^see this cup? it pretty much defines the grassroots festival of music and dance. happiness. randomness. colorfulness. eclecticness. every year they have a new cup, and when you bring back your old one, you get discounted drinks! what a great deal.
basically, this was one of the best weekends of my life. never have i ever felt so completely connected to music before. the band in the picture above is john brown's body. they're a reggae band with a dave matthews feel....so basically they're perfect. their concert was friday night at midnight and they played for almost 2 hours. this might sound strange, but i definitely think i was having an out-of-body spiritual experience during this concert. i was jamming out in the very front with emma and jane; my body was completely controlled by the rhythm of the music. i don't think i've ever danced like that in my life. i was brought to a whooolllleee new musical level that night. it also helped that another jam band, sim redmond, played right before JBB-and they, too, were wonderful.
the thing i loved most about this festival was that even though i had barely heard of any of the artists before, i enjoyed their performances almost more than when i see artists i've liked forever. this is because of 3 reasons: 1) you have no expectations because you don't know what their music is like so you're pleasantly surprised when they're really, really good. 2) EVERYBODY dances to the music. it doesn't matter what the genre is, literally everyone is grooving in one form or another. and 3) i could easily make my way to the front of the stage and completely immerse myself in the music.
another cool thing about this festival is that most of the performers actually camp out on site. i didn't even do that! but they hang around for all 4 days to support the other artists. you would see them with their families wandering around, and it was refreshing to know they have normal lives, too. i even got to talk to the drummer of the makepeace brothers for 15 minutes after their show because he was just that type of guy to talk to 3 random girls about music.
not only was everyone consistently dancing, but everyone was HAPPY. so happy. i'm convinced this place was happier than disney world-and that's saying a lot!!!
my favorite artists/performances from the festival: john brown's body, the makepeace brothers, driftwood, the gunpoets, thousands of one, sim redmond band, willie watson and the zydeco band. can't stop listening to their CDs in my car. i'm SO glad i went to the festival, and i'm already looking forward to next summer!!
peace out,
hill
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