Dwagenheim
08-01-02, 12:18 PM
The weather was great despite some early rain. We played frisbee, I rode around on bike and hung out outside the festival tent at the craft sales area. I tied some hemp necklaces and chatted with some of the vendors, Tracy, Shawn, and Tim. Music workshops were going on all over town. I caught some great bluegrass at the gazebo before heading back to the tent for some of the evening shows. Nick, another volunteer was hooking me up with beers but the music wasn't all that much for me to get excited about. I told my ticket for 15 bucks since I'd gotten a wristband for the evening. Midnight rolled around pretty quickly and I caught the festival finale where they had all the musicians up on stage for the last song. That was pretty cool. After the end of the show I chatted with some others in the area and wondered where the next party was. We heard there was a volunteer party, but actually it was for the volunteers that had to supervise and had a little more responsibility and more hours to work. I rode around collecting info and a few people that would accompany me on my party crash. I found some good people and on our way we encountered a couple musicians from one of the bands, one was playing a violin and the other an accordion. They marched through the streets playing tunes and we followed along dancing. It was great. We came up to a park and found a few more musicians, Ian and Ragu with guitars and Emily on her viola. We listened to a nice collaborative jam and rolled up a European joint (with tobacco) with my new friend Patrick from Switzerland. Just then, the owner of a nearby hotel came out to crash our party and tell us to stop the music. So we shut down the jam to head towards the party. The police approached us shortly after to make sure we were moving out and one asked who had pot. We said some kids were around trying to sell it, but there was none here. All the same time while one of us had this joint burning in hand. They bought it and left us alone. We found the party and were at the front of the house when a couple of security guys asked us if we had buttons. Buttons were the nametags that separated the volunteers who were deserving of this party from us apparently were not. The guy was giving us a hard time but I did some smooth talking and got all 10 or so of us in. This party was probably one of the highlights of the weekend. We got to mingle with the musicians and locals, we had free food and drink, and there were little jam sessions in every room of this nice house. The Gypsy Kings' music was playing in the kitchen and everyone was dancing around the food table that was appropriately laden with Mexican favorites as well as other finger food. We considered ourselves very lucky to be a part of a great party and stayed until about 5am then headed back to camp. What a night. (8 miles)
Peace
Dave
Peace
Dave