Vineland?
For a huge music festival organized by the people behind Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and festivals in Glastonbury and Reading, England?
That's a tough one to wrap your mind around at first, Vineland, N.J. being more associated with depressed economic conditions, migrant workers, chicken farmers and a drive-in movie theater than alt rock music festivals featuring the likes of Amy Winehouse, the White Stripes and Dylan. But waddaya know, Vineland is suddenly a cool global brand. It's already, as my well-read colleague notes, the name of a Thomas Pynchon book (set in California), and Patti Smith, who grew up in nearby Woodbury, wrote about Vineland in a song aptly titled "Ain't it Strange." So maybe it was inevitable. Bring it on. We're always ready for drop-ins at the shore in August. What's another 150,000 who bring their own sleeping bags? Fairmount Park's dunderheaded loss is the Jersey shore's gain this summer, Vineland being just a few dozen miles of curvy back roads from most shore points, pretty much suburban Jersey shore. As one commenter on the Vineland daily newspaper's website joked, "I can hear it now: Rte 49 is closed, man." Hopefully not route 40, though. Who knows, one day, telling people you hang at the Jersey shore may yield this response: Hey, isn't that near Vineland?