Festival Folk

Emerging from the woods after a weekend long camping excursion can be a truly gratifying experience. Unplugging from all forms of electronic devices and taking in all that nature has to offer proves to be an eye opening practice. After venturing to the music festival known as Shakori Hills last weekend, I will say that while the wonderful sounds and smell of nature were quite enjoyable, there is something to be said for the visual side of things. Let’s begin with the basics, at any given music festival it is pretty well understood that you will run into a few certain kinds of folks. To start, there are the avid campers who come fully loaded with every Coleman and various REI product known to man. There are the semi-serious nature enthusiasts who really like to get out there but are also fine enjoying the comforts of indoor life. Scattered amongst the crowd you will find a spectrum of ages and races but I personally find the most interesting group to be the hippies. Yes, I know that the term hippie can be rather broad and cover a lot of various aspects of nature-loving people but the particular clan I am referring to seem to be in a league of their own. Take for example last Saturday afternoon- I am sitting by the camp site enjoying a nice meal when this barefoot and somewhat confused individual comes meandering along. Not really seeming to notice us sitting there, or the dozens of other campsites for that matter, this young man approaches and starts to pet a nearby tree. This continues for about five awkward minutes until he suddenly seems to have gained all necessary non-verbal communication and wanders off to another grassy area. To be honest, this was not extremely unusual considering the above disclaimer revolving around festivals but it still rather amusing. This same man showed up again about thirty minutes later with what appeared to be a large boulder in his arms and proceeded to do some sort of squat-prayer routine which I would imagine is unaffiliated with any sort of organized practice. Needless to say, musical gatherings tend to bring a rather eclectic crowd and provide almost as much entertainment and yes, joy as the performers themselves.