Festival, rest assured that mine eyes witnessed at least 120 of those acts and that’s a whole lot of Hip-Hopping. There were several underdogs and other artists who I’d never heard of but both ended up flooring me with their stage presence. Of course, there were the letdowns too, the ones who had the stage presence of a 2″ x 4″.

Later, we’ll get to all that.