The Dreaded Festival. . . Turned out OK!

The festival I have been dreading all summer is over. It was an incredible amount of work on Friday and Saturday and we were all dragging by Saturday night. . . But. . . I actually had fun. Our set up was on Friday and it literally took all day long. Rob and Kurt started loading the truck around 9 a.m., we arrived at the event location around 1 p.m. and, when I left at midnight, the guys still had a couple of hours of work to do in order to be ready for the 9 a.m. start time! This event is held in a not-so-secure place so Rob and Kurt each had to "sleep" at their respective stages. I don't think either one of them slept very well.



This is the main stage. I hired Lori to hang out with Rob all day for moral support. She helped on this event last year and did a great job so I begged her to come out again this year. Once again, she did a FABULOUS job! The main stage had bands from 9 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.



This is Kurt's stage. He had to manage all by himself but, of course, he did great. He had dance groups and bands all day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This is my stage:

I had 1 guy who just played guitar from about noon-1:00 and then again from 2-3:30 and then another guy sang and played his guitar from about 3:45-5:30. It was hard work but somebody had to do it. . .

Plus. . . I had 4 helpers at my beck and call all day. . .

Hailey was once again my official photographer for the event. There was a car show going on in between each of our stages so, as she walked around, she got some great shots:

She took some very interesting pictures. These are some of my favorites:

She even took a couple of good videos. . .

The boys had fun playing in the (very shallow. . . ) river. . .

Gloria just kind of did her own thing all day. . . This is a rope bridge that she successfully crossed a few times:

And Hailey was great company and a hard worker all day long. . .

The events on Kurt's stage ended first so he put the boys to work wrapping cables and packing things up. . .

When the music on my stage ended, Rob left Lori in charge of the main stage (good job, Lori. . . ) and helped take down what little I had used for the day. . .

Lori survived her day with Rob and even (purposely!) got this tattoo. . . :

. . . The band on the main stage played until 6:30 so by the time Rob and Lori were done, most of the other sound systems were wrapped up and ready to be put away.


It is always a daunting task to take all of this stuff down:

After several trips to the other stage to bring speakers and amp racks to the truck as well as loading the other stage, pulling down the canopy and folding up the stage trailer, it was after midnight when we all headed for home.

Yes, it was exhausting. Yes, it was a huge amount of work and we probably didn't get paid enough. But. . . it was so much better than last year AND we were able to have some fun while we were at it and that makes everything just a little easier. . .