7/6/19. 7:24am. HSMF. “Lovers at Festivals.” “SD Representing.” “Trends.”
Late night last night. It was fun, but also a hard night to begin with. Had an argument with Shelby. That’s hard here.
There’s a lot of people at a festival and a lot of emotion. Relationships, of all kinds, get strained. That’s probably why some say that a festival is “hard on the couples.” An individual left to their own decisions can make choices without a serious effect on a lover if they don’t have one. But a couple at a 4-day camp-out event might experience ups and downs that trigger some things, because there’s those certain times when we get maxed out and can’t hold space for our lover.
Being at a festival where so many people have gone together for years, where couples have gotten together, broken-up and continue to go because they love this festival, the emotions run high at High Sierra.
Today is Saturday morning and now it’s go time for the booth. The dal is being well-received in the evenings, that takes time. The ayurvedic spices are good on the belly. Louie Praeger made the great suggestion for a recipe modification. He’s here for the first time with a lady friend and he looks like he’s having a great time. Long hair, fit and tan; like a surfer from Encinitas. Good to see the SD peeps representing.
The açaí is flowing well as always and the avo toast has been a hit, although I think that we may run out of arugula. Who knows, there’s always a vendor that has some greens we can buy off them.
Crew morale seems good. It’s a work hard and play hard festival. And not all of them are like that, some are more just work-hard, such as BottleRock, which actually was not all that great of a festival. There’s this trend in some festivals, well they all have a vibe, but where its catering to a crowd that is used to having their experiences offered to them as choices on a carefully curated menu. And that’s great, but some of the rawness is lost in the artlessness of a list. They all have line-ups and set times, but you can also just cruise at a festival like High Sierra and have a full experience.
7/7/19. 7:25am. HSMF. “Mornings.”
Psychadelic kickball is in full effect, the lady said to her friends walking by. It’s a tradition at High Sierra to play kickball at dawn. I’ve never made it. I get up before 7am though, but that’s to have my yerba mate and open the booth. But, I know the sound of the game, and it’s a party. This festival, with its traditions, the lengthiness, the love from Quincy, is not fading away any time soon.
7/8/19. 7:52sm. HSMF. “Teardown.” “More love.”
Monday morning. These are the breakdown days. In about an hour, I’ll meet everyone over at the booth in the food court to start packing up and then at 11:45, go settle up with the festival. It was a slower year. I think that the producers went light on the line-up this year, because next year is the 30th, and they’re gonna go bigger.
There’s so many friends, lovers, ex-lovers and acquaintances here. Combine that with partying, great music, and the feels come out. I’ve heard this musician say that Burning Man is hard on the couples. I think that all festivals test relationships in some way, in their own way. There’s love, loss, fighting, and mending. Swaying and swooning and just ways in general for all of us to connect to one another.
Foam Tub Tim was here. Always good vibes to see him and the crew. All good peeps. The vibes there are always good.
7/9/19. 8:30am. North San Juan. “Routes.” “An institution.”
Back on the farm in NSJ. We got back here around 5pm yesterday. I think that Monday was one of the fastest High Sierra tear-downs ever. Probably is was because of the entire crew being veterans of the festival.
HSMF always feels like the festival that christens the summer. There’s something about the vibe of Quincy in the mountains in the summer, it’s special.
Shelby and I took route 70 to 89 to Truckee then 80 to 20 to Nevada City. That was a first for me in fifteen years of HSMF. Every other time it was the Feather River gorge back to Marysville and then 20 up to Grass Valley. That was just last year, before that it was 600 miles back to San Diego.
Summertime in the mountains. Next one is Wanderlust and then Guitarfish, both within an hours drive from Nevada City. Then, the Belden Town festivals in August.
What can I say about High Sierra. It’s an institution; thirty years of festing consistently. Quincy loves us. There’s a new generation of live music lovers growing up on it. It’s got soul. People come to dance, to party, to love and to chill. The Foam Tub Fam, specifically Tim an Ernesto say that they love doing High Sierra the most, because it’s a fun, easy going crowd.
Generations flew by as the festival grew.