In its third year, Shaky Knees is at its third venue. Last year’s spot in Atlantic Station elicited a high amount of praise for the stage set-up but a good amount of criticism for the lack of shade and grass. Things are certainly different this year in Central Park. Immediately on walking in, the festival seems bigger. I don’t have any idea of official numbers on attendance at this time, but I would bet there was a substantial increase in ticket sales over last year. In addition to that, the whole thing felt more like a festival this year. As great as the stage placement was last year, the setting as a whole never quite rose above feeling like it was jammed in the corner of a parking lot.
Gone is a patron’s ability to watch an act from the next stage over while waiting on a later act, but I feel it’s a fair trade-off for each stage having a space and feel of its own for the most part. Along with that comes the addition of shady spots throughout the grounds. The two largest stages (Peachtree and Piedmont) both have areas where you can check out whatever artist is playing from a shady spot if you’re willing to be a distance away from the stage. Considering Friday was sunny and warm, this was a big plus for many. With the adjustment of the stage set-up, there was an increase in foot traffic immediately after sets as patrons rushed to their next set, but, despite it being heavy at times, the logjams I had worried about when looking at the map never materialized.
Unfortunately, the food truck problem from last year is still there. I went to get dinner at 5:15 and the lines at every food truck were atrocious. I checked back at a few points after that and the lines remained lengthy through a majority of the evening. To Shaky Knees’ credit, there were several more trucks than last year, but they appeared to be unable to keep up with the amount of people they had. In the future, I will hope they either add more trucks or possibly some fast service food vendors that can turn over customers at a more rapid pace than the trucks can.
Lastly, there was also an issue with chairs at the ADA platforms. At least at the Piedmont stage, chairs weren’t available there until well after the shows had started which negatively impacted the day of a friend I was with. All in all, I feel the new venue is a big improvement over last year’s and I’m glad they took the time to address it even though I am sure it was a big undertaking.
