I'm Going to Camp Out on the Land; I'm Gonna Try an' Get My Soul Free

So, was it fun? No, the Vancouver Island MusicFest wasn't fun. It was, in parts:

Inspirational. Entertaining. Breathtaking. Hilarious. Spiritual. Happy. Difficult. Relaxing. Exhausting. Incredible.

Bashu serenades the river

We wouldn't know where to begin to explain the scenario. On a superficial level, we camped at the volunteer campsite, thrice worked in the kitchen, and saw a lot of music. But that description completely overlooks countless crucial and experience-defining details.

Photo by Ron Pogue

Hippie festival-goers in the midst of a mudfight.  Photo by Ron Pogue.

For example: That after six days in a campsite with six or seven other people, after comparing our cases of river itch, after watching a complex interplay develop between various camp-members, after celebrating a birthday and creating music together every single night!...we had taken on an almost familial relationship to each other. This is our camp-family:

Uncle Cathy fashions herself a bra.

Melanie's "55 and Fabulous" celebration

Melanie constructs a fortress of scarves.

Steff's salmon-barbecuing lesson

Or how about the magical way that, once one of us began to play a guitar, other volunteers from other camps would descend like drunken, delighted insects upon a throbbing melodic flame?

A veritable jamfest

How could we begin to describe the way that on the last night, a complete stranger with an accordion borrowed a guitar of ours, and we began a parade at 2 a.m. that other musical volunteers joined with their various and sundry instruments? The way we found ourselves in a procession of at least fifty people, with guitars, lutes, fiddles, drums, a concertina, and a trombone, singing "Hava Nagila"? That our parade collided with an impromptu wedding procession, led by a security guard? That the we and the newlyweds waltzed whimsically to "Auld Lang Syne"? Did this even really happen, we asked ourselves the next day.

The happy couple- photo by Ron Pogue

What about our three kitchen shifts, how were they? Enjoyable! Did we really sing for the duration of the final shift, as we prepared and served lunch for 1,300 volunteers and performers?

Kitchen staff

After our first shift

And the music! The constant stream of musician after musician! The bottomless pool of talent! The skill, the way the musicians were so wholly attuned (no pun intended), the complexity of style, the simplicity of style, and the magic that overtook everyone once the music began to play!

Did we really see Alison Krauss, Randy Newman, and David Crosby in one weekend? Did it really happen at all?

Alison Krauss and Union Station

The MarchFourth Marching Band

Let's take back that original statement. VI MusicFest was tremendous fun.

Next up! The fine city of Vancouver, then Steff and Nancy return to the land!

Note: special thanks to Mandy, Marni, and Karen for the use of their wonderful photos! Also, readers: feel free to leave a comment behind. Tell us about your wondrous, trippy, or dionysian festival experiences!

The Quest Quotient by Nancy Howie and Steff Werman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at thequestquotient2011.blogspot.com.