Festival Tour Spring ’19 pt.5

J. Grant Staffordayurveda, Festival Crews, meditation, Nevada City, The UntzLeave a Comment

5/28/19. North San Juan, CA. “Home.”

Afternoon off at home. I’m physically tired. My body feels good, other than a sore knee. One more festival of the spring tour [The Untz]. I don’t have much of an idea of what it will be like. Well, maybe I do.

The weather here is epic today. I sense that there will be river adventures in my near future.

It’s my mind. I’m mentally tired. That’s what’s got me. I need mental rest. BottleRock was quite challenging logistically.

6/6/19. AM. North San Juan, CA. “The Rajas Mind.”

Home. Back from leg 1 of festival tour. The juxtaposition is stark. I can hear birds, crickets, the hum of the fridge. I can hear the whisper of the Sattvic mind again. The road is romantic; the travel, but there are challenges, the obstacles, the logistical improvising.

I see form the entry above that I was tired from BottleRock. My mind is also still slowing down. It moves so quickly. The Rajas mind, which can be stressing, but also helpful and fun, is fully engaged. I notice the residuals of it after the festival tour, especially writing this entry now.

The laser focuses of following a train of thought is easily derailed. But, it just returned for a moment. The inner voice hat bubbles up in creativity. I enjoy these times. It gives balance.

6/6/19. PM. North San Juan, CA. “Give thanks for crew.” “Campout Festival Romance.”

Give thanks for crew and all the good vibes this past leg of the tour, because it’s already logistically challenging to pull off a festival food booth. There’s weather and limitations from festivals that put you on situations that are difficult to pull-off without a team.

Something amazing happens with a group of good people when it all goes perfectly. Well, “perfect” is a loaded word, because we’re talking about people here…

…The more that I dip my toes into mainstream, big budget festivals, the more I see how special the camp-outs are.

When you get to a camp-out, you are home and for those five or six nights, the crew is your tribe. Sometimes, the tribe breaks up into smaller units, usually the bigger crews do. And sometimes, when it’s just four or five of us, we become a single unit for the weekend. This is what I love about this work. For all the risk and challenges, the crews are ultimately what I love the most. I don’t venture out very much at a festival without my crew.

This last festival we did, The Untz, was a camp-out festival. Small, intimate. Here’s the special thing about smaller festivals, and I’m talking about under 2,000 people, you get familiar with the faces. And these are the events where I’ve seen my crew members find romance the most often. Not to say that romance won’t be found at a large festival, it surely will, but that crush you meet and then lose in the night will likely find you the next day.

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