doodledee

At first glance the above picture may appear to be 1000 dirty hippies gathered at a Phish show, but if you look closer you'll see that it's actually a 1000 toddlers and their parents being brainwashed by a singing and dancing purple dinosaur. I took it last weekend at the Target Children's Book Festival thing down at Hyland Park in Bloomington. It was quite a scene.

Ok, it really wasn't that much of a scene, but the whole thing was much bigger than I expected. Good thing it was logistically flawless: park-and-ride shuttles from all over the area dropped you right at the gate, where you could pick up your free stuff (pass), go watch a book reading (check), listen to a wacky kids music concert (check), eat some kettle korn (pass), explore all the little tent-booths they had (pass) or just wander around and play in the park (check). They even had the park's canoes and paddle boats available and you could just take one out for free, which we totally did and it was a totally mint day so that was a lot of fun. (No waiting for a boat during the purple dinosaur's set, natch.)

Yes, the bullseye branding was punch-you-in-the-face everywhere, but all in all it wasn't a bad little event. I'd go back.

Official Book Festival Site [target]
Hyland Park [3riverspark]