Animal|Mother|Films

Every second Saturday of July for the past twenty-eight years the tiny California community of Laguna Niguel sees itself become the host of an improbably recurring event which is popularly known as "Moon Amtrak".  Centered around the Mugs Away Saloon and located in an industrial area of town, the festival is inspired by JT Smith's drunken offer to buy a beer for anyone who would come out with him and moon the Amtrak passenger trains which were whizzing by on some nearby tracks.  While evolving over the yearsinto a sort of Mardi Gras for the Southern California biker community, the festival has remained curiously friendly to anyone who wants to pull their pants down, and welcomes everyone from grandmothers to newlyweds.  Without any central coordination the party now gets upwards of 3,000 people a year, some of whom begin to park their RVs along the route several days early to get the best spots.  With a generally well-behaved crowd, the biggest threat to Moon Amtrak's continued survival may actually be something as banal as condo construction, as the surrounding gated communities look to gobble up more real estate.

Official selection 2009 Cinerail Film Festival