I think I’ve finally recovered from sleep deprivation caused by my weekend at the Folk Fest. The festival is always one of the highlights of my summer and this year was no different. I love discovering new music, sitting on the hill and watching the night sky, writhing in the sea of humanity known as the dance area and just soaking up the general feeling of peace and relaxation that seems to take over the whole site. But the best thing about it is spending time with friends I love.
Eleven years ago I attended my first Folk Fest with Mike, Ed, Avrum, Donna, Brian, Judith and some other ball-playing friends. I knew nothing about how things worked but was soon educated with respect to tarp running, workshop attendance and socializing in the beer gardens.
I have amazing, wonderful, kind-hearted and generous-of-spirit friends. I’ve had the pleasure of attending Folk Fest with many of them and creating some great memories.
One year, I was walking to the site with my then-boyfriend when he noticed that he had lost his ticket. We started retracing our steps and met up with Avrum who had actually found the ticket quite a way back from where we met him…Another year, it poured rain on one night, so I huddled up on the hill with Avrum and Donna and we drank cinnamon schnapps to keep warm…Another year, Rich and I danced for hours in the pouring rain. We didn’t care, we had ponchos…Then there was the year that Su’s friend, Darlene and I lucked out and got into the first tarp group. We were about four tarps back from the stage and VERY popular that day…Roger has his own FF group, but he always makes a special guest appearance on our tarp…One of the really memorable years was the first one that Mike brought Su and Ed brought Jen. Unlike other females who came and went over the years, I could tell that these two were really special. Special enough that they married these lovely women two years later.
Our little group of friends has experienced beer garden shenanigans, been witness to a variety of each other’s relationship squabbles and watched the kids grow up and get bigger every year. We meet up with each other’s friends in the beer gardens and don’t see them again until the following year. Most friends come and go, depending upon what else they have going on in the summer, but the one person who is the constant for me is Mike.
In my mind, without Mike there is no Folk Fest. He was there at the beginning. He shares many of the same memories. He has been the ticket-procurer, tarp-runner and organizer extraordinaire for many Folk Fests. He has a heart the size of the universe and in the worst year of my life when I lost my job, my boyfriend and my sense of purpose within the span of a few weeks, he rallied my friends and they all pitched in for my ticket. So yeah, Mike is pretty important to my whole Folk Fest experience…and now Su, too, of course.
This year I got to share the festival experience with friends who attended for the first time. Thanks to some convincing by her Folk Fest cherry-busting buddy, Keith, Cookie dipped her geeky hippie toes into the lukewarm festival waters on Thursday night, then dove in completely with Dusty on Sunday. We all danced like crazy people for nearly two hours and engaged in general silliness. It was the first time we danced together, and from the amount of fun generated it’s hopefully not the last!
Another new friend I danced with for the first time was David. Ah, David. Normally, I wouldn’t think that slow dancing in the beer gardens with the guy drooling all over my shoulder would be a highlight, but David is special and it was his first time at the festival. I can forgive a little drool. After all, he’s only 4 months old. Last year he was sort of in attendance, but he didn’t get to see much and it wasn’t really easy to dance with him. This year, he got to see everything and be admired by one and all. If ever there was a kid that’s gonna grow up at the Folk Fest, it’s David. Incidentally, Mike and Su are pretty integral to his whole Folk Fest experience, too.
Ok, there’s this goofy little thing I started doing there. I knit little dishcloths. There’s a lot of time spent sitting around and listening to music. I like my hands to be occupied, so I knit. I like to think of it as symbolically knitting the music into the cloth. Then I give them to my friends so they can remember what fun we had at the festival. Crazy, huh?
To all of my wonderful friends who have shared my lovely Folk Fests for the past eleven years, I thank you. You’ve made every one of them special and memorable. And to those of you who haven’t been there with me yet, we will have to go. I can’t think of a better experience to share with the people who also share a special place in my heart.
I love you guys!
Eleven years ago I attended my first Folk Fest with Mike, Ed, Avrum, Donna, Brian, Judith and some other ball-playing friends. I knew nothing about how things worked but was soon educated with respect to tarp running, workshop attendance and socializing in the beer gardens.
I have amazing, wonderful, kind-hearted and generous-of-spirit friends. I’ve had the pleasure of attending Folk Fest with many of them and creating some great memories.
One year, I was walking to the site with my then-boyfriend when he noticed that he had lost his ticket. We started retracing our steps and met up with Avrum who had actually found the ticket quite a way back from where we met him…Another year, it poured rain on one night, so I huddled up on the hill with Avrum and Donna and we drank cinnamon schnapps to keep warm…Another year, Rich and I danced for hours in the pouring rain. We didn’t care, we had ponchos…Then there was the year that Su’s friend, Darlene and I lucked out and got into the first tarp group. We were about four tarps back from the stage and VERY popular that day…Roger has his own FF group, but he always makes a special guest appearance on our tarp…One of the really memorable years was the first one that Mike brought Su and Ed brought Jen. Unlike other females who came and went over the years, I could tell that these two were really special. Special enough that they married these lovely women two years later.
Our little group of friends has experienced beer garden shenanigans, been witness to a variety of each other’s relationship squabbles and watched the kids grow up and get bigger every year. We meet up with each other’s friends in the beer gardens and don’t see them again until the following year. Most friends come and go, depending upon what else they have going on in the summer, but the one person who is the constant for me is Mike.
In my mind, without Mike there is no Folk Fest. He was there at the beginning. He shares many of the same memories. He has been the ticket-procurer, tarp-runner and organizer extraordinaire for many Folk Fests. He has a heart the size of the universe and in the worst year of my life when I lost my job, my boyfriend and my sense of purpose within the span of a few weeks, he rallied my friends and they all pitched in for my ticket. So yeah, Mike is pretty important to my whole Folk Fest experience…and now Su, too, of course.
This year I got to share the festival experience with friends who attended for the first time. Thanks to some convincing by her Folk Fest cherry-busting buddy, Keith, Cookie dipped her geeky hippie toes into the lukewarm festival waters on Thursday night, then dove in completely with Dusty on Sunday. We all danced like crazy people for nearly two hours and engaged in general silliness. It was the first time we danced together, and from the amount of fun generated it’s hopefully not the last!
Another new friend I danced with for the first time was David. Ah, David. Normally, I wouldn’t think that slow dancing in the beer gardens with the guy drooling all over my shoulder would be a highlight, but David is special and it was his first time at the festival. I can forgive a little drool. After all, he’s only 4 months old. Last year he was sort of in attendance, but he didn’t get to see much and it wasn’t really easy to dance with him. This year, he got to see everything and be admired by one and all. If ever there was a kid that’s gonna grow up at the Folk Fest, it’s David. Incidentally, Mike and Su are pretty integral to his whole Folk Fest experience, too.
Ok, there’s this goofy little thing I started doing there. I knit little dishcloths. There’s a lot of time spent sitting around and listening to music. I like my hands to be occupied, so I knit. I like to think of it as symbolically knitting the music into the cloth. Then I give them to my friends so they can remember what fun we had at the festival. Crazy, huh?
To all of my wonderful friends who have shared my lovely Folk Fests for the past eleven years, I thank you. You’ve made every one of them special and memorable. And to those of you who haven’t been there with me yet, we will have to go. I can’t think of a better experience to share with the people who also share a special place in my heart.
I love you guys!
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Today’s Treasure: Blue-dee-doo the Fuzzeroo and I went for a walk in the ravine where I was delighted to find ripe Saskatoons, choke cherries and pin cherries. I was grooving to Michael Franti and eating the sun-warmed berries fresh off the bushes while Blue did his doggy rounds. We also visited our favourite look-out point on that path and sat communing with nature for a while. Sometimes all the elements just come together and create a few precious minutes of pure bliss.
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And we love you, Laurel! Yay Folkfest fun!
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