GM moon frens!
Hope y’all are having the best day ever. I’ve been on a BDE streak for at least the past 6 days and counting after an extraordinary Texas Solar Eclipse experience with my girlfriend, cousin, friends from around the world, and the ATX DAO crew
The journey began when ATX DAO was invited to help represent at the Texas Onchain Stage at the Solar Eclipse Festival. At the monthly ATX DAO member meeting, when @512Mace announced the opportunity to get free tickets in exchange for volunteering, I signed up immediately. The lineup of artists was stellar, the selection of topics and activities was vast, and the opportunity to attend for free in exchange for repping Web3 and Texas with the ATX DAO fam was too good to miss.
If you haven’t heard, for the past year ATX DAO has also been working on forking Nouns and launching ATX Nouns. Last month we made a proposal to Nouns to “Make Austin Nounish” and requested 51.2 ETH and 1 Noun. While we were just a few votes short of passing, we got some great feedback and are excited to return soon with an improved v2. One of the many examples we included in the proposal to paint the picture for how ATX DAO would nounify Austin (and beyond) was the idea to hand out Solar Eclipse Noggles at the Festival.
Although our initial proposal didn’t pass, we decided to move forward with designing and ordering the eclipse noggles nonetheless. There wasn’t enough time to pass a second proposal first, and the last thing we wanted to do was rush the v2. I’ve always been a believer in the “give first” mentality, and I think it’s especially applicable when requesting grant funding from any DAO.
So, @artichokelord created the sick designs, we placed the order (shoutout PrintGlobe), and a week later 1,000 beautiful, nounish eclipse noggles arrived on my porch.
Finally, on Friday April 5th, we packed up the car, kissed our dog goodbye, and started the 1.5 hour trek from Austin to Burnet. With 40,000 attendees arriving, the hardest part of the festival was getting in and setting up camp. To minimize the number of trips between the parking lot and our campsite, we attempted to carry as much as humanly possible. Thankfully we were able to hail a pedi-cabber, who ended up being the first to get eclipse noggled. When I offered her a pair, her eyes lit up and she explained that the box she and her large group ordered on Amazon didn’t arrive in time. I gave her a fat stack and told her they were hers to keep and share; the noggles had already been paid for by Nouns, a “DAO, or D.A.O., which means a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, basically an onchain community-owned organization,” and if she wanted to learn more she could scan the QR code. This marked the beginning of the weekend-long trend of gratitude, surprise, and curiosity surrounding “wtf is nouns?”
After arriving at the campgrounds, we once again piled on our belongings and headed deeper into the lush forest to find our new home for the next few days. The festival grounds were insanely beautiful, even for Texas Hill Country standards. Rolling hills smothered in wildflowers and sprinkled with cacti cascaded as far as the eyes could see. We were able to find a nice, shaded spot just the right distance from the main path and festival. This ended up being pretty fortunate, as we later heard from others that ended up at campsites much farther away that the extra walking made enjoying the festival significantly harder. I can only imagine! Even with our lucky campsite, I don’t remember ever walking that much in my entire life. By the end of each day, my legs had turned to jello.. not the good kind either, but jello covered in dirt, sweat, and tears (of my enemies).
After setting up our tent and meeting our new neighbors, we headed to the festival to start familiarizing ourselves with the area and catch some music. We got some food too, which was surprisingly plentiful and delicious, but also painfully expensive. Fortunately we were also able to source calories from snacks throughout the weekend that we brought from home.
After a surprisingly good night’s sleep at camp, we woke up, caffeinated, and headed straight to the Texas Onchain stage with the eclipse noggles in tow. The Texas Onchain stage consisted of a nice stage for panels and talks, flat screen TVs with NFT art, a comfy covered seating area, and an inviting uncovered front porch made of astro turf. There was also a chill hangout area in the back with electricity for charging and mini fridges stocked with drinks. We handed out eclipse noggles to the early bird attendees, placed a few stacks in strategic spots for people to pick up, and stashed the rest in the hangout area. After catching a few inspiring talks, it was time to explore some more.
There was so much to do at the festival, it was impossible to catch it all. From interactive art installations like the House of Mirrors and Meow Wolf, to non-stop yoga/meditation sessions, to fascinating talks about topics including space, crypto, and psychedelics, there was never a shortage of things to do, and no way you could do it all. We accepted the inevitability of fomo, and leaned more towards going with the flow rather than rigid planning. Our strategy was to make sure to catch the artists that we really wanted to see, like Boogie T, Floozies, Bob Moses, and Zed’s Dead, and then explore, hand out eclipse noggles, and see or make friends at every step in between. My only complaint about the festival is that the phone service was virtually non-existent. While I was able to receive texts occasionally, I was helpless at sending anything. This made it incredibly hard to meet up with friends, and was especially scary when my gf and I lost each other in the crowd late one night while migrating to the next show with friends. Thankfully our group of friends had a large lamp totem, and after about 10 minutes of frantic searching, I was able to find everyone.
We returned to the Texas Onchain stage periodically throughout the weekend to chill, shill, catch talks, and restock on eclipse noggles. The vibes were phenomenal, and the quality of content was surprisingly great considering crypto was just one facet of the festival. Although the location wasn’t optimal and was off the beaten path, the talks were often packed, leaving the audience spilling out onto the uncovered turf. Beyond the web3 enthusiasts attending (a few of which stopped me when I walked by in Noggles and/or a crypto shirt), the majority of attendees were either crypto-curious or crypto-cantankerous. It was so cool to see people with little-to-no crypto knowledge walk up to the onchain area, be greeted and offered eclipse noggles, and then hang out or even sit down to enjoy a talk. DAOs and Network States seemed to be the most interesting topics to the attendees that were just beginning their web3 journey, and it was awesome to hear multiple beginners asking how they could get involved. Both Nouns and ATX DAO are prime examples to portray the power of crypto in web3 to those that haven’t yet been exposed to use cases beyond finance, which while important too, only interests some of us.
At night, the Onchain stage transformed into a dance party called “Invisible Intersection,” which was just as lit as it sounds. Creating an atmosphere in which web3 nerds will dance is something only a few top parties, like raave, have managed to accomplish. Whether it was the lunar phenomenon or something in the water, Invisible Intersection had no problem getting the dance party started and keeping it going late into the night.
As a nerd that also likes to party, nothing made me happier than getting to tell anyone who would listen about web3, Nouns, and ATX DAO between incredible performances with some of craziest light shows I’ve ever witnessed. I like to believe we changed some lives this weekend, and that the lives we changed will proceed to change other lives. Crypto is a viral concept spread by humans. The best way to learn about crypto is from a passionate individual (or group) with a deep understanding and appreciation for the technology and ethos that make web3 unique. Both Nouns and ATX DAO are made up entirely of these individuals, and the eclipse festival was the perfect place for us to expand our reach beyond web3 and the Austin community.
Festival attendees come in all shapes and sizes, but if I had to stereotype them, I’d say the average attendee is weirder, more open-minded, and more rebellious than the average person. They also tend to have some disposable income. This makes them prime candidates to onchain. While out of the ~500 noggles we were able to hand out, there have only been 17 QR code scans and 7 link clicks so far (41% CTR), this isn’t too surprising considering the cellular service void. Time will tell how effective this strategy was and whether it was worth the expense, but considering the low cost (~$1000), the bar we need to pass is relatively low. Beyond the potential for positive ROI on investment, we did a lot of good this weekend and hopefully changed some lives.
Most importantly, we had a ton of fun, which is rule #1.
