The Last Two Weeks. . .

It's almost over. Our busiest season EVER is drawing to a close. My sanity may or may not return. But. . . we survived it. The last two weeks were kind of a blur: 10 event dates in 14 days including 5 stage set ups (and tear downs), 6 canopy set ups (and tear downs), 1 huge light show and 32 bands (and/or singers and various dance groups). And, of course, at least a thousand pictures. I can't even begin to sort the pictures into a decent blog post so I'll give a run down here and then I'll put up a slide show or something. Or not.

We left the cabin on Sunday afternoon and set up a stage and canopy at Settler's Park for a Battle of the Bands put on by KTSY. The event was all day on Monday and then we took it all back down on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, Kurt went to Salt Lake to pick up a line array for our big concert later in the week and Rob and I took our small stage and all of our individual stage decks out to Gowen Field and set them up to be used later in the week as well.

On Wednesday, we were all out on the base setting up pretty much everything we own for a big concert on Thursday. Our good friends from the army band used our smaller stage. Twice. In two different locations. We moved it from one place to the next at 1 a.m. on Wednesday/Thursday. AND added the extra stage decks to it. In the dark. Our bigger stage, along with a canopy and lighting, was set up in another location on base in anticipation of an event titled, "Operation Appreciation". The country artist, Darryl Worrley, had offered to take a detour from his current tour and come and entertain the troops that were deploying for Afghanistan. These big shows are pretty stressful for me. Even when you plan everything out ahead of time, there are so many variables that can throw everything off. In this case, it was the weather. It rained off and on during our set up and a big storm was on the horizon for Thursday so we spent quite a bit of time debating about whether or not to fly the speakers we brought in from Salt Lake. We debated right up until about 2 a.m. and then made the call to use the speakers we always use. The band would be arriving around 1 pm on Thursday and we went to bed around 3 a.m. without any of the audio up at all.


Thankfully we have good friends out on the base. I had a hot shower and fresh coffee early Thursday morning which made everything a little bit better. We managed to get all of the audio up and all of the stage decks leveled and shimmed in plenty of time for the band's arrival around 2 pm. Other than a short rain storm on Thursday morning, the weather was beautiful all day. The tour manager was happy with our set up and the sound check was uneventful. There were several events going on prior to the concert including a speech by the Governor and Lady Otter . . .

a Black Hawk fly over . . .

. . . the National Anthem was played by our good friend and his sax quintet . . .

as well as an opening 6 pc rock band. . .

And then Darryl Worrley and his band put on a great show for about 2500 soldiers and their families. I have to say that it turned out to be one of my favorite concerts of the year in spite of the work and stress.

After the concert a group of our friends from the army band helped us take it all down. This was so cool to me because they didn't have to do it. They weren't in charge of the event or even the ones who hired us to do the event (although they had everything to do with us landing the job). But, as our friends, they stuck around after the concert and wrapped cables and pulled bungees off the tarp and loaded the truck. They were all tired from their own involvement in the week's events and I'm sure that the last thing they wanted to do was to pack a truck at 1 in the morning but they did it anyway. I don't really understand how rank works in the army but I do know that most of the people helping us had a high rank but they weren't afraid to get their hands dirty. So cool.

We ended up leaving both of our stages set up with permission from the base to pick them up on Sunday. We had another big weekend ahead of us with a three day festival in Julia Davis Park.

Art in the Park started on Friday afternoon. Rob and I (with Gary's help) set it up and ran the sound on Friday while Kurt went back to Salt Lake to return the speakers we weren't able to use. Such a bummer.

The festival continued through Sunday and was a piece of cake compared to the events we usually run. Kurt's family came out on Saturday and I had a great side kick with me on the stage all day.

My kids and Steph were there, too, as well as plenty of other people we knew.

There was no stage to set up, no canopy to crank up, no lights to run. . .

It was easy-peasy. BUT we were still dragging when it came to taking it all down on Sunday afternoon. Kurt and his brother-in-law headed out to the base to pack up the stages that we left on Friday and had most of it done by the time we came out with the trucks to take it all back to the shop.

After a week like that it would have been nice to just kick back and take a few days off. Couldn't happen. We had three days to pack two trucks and plan out everything we would need for 3 big events over the weekend.

On Thursday, we set up a canopy at Camel's Back Park for the Hyde Park Festival.

Then we headed to Caldwell to set up a stage and canopy for The Indian Creek Festival.

This was our 4th year at the Caldwell Festival and, after the first year out there, I swore it would be my last. We've continued to do it over the years and it has improved a great deal. This year they added a Friday night concert with a disco band out of Portland. I won't go into the details but the set up took us all evening on Thursday and all of Friday right up until the band got there for sound check at 5:30. Thankfully the band was really good and made it worth setting up a big light show that included fog and a disco ball.

Saturday morning came too soon after too little sleep. In addition to the Caldwell festival, we also had a concert at The Civic Center that couldn't be set up until after 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. Kurt pulled that one off while Rob and I, along with Gary, took care of Indian Creek. Everything went really well in spite of our weariness.

We managed to take it all down and fold up the stage trailer on Saturday night. We unloaded the truck on Sunday afternoon and then packed up the canopy at Camel's Back Park on Sunday evening.

It was a very long and exhausting two weeks. It was a very long and exhausting summer. And now it's almost over. There are so many events that I happily checked off when they were over and I look back with relief that we are almost finished but I also have a huge sense of accomplishment as well. We managed to get through another summer without any mishaps and we are still upright and breathing. All things considered, that's really something. . .