Apparently in Redding, during the summer, on Thursdays, they have a little thing called Market Fest, or as my BF's family calls it, Hippie Fest =) I went here last night and discovered why they call it hippie fest. A few woman were dressed in long flowing skirts, no bras, and I swear not, a couple had flowers in their hair. The best was the old man with the braided beard wearing a tie dyed t-shirt, camouflage shorts, and Birkenstocks with tall white tube socks. He won, in my head, the best dressed hippie, not to mention a smile from me. Last night they had African influenced music with great dancers. They were fun to watch in the sweltering 106 degree Redding heat. The bad part is the fact that there weren't very many arts and craft booths or food booths. My favorite part about a festival is browsing all the different booths and trying to pig out on as many food stands as possible. I saw about 6 stands of beaded necklaces, beach inspired post cards, magnets, oh, and lets not for get those tie dyed clothes. Then there were only a few food stands; pizza, sausage, ice cream, kettle corn and snow cones, pretty disappointing. They had quite possibly the smallest farmers market. I didn't buy anything so I cant comment on whether or not the fruits/vegetables were ripe, tasty, or priced well. Another con was the fact that there was only one beer booth and the line was so long. Five dollars for the smallest plastic cup of beer I've ever seen. Whatever happened to those red plastic party cups? Those are worthy of five bucks if filled to the top. On the plus side, Its free to get in, fun to watch all the people dance, gets you out of the house on a summer weeknight and from what I hear they have different performances/music every Thursday. Will I return the next time I visit Redding in the summer? Um, not unless I plan on sweating my butt off and over paying for beer or have a great desire of buying a tie dyed shirt. I guess I'm just used to the bigger festivals Ive attended at other city affairs. But don't let me stop you from at least experiencing one hippie fest..err Market Fest. read more