Nowadays, what, exactly, is underground?
Early to Bed, a feminist sex shop based in Andersonville, has donated condoms and lube for the occasion. “We’re promoting safe sex at the drive-in,” says the festival’s executive producer Taila Howe. “So for anyone who doesn’t vibe with the movies. . . that is an option.”
“I was really stoked with the way that the festival was panning out, and then. . . COVID,” says Howe. “I went and had a beautiful experience with psychedelic mushrooms in the woods, and it was absolutely fantastic, and then that helped me recenter.”
Wendorf and Howe are forthright about the struggles they’ve faced in putting on this festival, which relies heavily on staffers and volunteers who don’t necessarily do this as their full-time job. Everything will be awesome, they say, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to pretend everything has been awesome. “It is what it is,” says Wendorf. “This has been our motto this year.” Still, Howe is admirably optimistic.
