Music Midtown with An Autistic Friend

Samantha H

Before being given this assignment, I had purchased tickets for the Music Midtown Festival at Piedmont Park in Atlanta and was planning on bringing an autistic family friend with me. I knew right away this is what I wanted to use as my topic. Music is a passion of mine, and I think it should be shared with everyone. The plan was to take Marta there and back, and sleepover at my house afterwards. I did not plan to encounter a lot of issues with her, but it rained the entire day which caused the park to become a huge mud pit. Kerstin’s autism has left her with intermediate social skills and a learning disability. She has no physical ailments, yet needs instructions to carry on everyday life tasks.

Accessibility to the park was a mess. It is about a 10 minute walk from the Marta station to the entrance of the park, which did not make Kerstin happy. The street was blocked, so if we had driven we would not have been able to get much closer to the entrance anyway. The entry way was crowded with people, all slowly walking in as the rain came down. The event staff were not even checking tickets at this point, it was such havoc. Below is a screen shot of the official Music Midtown website stating where those who are in a wheelchair can enter. 

Activity at the music festival wasn’t just limited to music. There were countless tents set up with vendors inside selling things. The lines to purchase items were so long that they blocked the walking path. At this point, Kerstin was getting very fussy about the amount of stimulation around her. I looked for a place for us to sit, but all the picnic tables that were set up were full so she had nowhere to sit and calm down. Even when the bands played the music she knew, she wasn’t enjoying it like I hope she would have. I’m not sure if it was too loud for her or there were too many people.

Comfort at this event wasn’t very familiar to us. As I mentioned above, the only seats they even had available were picnic tables. The only bathroom they had available were port-a-potties that all had a line about 10 people deep. It was almost impossible for me to help Kerstin use the bathroom in one of those. In order to move from one area of the park to another, the park laid plastic planks to create a makeshift sidewalk. They were covered in mud and almost impossible to walk on without feeling like you were about to slip and fall. Kerstin already walks slowly, so it only made her more cautious with each step causing everyone to walk around us.

Control at this venue was almost impossible. It was stated that there were over 100,000 people at the concert over the two day period. The only place we reached some type of control was in the section reserved for the handicapped. There were two aluminum patio looking sections with folding chairs inside that were gated off- the picture is to the right. There were never more than three people in each of them at one time. This was the only time Kerstin really had to look at and enjoy the trinkets she had asked to buy at random tents she decided to wander into.

 Crowding was a huge issue at this event. Not only were there thousands of people, many of them were walking around with open umbrellas. How are you supposed to walk around and enjoy yourself while dodging umbrellas? The stages where the actual music was performed were down a hill, which quickly became a mudslide. There were a sea of people you could see while on top of the hill, and it made Kerstin not even want to get close to the action of the music. The picture to the left I found on the internet, and I felt it captured the crowding around the stage perfectly.

The meaning of this music festival was for Kerstin to have a good time. I wanted her to see music in action, and I wanted to teach her about live music and how it is such an artistic process. I feel she had a great time because she was with me, but I know if it wasn’t raining she would have such a much better time.

We did not stay the entire time, because we were both tired of standing and cold. I think it meant more to her that I had planned a special sleepover for her when we got home more than me paying for her concert ticket.

Privacy was finally obtained when we got back to my house. I bathed her and showered myself, than popped some popcorn and we sat down and watched her favorite Disney movies for the rest of the night. My mom and boyfriend joined us, so sociality took place on a level she could understand and respond to. Kerstin is such a joy to my family and she is always laughing like in this picture that night. I can only imagine how difficult it could be to live life around meeting any necessary requirements to complete simple tasks.