Willie's picnic is back, y'all. After a pandemic hiatus, the Texas summer tradition returns to Austin — at an all-new location.
Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic and Fireworks will take over Austin's new Q2 Stadium on July 4, 2022. So far, the star-studded lineup of outlaw country and Americana artists includes Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, Tyler Childers, Brothers Osborne, Midland, Charley Crockett, Allison Russell, Particle Kid, Steve Earle & the Dukes, and Asleep at the Wheel, plus a performance by Willie Nelson & Family.
“I’m so happy to be bringing back my annual 4th of July Picnic for the first time in two years,” Nelson says via release. “Come on down. We missed you.”
This marks 50 years since Nelson's first 4th of July Picnic, which took place in Dripping Springs in 1972. Over the years, the picnic has traversed Texas, with Nelson and friends playing at such iconic spots as Luckenbach, Texas and Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth.
"I got the idea from Woodstock about how music could bring people from different places together. I had just moved to Austin and had come to realize what a great music center it was and could be," Nelson said in 2015 when announcing the picnic's return to the Austin.
The event also marks the first concert at Q2 Stadium, home to Austin FC, the city's Major League Soccer team. "We can’t think of a better first concert for Q2 Stadium than Willie Nelson & Family," Austin FC President Andy Loughnane says. "Willie is an iconic local artist and we look forward to celebrating the Fourth of July holiday at Q2 Stadium."
Tickets for the 2022 picnic go on sale Friday, April 15, at 10 am via https://q2stadium.com. Doors for the show will open at 11 am, with music kicking off at noon. The event promises 10 hours of tunes, plus "delicious food, drinks, and fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July holiday."
Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.
The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.
The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.
That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.
Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.
The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little to no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.
There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.
Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.
