BAires Beer Festival

Last night I rallied and went with a big group the the BAires beer festival. I got sick this weekend, and I am blaming it on a guy in my spanish class who stayed home sick one day then the next day came to class, felt bad and left at the break, but not before sharing his plague with all of us. So I was in my PJs all day yesterday til about 8:30 when I put on jeans, a t-shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a cashmere sweater, a zip-down sweatshirt and a scarf because we were heading out to a festival and I wanted to be warm.

First we went to Anna's to warm up, where we drank Quilmes and ate pizza til about 12 when we headed out to the festival. The venue was actually inside a big convention center, so it was warmer than expected. Actually, it was damn hot, and here I am in 4 layers! Anyway so we walked in and there were about 10 different beer booths, as well as some trampolines for doing tricks, a soccer-kicking game, miniature golf ramp and big screens to show the concert that was playing inside. We decided if we got split up (which subsequently took all of about 15 steps) that we would meet at the giant stein in the front lobby room. Then we went in to have some beer and listen to the band.

We tried one beer, a pilsner, from Ireland, which was OK and according to Anna and Theresa (both Irish) nothing as good as what they get back home. I also tried a rojo from El Bolson, which is a city near Bariloche where we stopped for ice cream, and Livi went back to the first place for their rojo, which he thought was better, then we tried Stone's IPA and Pale Ale, but I couldn't even look at beer at this point, we had tried so many!

The band playing was Los Divididos, and they have a huge, crazy fan base so the people there were psyched to be seeing their favorite band. You know what that means, right? It means the boys take their shirts off and run around in a giant mosh pit any time the singer opens his mouth, and if you are in there you are being shoved, sweat on, stepped on and have people singing along in your ears, whatever they think the lyrics might be. It is also, of course, about 100 degrees in that room, and when you breathe in it's just like breathing in the sweat of 10,000 Argentines. Mmmmm! But the band was really good, and from outside (as I lasted about 2 songs in the concert room) on the screen we watched the lead singer play the guitar with his shoe, then with his teeth. It was awesome!

After a while we headed back to the stean to find the other girls who were rehydrating after staying in the concert for half an hour and 5 encores by the band. As we were there I was handing them each stickers that we had gotten when we bought our shirts, when another guy puts his hand out for one. So I give him one, and we start chatting, turns out they are fishermen and huge Pearl Jam fans and they have their own band and want me to be their singer. Yes! Finally the break I have been looking for! That was pretty classic. Then by about 3, just as the next band wa setting up, Levi and I decided to head home. We hailed a cab and cruised on out of there sweaty, beer breathed and exhausted.