This year’s Weenie Roast was awesome for more reasons than just the amazing bands that performed. I got the pleasure of sitting in the lawn section this year and it was one of the best concert going experiences I’ve ever had.

I know the lawn section throws a lot of people off because it’s far from the stage, but I’m here to say that this year’s award for “most awesome section” goes to the lawn. The pit? Whatever. Backstage? Meh. The Lawn? Awesome!

So I would like to present to you, The Lawn Section: A Retrospective.

Let’s just get it out of the way right now. The view? It sucks. I had a better view from my car in than I did from the lawn. The lawn also blows if you’re short. My poor friend is 5’0″ and couldn’t see a thing the whole night. There should be a sign stating that you must be 6 feet tall to even remotely see anything. I spent the majority of the time wondering why on earth this section even existed.

My 5’0″ best friend’s view of most of the show

But I quickly realized that people don’t necessarily sit way up there to “see” the show. Everyone going to the show knows that the view isn’t going to be the best. I discovered concert goers love the lawn for three reasons:

1. It’s much more comfortable sitting on the grass and laying out enjoying a rock show.
2. The atmosphere and energy in the lawn is like no other section in the whole venue. It’s probably the best experience I have ever had at a show (excluding the crappy view).
3. There was a lot of pot being passed around. (Never bogart that joint)

The lawn for the most part was pretty clam during Garbage and The Dirty Heads until Angels and Airwaves got on stage. I’m not to sure if it was the music or the full moon that drove every one into a fighting mood or not, but about 3 fights broke out in my area. Two guys got into an argument over A SOMBRERO!

After the fights settled down, the peace bell was rung across the lawn section. The peace didn’t last long because it was time for a lil’ punk rock, Pennywise style!

Quickly, it was made apparent that the  only band the lawn was remotely interested in was Pennywise because  at one point, the circle pit was about the size of a third of the lawn. You would see guys and gals taking off their shirts and rushing into the circle pit from all areas of the lawn. The lawn was so into it, the circle pit kept going on even in between songs.

From the lawn, you could see that it was a packed house for Pennywise. I’ve been to a couple of other Weenie Roast shows before and usually at that time, the venue is only half packed. This year, all 17,000 Weenie Roast goers got to their seats early to watch the awesome face-melting powers that is Pennywise. It was truly was a proud day for the world of punk.

Oh look! Another fight!

As the night went on, I was surprised by not only Soundgarden, but also how long it took the lawn section to set something on fire. There was no fire pits until The Offspring got on stage, but the lawn made up for its lack of pyrotechnics. At one point, there was giant clouds of flames floating into space!

To summarize, this year’s lawn section was amazing and lived up to who a true lawn section should be: crazy, out of control, and obnoxious to everyone else who spent more than 50 bucks to sit closer to the stage. Despite all the craziness, the folks up at the lawn were some of the most friendly people ever. Somebody even bought me a guitar shaped margarita!

Lawn Section, You rock.