Fun Fun Fun Fest (often abbreviated as "FFF" or "F3F") was an annual music and comedy festival held in Austin, Texas, United States. The festival was the only genre based festival in the United States, featuring stages that focused specifically on hip-hop / electronica, indie rock, punk / metal, and comedy.

Fun Fun Fun Fest
GenreIndie rock, punk rock, hip hop, electronic
DatesEarly November
Location(s)Austin, Texas, U.S.
Years active2006–2015
FoundersTransmission Entertainment
Websitefunfunfunfest.com

Started in 2006, the festival focused on a combination of discovering emerging talent and putting together rarely seen or anticipated reunion performances. Being based in Austin (The Live Music Capital of the World), FFF had the unique opportunity to work with newer performers that had yet to experience the national stage. The festival had a history of unearthing new artists that eventually ended up in mainstream music and festival markets. The festival's name itself was a nod to the independent music scene in Austin, specifically Big Boys, an early and highly influential hardcore punk band who released their EP "Fun Fun Fun" through the Austin-based underground label Moment Productions in 1982.[1] After the final Fun Fun Fun Fest, some of the organizers went on to produce Sound on Sound Fest, "Sound on Sound" also a title of a Big Boys song.

Fun Fun Fun Fest was dedicated to Austin's unique culture, featuring street food from some of Austin's favorite eateries, an annual American Poster Institute poster show featuring work from artists across the country, pop-up vintage fashion shops, hair salons, and record stores. The festival also hosted everything from a mechanical bull to a live wrestling ring featuring Sexy Sax Man on site.

Notable performers include Public Enemy, Spoon, Weird Al Yankovic, Girl Talk, The Descendents, MGMT, Bad Religion, Danzig, Mastodon, The Dead Milkmen, Sophie, Slayer, Slick Rick, Pharcyde, Cat Power, The National, M83, Circle Jerks, Todd Barry, Reggie Watts, Henry Rollins, Neil Hamburger, GWAR, the return of famed Detroit punkers, Death, and many more.

In 2011, Fun Fun Fun Fest was moved to Auditorium Shores, a much larger downtown park, a change from previous years in which the event was held at Waterloo Park. 2011 saw the addition of a third full day and FFF Nites, a set of free aftershows for ticket holders in downtown Austin music venues, featuring an additional 75 artists. Additionally, Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara filmed a sequence for the Terrence Malick film Song to Song on November 4, 2011, on the festival grounds.

The 2012 festival took place November 2–4 at Auditorium Shores. The event made headlines with the announcement of a reunion of the hip hop group, Run–D.M.C. for their first show in a decade.

The festival had its final year in 2015. Some of the event producers have moved on to produce an event called Sound on Sound Music Festival, which takes place at the Sherwood Forest Faire site in McDade, TX

Lineups

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2015

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Orange Stage

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Blue Stage

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Black Stage

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Yellow Stage

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Ride & Skate

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Wrestling

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* Anarchy Championship Wrestling

FFF Nites

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2014

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Music

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Wrestling

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* Anarchy Championship Wrestling

2013

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Music

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Wrestling

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2012

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Music

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Comedy

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Wrestling

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2011

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Music

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Comedy

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Wrestling

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2010

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Wrestling

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Comedy

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2009

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2008

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2007

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2006

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Fun Fun Fun Fest Taco Cannon

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Premiering at the 2012 Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX, the Fun Fun Fun Fest Taco Cannon was a modified 12-chamber T-shirt cannon specifically designed to shoot tacos a maximum 200 feet in the air. The Fun Fun Fun Fest Taco Cannon was the first and only taco launching device. The cannon was powered by carbon dioxide and a car battery, and "takes 40 pounds of carbon dioxide to get through three round of Gatling gun-style shots" with "12 barrels in each round, so 36 shots total per round."[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Big Boys – Fun, Fun, Fun... (1982, Vinyl)". Discogs.com. 1982. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  2. ^ Watson, Eli (October 31, 2012). "Fun Fun Fun Fest cannon launches Torchy's tacos". Daily Texan. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
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