Arts, Beats, and Eats 2014

Hi friends! After a long and busy four-day weekend followed by a night and morning of cleaning and gearing up for the week, I am here to share our whereabouts and highlights of it all.

Spending eighty percent of our time in Downtown Royal Oak, I am slowly getting back into the groove of a normal day of working at home again. Kind of. (Are any of you struggling at work today?)

But enough about that. Here’s what went down over the weekend!

Arts, Beats, and Eats 2014

Arts Beats and Eats is considered to be Oakland County’s favorite summer festival celebrating art, music, cuisine, and humanity. It’s certainly ours!

Falling on Labor Day weekend this year, the four-day festival featured hundreds of local artists and shows, ten music stages with over two hundred live performances, and specialty areas like the deaf arts festival, carnival, and kids zone.

Correctly labeled, this festival is one of the biggest I have been to and features the best in the area when it comes to seeing, hearing, and tasting what is great in the Metro Detroit area.

Located in the heart of Royal Oak, I always enjoy walking the surrounding streets to find new places to check out and bookmark for later. On our breaks from working our corner in NBA Nation, we admired the arts.

Stayed after hours for the beats of popular bands.

And consumed our fair share of eats!

(That loaded corn on the cobb WILL be re-created at home!)

We spent the majority of our time, however, on the courts with NBA Nation.

Last year, the Detroit Pistons had a booth and area for entertainment, but this year surged with activities and exhibits specifically centered around teams and players from all over the NBA.

I tested my high jump (nothing impressive), compared my shoe size to the giants in the league, and measured my wingspan!

Feeling extra short, we went to the back and tried our best to shoot the 18 and 25 foot baskets. Scott made his in and I gave my best attempt with the granny shot style.

Throughout the weekend, almost all of our entertainment teams made an appearance. I specifically helped out with the Flight Crew dunk shows and our crazy horse of a mascot, HOOPER.

He can’t always be trusted to stay in line, ya know.

Between the events, I got to hang with a few familiar faces I miss seeing on an every day basis.

(Oh hey, Nichole!)

Scott kept busy at the booth and helped out wherever he could. The two of us left the festival completely wiped each day… except for Saturday.

We caught a second wind and joined some friends for late night beats and eats of our own, then went back to the festival to catch the tail end of Third Eye Blind!

They started an hour later than planned, played a lot of current music not a lot of people recognized, but it still proved to be a blast.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t obnoxiously jamming out to How’s It Gonna Be on their double encore. But really, that was to be expected.

Yesterday was our shortest day on the courts, so Scott and I took the rest of our late afternoon to walk the festival. We saw art we would love to buy for our imaginary foyer in our one-day dream house, treats like homemade fudge, and almost anything you can imagine fried on a stick.

Taking a break from the crowds, we ran out of tickets and had our last meal of the weekend at a local restaurant while listening to the beats of the Detroit Lions drumline followed by a nearby local artist on stage. We were pooped, so it was a great way to enjoy the experience while taking a couple of minutes out of it.

Another year of AB&E is in the books and it was fun to be a part of it over the past two of them. We had our admissions covered, but for those of you who are near the area and are interested in attending next year it’s definitely worth the $5 entry fee.

You then, of course, have to factor in parking, and ticket purchases to use on food and such, but overall the experience is well worth the investment. Hope to see you there next year!