| Fun Fun Fun Fest | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Indie rock, punk rock, hip hop, electronic |
| Dates | Early November |
| Location(s) | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Years active | 2006–2015 |
| Founded by | Transmission Entertainment |
| Website | funfunfunfest |
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.
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