Stonefest: It's about a rock

Ah Stonefest. The reason behind it has been obscured (it's a celebration to mark the placing of the foundation stone by Prime Minister John Gorton in 1968) in favor of it becoming the largest music festival in Canberra. Bands and DJ's perform almost constantly from Friday night to late Saturday night on four stages on various parts of campus. Not only that, but the week prior to Stonefest (aptly named 'Stoneweek') holds events sponsored by the Student's Association. Each residence makes a shirt, usually a crude pun, and students wear them all week to the events. Unfortunately, my design didn't make the cut (they opted for this piece of crap) - as I had no idea drug references and sexual innuendo were the shirt of choice. I'll outline the various days of Stoneweek; all drunken debauchery included.

Monday - Nemesis Day: Tie yourself to a friend and go drink-for-drink with them from noon 'til whenever you pass out.

Tuesday - Trivia Night: Aussies love their trivia. Prizes included flavored condoms. +5 points if you peed in a cup and turned it in to be tested for chlamydia.

Wednesday - UCtoberfest: Band, beer, and BBQ on the lawn. Followed by 'Cowboys and Indians' night at the bar. Horrible grammatical pun of Oktoberfest.

Thursday - Case Day: You have from 10am to drink an entire case of the alcohol of your choice, but there must be 24 of them. Pizza and music provided.

Friday - Stone Eve: Beer and BBQ with your dorm, then head off to the concerts.

The concerts were great. With four stages playing simultaneously, there is always something halfway decent to listen to. Plus you can wander around to the food vendors and t-shirt stalls. I only knew of one performer, Scribe, so I was especially excited about that show. He's a hip-hop artist from New Zealand, and his show was pretty rowdy, which made my front-row spot excitingly dangerous. Saturday drew more bands who I'd never heard of, but which weren't too bad at all. I think I saw about eight concerts all together, and that's not counting Monday!

The John Butler Trio had been scheduled to perform at the University of Canberra back in August, but had to postpone the show for some reason or another. I couldn't afford the ticket then, and couldn't now, but the fact that they'd switched to an outdoor venue (actually a stage from Stonefest) meant that I could at least find a nice spot and listen from outside. I found a spot. Actually, I found an amazing spot. An elevated walkway between two buildings provided an almost unrestricted view of the stage while still being outside of the venue. Perfect, right?

Not according to the security guards for the concert. Apparently, the few of us who were on the walkway watching the show could see it too well and were asked to leave. We conceded and retreated to another spot where, if you ducked and squinted, could see the screen with closeups of the band. We were temporarily satisfied with this, but got to talking about how great the view was before we were told to move. We decided that, since we were outside of the fence surrounding the venue and on public property, they couldn't really make us leave, all they could do was ask politely.

So we kept going back - failing miserably each time to assert our right to be there, and making the security guards walk up the ramp lots and lots of times. We ended up hearing most of the concert, and seeing the best bits (with carefully chosen times to return to the 'sweet spot'), so I was pretty happy about it.

[note: I had class on Nemisis Day and didn't participate in Case Day. Such activities are more fun to watch from the sidelines with a beer, watching other people humiliate themselves]

STA Stands for [expletive] Travel Agency

[UPDATE]
Halfway through writing to the STA in Knoxville, I got an email from... the STA in Knoxville. The branch manager, Scott, read my post and sent me a message explaining what had probably happened with STA here, and even researched flights that I could switch to (the lowest being $219, nice!).
[UPDATE]
My overpriced flight has still not been canceled, as the STA here is apparently the only branch that can do that, and they're dragging their feet about it. If I can get in touch with United Airlines 24 hours a day, why can't they?
[UPDATE]
It's been 3 weeks since they put it in to be canceled and refunded. I did a little internet digging and called the STA corporate office in Melbourne. I spoke with an extremely nice woman in the refunds department (I think she might BE the refunds department), who assured me I would be refunded this week. We'll see.

I hate dealing with situations that should not need my intervention, especially if they are potentially going to cost me 800 bucks.

Here's what happened: Back in May I arranged my flight to Australia through STA Travel on campus at UT. Because I didn't know when I would be returning to the States, I arbitrarily picked a date in November for my return flight, knowing that I would have to change it later on. Not a problem, they assured me. It wasn't. The problem came when I tried to add another leg to my ticket this afternoon at the STA at the University of Canberra.

I hadn't booked a flight from LA to Knoxville because it's really expensive to change the dates on a domestic flight (usually more than 100 dollars), and I figured I would just book it when I figured out when I needed to come home. The one way ticket from Knoxville to LA was about 250 dollars, a perfectly acceptable price. $850, is not an acceptable price, but that is what they quoted me. I figured I'd pay it, and then look around online to see if I could find a better deal, and then cancel with STA. I should have checked online first.

The most expensive way I can find to get from LA to Knoxville is 609 dollars. Cheapest? 260 dollars.

I trotted back to STA to tell them I needed to cancel my flight, to which they said it was a non-refundable flight and that there was "nothing we can do, sorry." They couldn't even switch my flight to another carrier. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this something I should have been informed of before I shelled out 850 dollars?

Frankly, I felt like I was being screwed over, so I called United Airlines. Two different representatives told me that they don't even sell "non-refundable" tickets and that they could refund my money directly after they received the payment information from STA.

Back on the phone to STA, I explained the conversation I just had with United. Their reaction? "We'll call you back." About 15 minutes later they call me back, and suddenly they are able to change the flight and carrier. "I found a cheaper flight for you!" the girl told me, as if they were doing me a favor. At this point I'm so disillusioned with STA that I told them that I no longer needed the flight and needed it canceled. I don't mind collecting my bag and checking in at the airport again if it's going to save me 600 bucks. I've been told that they're going to contact their United representative and get back to me tomorrow. I'll make sure I post updates.