Five Days, Four Stages, Three Hired Crew Members , Two Trucks, One Very Long Post. . .

(Prescript: I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks now and it has been a big roadblock for me!! It was 4 days of really hard work and very little sleep and I just didn't really want to face it!!! In order to move on to better things, however, I had to force myself to just spit it all out. There is very little editing and it may not always make sense, but it is finally done and I can move on with my blogging life!!!!!)


Our last big festival of the season is over. This is our third year on the event and it's always been one of the most time consuming events of the year. It starts at 9 a.m. with three stages so we end up setting up through the night in order to be ready which makes for a very long and tiring day. This year was even worse because we ended up with a few extra events thrown in! When the organizers of this event called us in the spring, they told us to reserve the date for them because they really wanted to use our services again. Unfortunately, they told us to reserve the 12th of September when it was actually the 19th!! In the meantime we committed to two other events that both needed stages that weekend!! It took a lot of fancy footwork and several nearly sleepless nights, but we actually pulled it off! I'm going to keep the commentary to a minimum because I'm still trying to block it all out but there are a few pics that need a little explanation. This will get a little confusing- I lived it and I still can't really piece it all together but this is one of the reasons I blog. I have a need to make sense out of my life and sometimes it's just not easy!!






First of all, one of the events that happened over the weekend was up in the air until midnight on Tuesday. We had a clause in the contract that said the guy could cancel at midnight on the 15th if he sold less than 140 tickets. IF he sold more than that, the show would go on AND we would have to build 14 stage decks on Wednesday and Thursday.


He e-mailed me at midnight with the news that he had sold 210 tickets! He was very excited. We started on the stage decks the next morning. . . It was a very long day. . .


We managed to build all the frames on Wednesday, so on Thursday, they just needed their tops put on and a coat of paint. . .

I've been thinking a lot lately about the pros and cons of homeschooling my dear, sweet Gloria and, as she sat outside in the fresh air doing her schoolwork while I worked, I had to wonder if this is a PRO or a CON????:

She is certainly getting plenty of "real life" experiences. . .

It took all of us most of the day on Thursday to finish the decks. . .

We left them drying in the sun while we made a plan to pack the truck for 3 big events and 1 small one. . .

I had spent time earlier in the week cleaning out the old truck that had become a glorified storage unit so that we had more room to pack for all of the weekend events. . . It worked perfectly for the new stage decks. . .


We had both trucks backed up to the dock as we loaded them up. . .


It was another very late night after two very long days . . .


Gloria was a great helper all day but she finally curled up on a case and went to sleep. . . We were all tired and the events of the weekend hadn't even started yet. . .


I'm pretty sure it was around 2 a.m. when we finally left the shop and we were at it again bright and early Friday morning. Friday was set-up day.

The first event set up was as the fairgrounds with a stage and canopy that we would "set and forget". We even had "crew" to help! Thanks, Gary!



It wasn't too bad as far as set ups go but we still had plenty to do. . .

Our two other events were out in Caldwell but before we could head that direction, we had two other small set-ups that had to happen. By the time we all went our separate directions to take care of important business, we didn't start setting up the next show until about 3:00.

Our double truck pack had served us well and we unloaded one of the trucks at the rodeo grounds before heading over to the festival site to unload the other one. . .

For some reason, the rest of the day went by without many pictures but we set up two more stages with audio and two corner speaker towers to cover about 4 city blocks.

I left at 4 a.m. and made one final trip back to the shop for a cable before dropping exhausted into bed . . .

Turns out we each slept an hour or two before we had to race around in the morning with final preparations for a 9 a.m. start time. . .

Thankfully, Kurt brought Hailey back with him and she pretty much held me up all day. . .

AND she took pictures!!


This is our third year on this event and I must forget each year just how much work it is. Here are the links to last year and the year before. . .

Due to the fact that we were double booked on Saturday, we hired Gary to run sound at the Depot stage so Kurt could run sound at the rodeo grounds a couple of miles away and Rob could run sound at the main stage. For the second year in a row, I was in charge of the lovely creekside stage which isn't really a stage at all and can pretty much run itself. So, Hailey and I made the rounds all day, going from stage to stage to stage to ensure that everything was going smoothly and to see if anyone needed anything. On one corner, we had the Depot Stage. . .

. . . one city block away on the next corner was the creekside stage. . .

. . . another city block, another corner and you come to the main stage:

This is what Hailey and I did all day. We'd walk from the Depot stage. . .

. . . to the Creekside stage. . .

. . . to the main stage. . .

. . . and then back to the Depot stage. . .

From 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., Hailey and I walked around and around and around. . .

We had to have a little bit of fun while we were at it so we took a little country line dance lesson at the Depot stage. . .

It was pretty funny. . .

We even popped over to Kurt's stage to deliver a couple of necessary cables and to see how his event was going. . .

Everything was fine and running smoothly for this Battle of the Bands show. . .

. . . After taking a few pictures. . .

. . . Hailey and I popped back over to the festival and continued our walking tour of the three stages. . .

There was a tug-of-war. . .

. . . and a cardboard kayak race. . .

. . . We even stopped for a few minutes and shared a sugary, messy funnel cake. I laughed and sprayed Hailey with powdered sugar so that was fun. . .

This is the third year in a row I have personally hired Lori to be at Rob's beck and call at the main stage. It's great planning on my part because I know how cranky he can be after a sleepless night and Lori seems to be able to keep him laughing all day. I really enjoy just walking by the stage to say hello and then going on my way without lifting one finger to help! They are a great team!!!

At some point I must have figured I had enough pictures (duh) and didn't take any of the tear down. For future reference, however, I have to say that we packed up everything for the festival AND Kurt's entire stage and sound system well before midnight. Both events went swimmingly and everyone was thrilled with the services we provided. The only thing we weren't able to pack out was the stage. We were all OK with leaving it until the next day.

THE NEXT DAY. . .

On Sunday, after getting the first full night of sleep in several days, we still had two stages to pack up. We went to the fairgrounds first. Gloria is a great helper. When she wants to be. . .

We were moving slow but we had a good crew and no pressure . . .

It still takes 2 to 3 hours any way you look at it. . .

We finally folded up the last side of the trailer, delivered it back to the shop and headed out to Caldwell. . .

These individual decks are kind of a pain but it's nice to have two big stage available for weekends like this. . .

Lucky me! (NOT) I got to pull the trailer back to Boise!!

We were finished with all of the weekends events by late afternoon. What a relief.

That evening, as I was relaxing at my computer, trying to motivate myself to do laundry or some other ignored household task, I became aware of a numbness and swelling in my left leg. Long story short, I ended up going to the ER to get my blood pressure checked and, sure enough, it was about 190 over 109. Not good. They convinced me to check in so they could run some tests. $1300 later, they sent me home with a prescription for high blood pressure and a lecture about not working so hard. I suppose I'll have to do something about that. . .