The Great Blue Heron Festival

Main Stage

Full House/Hillside

Rocking Out

Uninhibited Fun

It's 6:30 and I have been up an hour, on a bright sunny morning, a shimmering lake and a cool 53º.  I heard bass boats roar out my window and thinking it was 6:00, I came downstairs only to discover it was 5:30.  Then, at 6:00, another group of bass boats took off, confusing me more.  There must be more than one tournament.  Not so as I found out on my morning paddle.  There are two groups of bass boats, one takes off at 5:30, the other at 6:00, according to bass fishermen I talked to this morning.

5:37

6:03

Sandpiper

Yesterday was our typical Saturday morning with a few exceptions.  It started, for me, with a long paddle, for Evie, watering her garden early morning.  We then did a few things that needed doing, like hanging the blackout curtains in the TV room, something Evie has been wanting for months (years). Since Saturday is trash day, Evie went through both freezers, throwing out that stuff that tends to hide until you clean it out a year later.  I then drove to the Transfer Center, very busy because of the fourth of July weekend.  We also started organizing for our late afternoon and evening at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival in Sherman. It's a three-day event, with three stages, bands that play from noon till midnight, all kinds of food trucks and shopping stalls, and camping for thousands.  It's been going on for 27 years, sort of a mini Woodstock, and this was our second visit.

Around 1:00, Evie made a delicious salmon salad, which we shared and I watched England go two up on Sweden.  I did not care much who won but England clearly outplayed the Swedes.  Evie went out on the dock to read until it was time to gather our backpacks, drinks, food, insect repellent, and chairs and drive twenty minutes to the Festival.  We arrived at 3:30, had a brief wait for tickets, sixty bucks a piece, then parked off in a field, about a half mile from the venue.

Tractor Bringing In Another Load From The Parking Area

We were fortunate to get a ride to the main venue from the parking area.  It's a crowded hill, overlooking, the main stage, with thousands in chairs, blankets, or just sitting.  We walked around (Evie relying on her walking stick) looking for a good spot and found a roped off area, the Beer Garden, and settled in there despite the fact that we did not drink their beer.  No one seemed to bother us or ask us to leave and it was a perfect place, shady with a great view of the main stage.

Uncle Ben's Remedy Going Wild

We left our backpacks and chairs at the table and went to the dance tent to hear one of our favorite bands, UNCLE BEN'S REMEDY.  We heard them last fall at THE WHITE CARROT fall gathering and liked them.  They are energetic and fun, the dance floor was packed with young and old, many in hippy era regalia.  We loved it and stayed until they finished.

Evie And Judy,  Our New Pittsburgh BFF

Rochester Guys At The Beer Garden

We then went back to the Beer Garden to listen to another band we were familiar with, THE SUN KING WARRIORS because they have played in Jamestown at the benefit for the Infinity Music Group.  We struck up a conversation with Judy, a part-time disc jockey from Pittsburgh, and had fun talking with her for an hour as we sipped our first beer, ate Pringles and pretzels and occasionally listened to the band.

Happy Heron

Dressing For The Festival

Lots Of Variety

An Old Hippie, Lovin It

Hanging Out At The Heron

Part of the fun is just walking, visiting the clothes stalls, watching the variety of music fans, many dressed in bizarre outfits, their chance to be uninhibited.  There were also many families, with kids of all ages, running around, seemingly unaccompanied by their parents.  And there were parents with infants as well as a few concertgoers our age, to round out the eras.

Smackdab, From Jamestown

SMACKBAB, our other favorite band, from Jamestown, was playing in the Dance Tent at 6:30, so we talked Judy into going to hear them and she loved them.  We stood around bopping to their energetic tunes, and with the addition of a saxophone player, they were better than ever. They had been on a hiatus for at least six months but it did not show.  They loved playing and the hundreds if not a thousand fans loved them as well.

Camping With Tie Dye Privacy Curtains

We then went back to the Beer Garden, cracked open another beer and listened to another band we liked from our previous visit, DRIFTWOOD, a folk/rock band from North Carolina.  The crowd loved them, especially the gal who played the fiddle or violin, as she knocked the crowd out with her play.  We got a little tired of them by the end, however, as they seemed repetitious but still good.   We then walked around waiting for the final band, from Rochester, GIANT PANDA  GUERILLA DUB SQUAD, a reggae band from Rochester.  Earlier, we had stuck up a conversation with a bunch of guys from Rochester who said they are great, their favorite band.

Neighbors From The Hood

We ran into our neighbors, Joe and Betsy and their friends, who were taking in the music and the people watching like us.  Their friends were camping and said when they checked in on Friday, the first day, there were 30 police cars checking each vehicle as they entered the grounds, for fireworks and drugs we thought.

We then gathered our stuff, set it aside near the staging area for the wagons and went down into the dance mob, standing and gyrating in front of the stage,  and listened to GIANT PANDA before deciding that we had enough music and people watching for the night.  We walked down, in the dark, past revelers and night lights to the entrance and were lucky to get another ride in a golf cart back to our car.

The End 

We took our time driving home, wondering if the police were out spot checking but we did not notice any on our way home.  Most of the revelers were camped, fewer were day visitors like us.  We were home by 10:15, exhausted from our fun afternoon and evening and happy to be home.  We were not the oldest there but close to it.

At The Heron, July 6, 2014