Mi padre cree que el festival está mejor de lo que esperaba, aunque hay demasiada gente junto al primer puesto.

After an affirmative verb of belief like creer que, Spanish normally uses the indicative, because the speaker is presenting the information as something believed to be true.

So:

• Mi padre cree que el festival está mejor = My father thinks the festival is better.

If you make the belief negative or doubtful, the subjunctive is common:

• Mi padre no cree que el festival esté mejor.

Here estar is used because the sentence is talking about the festival’s current condition or how it is going, not about some permanent or defining quality.

• está mejor = it is better / it is going better / it seems better
• es mejor = it is better in a more general, inherent, or defining sense

In this context, the father is judging the festival as an experience right now, so está mejor sounds natural.

This is a very common Spanish comparative pattern:

• mejor de lo que esperaba
• literally: better than what I/he expected
• natural English: better than expected / better than I/he expected

Spanish often uses de lo que after a comparative when the second part is a clause rather than just a noun.

Compare:

• Es mejor que el otro festival. = It is better than the other festival.
  
  • comparison with a noun phrase
• Está mejor de lo que esperaba. = It is better than I/he expected.
  
  • comparison with a whole idea/clause

The lo here is neuter and refers to an unspecified amount or degree: that which / what.

Esperaba is imperfect because it refers to an ongoing expectation in the background before the speaker or father experienced the festival.

That is exactly the kind of thing the imperfect is good for:

• background thoughts
• expectations
• descriptions
• ongoing states in the past

So de lo que esperaba means something like:

• than I/he had been expecting
• than I/he expected

Using the preterite here would sound less natural in this context.

On its own, esperaba is ambiguous, because the imperfect form can mean:

• I was expecting
• he was expecting
• she was expecting
• you were expecting (formal)

Spanish often leaves the subject unstated when it is understood from context. So the real subject depends on the surrounding conversation or on the meaning already given to the learner.

If you want to make it explicit, you could say:

• de lo que yo esperaba = than I expected
• de lo que él esperaba = than he expected

Because the crowd is being presented as a real, known fact.

• aunque hay demasiada gente... = although there are too many people...
• This means the speaker is stating it as something true.

With aunque, Spanish can use either indicative or subjunctive depending on meaning:

• aunque hay mucha gente = although there are a lot of people
  
  • real fact
• aunque haya mucha gente = even if there are a lot of people
  
  • hypothetical or not being asserted as fact

So in this sentence, hay is correct because the crowd is actually there.

Spanish uses hay to mean there is / there are when talking about existence or presence in a place.

So:

• Hay demasiada gente = There are too many people

Estar is not used in the same way for simple existence. You would use estar for the location of something already identified:

• La gente está junto al primer puesto. = The people are next to the first stall.

A useful shortcut:

• hay = there is / there are
• está / están = is / are located

Because gente is grammatically singular in Spanish, even though it refers to many people.

So Spanish says:

• mucha gente
• demasiada gente
• poca gente

not:

• muchas gente
• demasiadas gente

This is a very common point for English speakers, because English treats people as plural, but Spanish gente behaves like a singular collective noun.

Junto a means next to, beside, or right by.

So:

• junto al primer puesto = next to the first stall/stand

The al is just a contraction:

• a + el = al

So:

• junto a el primer puesto is not correct
• junto al primer puesto is correct

You can think of it as:

• junto a
  • el primer puesto
• becomes
• junto al primer puesto

Because primero shortens to primer before a masculine singular noun.

So:

• el primer puesto
• el primer día
• el primer problema

But if the word stands alone, you use primero:

• Fue el primero.

This shortening also happens with tercero:

• el tercer día

In this context, especially with a festival, puesto most likely means a stall, stand, or booth.

So:

• el primer puesto = the first stall/stand

That makes sense because the sentence says junto al primer puesto, which describes a physical location.

Be careful: puesto has several meanings in Spanish, including:

• job/position = un puesto de trabajo
• place/rank = el primer puesto = first place

But here, because of the festival setting and junto al, the meaning is almost certainly stall/stand.

Yes. Junto al and al lado del are both natural and very similar here.

• junto al primer puesto
• al lado del primer puesto

Both mean next to the first stall/stand.

A slight difference:

• junto a can sound a bit more direct or compact
• al lado de is extremely common and often feels a little more conversational

In Spain, both are perfectly normal.

Spanish very often omits subject pronouns and even subject nouns when they are understood from context. This is one of the biggest differences from English.

So instead of saying:

• Mi padre cree que el festival está mejor de lo que él esperaba

Spanish often simply says:

• Mi padre cree que el festival está mejor de lo que esperaba

The verb form and the context usually tell you who the subject is. In this particular case, the form esperaba is not fully specific by itself, so only the wider context tells you whether it means I expected, he expected, and so on.