​LouFest 2012 has a few announcements coming down the pike, and $50 presale passes are already sold out. The festival, entering its third year, will be looking to once again expand slightly, and hopefully the lineup will continue its trend of evolution.

We'll be bringing you our 2012 LouFest lineup wishlist later in the week, but first we want to hear from you: Who would get you out to Forest Park this August?

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​LouFest 2012 is officially off the ground: Presale tickets for the two-day festival in Forest Park are now available. It's $50 for a two-day pass or $70 if you wait until the regular sale. Last year's presale sold out in two weeks.

The third LouFest will be on August 25 and 26 on Forest Park's Central Fields.

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Photo by Todd Owyoung

​LouFest two is in the books. This year saw the scale increase and many of last year's logistical complaints answered. The lineup, even with a last-second cancellation from the Roots, was more diverse and adventurous than its inaugural predecessor. The additional attractions, Area K chief among them, gave the grounds a more thoroughly festive feel. And despite the expansion, the crowd was never much of a logjam either getting to and from Forest Park or within the Central Fields.

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​As of last night, St. Louis' own music festival is officially two years old. That makes it one year older and one name way (way) better than Kanrocksas, not that we're keeping score. The weekend was full of strange moments, local vindication, trying heat and rampant social media, the last one marked by the addition of the Chatter Box, a new tent devoted to adding ease to spreading the word about the festival through online reactions. Sorting through all of the LouFest-related Tweets the morning after has made us considerably nostalgic already, but in the meantime, we've found the ten that best illustrate the atmosphere (heatstroke + endless enthusiasm, all split across the friendliest and most spaced-out crowd in the history of festivals) and best moments of the festival's terrible (read: terrific) twos.

If you haven't already, check out our recaps of the entire two-day lineup.

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Photo by Todd Owyoung

​TV on the Radio
8:30 p.m. | Blue Stage

Camp is now over. We made some friends, explored the various activities, baked in the sun and shared in bonding sing-alongs.

It's tough to separate out the parts so soon after an overload like a two-day music festival. When I close my eyes I can see the outline of the Orange stage etched onto the backs of my eyelids. I can feel blood flowing to my legs and feet from standing for so long. What happened out there? The images float vividly, randomly: people tossing Frisbees by the entrance, volunteers sorting garbage into recycling and compost boxes, the middle chunk of the field covered with lawn chairs and blankets, the sun setting in bright colors opposite a rainbow ("Das Rainbow," observes Chan Marshall). The lines for the Porta-Potties, the giveaways in the Chatter Box, the climbing wall. By the middle of the day Sunday it seemed impossible to talk about anything but the festival: What was your favorite show so far? The answers were encouragingly varied; I heard in vaguely descending order of frequency Ume, Deerhunter, !!!, the Low Anthem, the Hold Steady, Old Lights, Troubadour Dali, Lost in the Trees, Kings Go Forth and Dom. I'm sure I could have found someone in favor of every set. Everyone's got a pleasant surprise and a letdown -- the specifics always followed by expressions of general contentment. The size is manageable, the amenities are thoughtful and the fact that this thing exists right here in Forest Park is damn good.

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Photo by Nick Schnelle

​Cat Power
7 p.m. | Orange Stage

As you certainly know if you were one of those who remained among the 7 p.m. crowd long enough to formulate a Tweetable opinion (CAT POWER BORING! SUCK! #loufest) before departing for the Chatter Box to fart another snappy epistle into the digital ether, the latest turn in Chan Marshall's career has her blues-ifying anything and everything -- even things that an audience might not wish to hear blues-ified, well-known hit songs from the '70s in no way excluded, and the blues-ificiation of which may, by the end of the third song, result in an observable exodus toward basically anywhere within the festival grounds that might be less bluesy.

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Photo by Nick Schnelle

​!!!
Blue Stage | 6 p.m.

Nic Offer has an amazing ass. Despite the unquestionable truth of this statement, it would sound like a sexual advance if that ass weren't the backbone of his band !!!'s live performance -- the seat of its power, shall we say. He starts shaking it early, and he keeps shaking it until the asses of at least three-quarters of the crowd are also shaking theirs. This doesn't take very long.

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Albert Samaha

"If we would have processed the sales faster, they would have been gone in five minutes," said Anna Zachritz, a Euclid Records employee.

​The folks over at the Euclid Records tent might have been in the best position to judge which bands killed it at LouFest. Which bands impressed and connected with the people enough to send them rushing to drop ten bucks on an album that they could probably rip for free online.

During the acts, the Euclid Record tent would feel spacious, with people flowing in and out to browse through the deep record collection and wile away the time before their favorite groups hit the stage. But when certain acts finished, the tent would be packed, with people lining up to add another CD to their musical arsenal.

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Albert Samaha

A day at the park, with live music as the backdrop.

​Plaid button-downs and Tom's canvas shoes and argyle socks and neon green wayfarers and over-the-shoulder purse straps and jeans shorts with tattered bottoms and soccer jerseys and mountain man beards. The usual music festival crowd paraded around LouFest.

But there, at the picnic tables below the big white tent and in the grassy space by the main entrance and under the Bud Light umbrellas by the Nosh Pit eating area were empty strollers and little children running around throwing frisbees at each other.

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Photo by Todd Owyoung

​Old Lights
Noon| Blue Stage
By Kelsey Whipple

You can't just casually listen to Old Lights. You have to really listen. Buried beneath the charming stage banter and the neat, occasionally adorable melodies and the surf guitar and the joint poptastic choruses and frontman Dave Beeman's maroon stage pants are desperately sad lyrics born from past relationship disasters and gorging on an awareness of their own inner workings. This is a band rooted, at least lyrically, in heavy drama, and that alone finds it wading drastically different waters each show.

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