The First Outdoor Event of the Season. . .

Our busy season has officially arrived. Although it feels like our busy season never really ended since we've managed to stay pretty busy all winter! I'm hoping that our first event of the season sets the tone for the rest of the summer. The weather was perfect, the event was well organized, the equipment operated exactly as it was supposed to, everyone was nice and no one was crushed by our line array or canopy. Those are pretty much all of my requirements!!


It took us longer than usual to set everything up because we are using a new trussing system for our roof. It's not much different but it's a little bigger, a bit heavier and it has corner blocks instead of a steel plate holding the corners together like we've used in the past. Basically, it's stronger and prettier! It's still a lot of work to set up!


We started the set up on Thursday and finished it up on Friday morning. The event was also a fundraiser for the Humane Society so Gloria spent a lot of time visiting the animal trailer and giving me this pouty look:


The finished product still makes me smile and say, "wow". . .

The event was held at Hawk's Stadium and was the second annual "Blues, Brews and BBQ's". . .

We ran sound for the event last year but I didn't enjoy myself nearly as much. . . You'll have to search the archives if you really want to know why but I believe we had 6 events in 3 days. That might have had something to do with it. Oh yeah, and it was about 100 degrees outside and I was in a van stuck in road construction with no air conditioning and windows that wouldn't roll down. And a mean man made me cry. Yeah, this year was much better!!!

Todd and Gino. Todd is the GM of the team and Gino is hilarious!!

The bands were all very happy with the set up. . .

Day 2 started bright and early on Saturday morning. . .

We had more happy blue's bands. (Can blues singers be happy??)

There was a bbq wings eating contest. . .

(this guy REALLY reminded me of Gregg Koskela!!):

We eventually had to take everything down. Steph came out to help us and passed the apprentice test by pulling out a stake all by herself!! Good job, Steph, practice up. . .

It was hard work but Steph was a trooper. Even Gloria chipped in and made the tear down go a little faster. . . The more, the merrier!!

This stage trailer that Kurt and Rob built 2 years ago has served us well. This will be it's third season and, with the exception of replacing some of the plywood decks, it's holding up amazingly well!!

The festival season is here whether we're ready or not!! Pretty much every weekend between now and the middle of September is booked!! Guess I'll see you in the fall!! :)