Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance

After a bit of looking around the sections I suppose I am going to go the same route as Spiralout and post a sort
of trip report here about my whole travel and experience at my most favorite and endeared festival, the Finger
Lakes Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance. I know people who stick around this part of the boards enjoy to read
stories, and I will do my best to make it somewhat as good as the whole experience.


I'll shoot out a little background on this before I get on my way. Grassroots is a 4 day festival located smack dab
in the middle of the Finger Lakes region of New York state. It was founded by the countryfolk/zydeco/jam rock band
from Ithaca Ny... Donna the Buffalo. One of my favorite bands, seen them a ridiculous amount of times. This year
was its 20th straight running, and my 3rd year in attendance. The festival features mostly "roots" music including
reggae, folk, zydeco, countryrock but certainly not limited and includes some dub and jam. Besides Donna the
Buffalo playing 3 of the 4 nights, some worthy mentions for the 2010 lineup include Burning Spear, Rusted Root,
Merle Haggard, Rrailroad Earth, Arrested Development, John Brown's Body, The Black Seeds, Oliver Mtukudzi, Giant
Panda Guerilla Dub Squad.

Since my first year, my crew from Rochester has grown forth, and this time including a few extra heads of my good
good friends from stoner life. 10 all in all. This year we knew a little more of what to expect so we came better prepared, and earlier to get a better pick at campsite. We leave sunday morning at 8 am, and good start for a few
hour drive. Nice relaxed drive through the country side and we get there around 10:30 just when camp is opening.

We
show our tickets in line and retriever our camping passes. On the car ride in we meet some trouble and someone
failed to do their job and we were denied entry becasue of the mistake and it was taken out on us. A rude start,
especially considering that my wristband was put on, cut off circulation, tight, and I accidentally ripped it off
trying to stretch it out. This would be solved later. My friends generously get in line again while I get yelled at
for turning in the wrong area. Sometimes hippies are mean! I don't think they handle stressing responsibilities
well. We get that settled and our pass signed and we get in.


The camp site is a huge vacant farm field and including a woods along side for camping as well. We pick a spot in
the same area as last year only along the edge of the woods. We set up our large canopy and our tents around the
edge, and a few more of our friend arrive throughout that time. We're all set up, and by this time we've already
smoked two blunts. Just me and the friend I drove with ourselves prerolled 13 blunts, and two of other friends each
have a half ounce of beaster, and one friend has a half ounce of some of the best weed I've ever smoked. Lots of
getting high the first day at the camp site. We lounge as the fills fills with more festies.


Around four we head to the site by the provided shuttle. The major camping of the fest is offsite 2 miles down the
road. We catch a band we were impressed by last year, an almost Jason Mraz sounding group, playing some peace love
lyriced acoustic music. I decide to head back to camp site to grab some things before Donna the Buffalo plays.
Donna puts on a really swell show as usual, great dancing music. Around the end the day is getting to evening, and
we head to some other stages. We end up catching most of this progressive jam rock that sounds a lot like Umphrey's
, good timing crowd in this elongated barn and I'm most inspired to do my molly. I encapsuled the whole 3 tenths I
brought just for this night. Poured some on my thumb and ate it, then some on my finger and blew it, but not all.
Got off to a good start. By this time it's just me and my one friend and we lay in the field as Merle haggard
starts to play on the Grandstand stage. His sound is very attractive and we head up in the grandstands for this
super packed part of the festival, mostly with older folk ofcourse, so it was a little strange smoking bowls up
there in that crowd of country folk. The music is good country straight up through and through and by now I'm
rolling pretty intensely almost too much for this pace of music, but it evens out into his melody sounding so damn
fucking good. And yes fuck he played Don't let your Babies, Mama Tried, and okie from Muskogie.



I'm far more excited now and we make our way back to the main stage where Gun Poets and then Arrested Development
are going to play. They're both rap rock groups, Gunpoets is first and they are real cool, they fuse some trance
almost disco biscuit like guitar and reggaedub into their performance and it was a handsdown awesome show. After
them was Arrested Development, and if you don't know they're a pretty well known hip hop group from the early 90s
that made a diversion from the gangster image to a straighter minded peace provocative motivation. They weren't as
interesting as Gun Poets but they were engaging as they worked the crowd as did GunPoets. A great part of these
reggae shows at this fest is the call and response that we love so much. I also bumped a bit more molly through out
this and kept flying.

After this was the event we were all waiting for. Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad at Midnight at the grandstand.
Some more background this is me and my duders main fucking shit from our hometown, We've been huge supporters for a
few years by accident, and we've found their shows to be the greatest times ever, they play a good mix of roots
reggae and boundaryless dubs. I kid you not that these shows have been comparable and beyond some of the most
intense jam shows I've witnessed, including DB. This past year they lost two of their founding members and it's
been a slow recovery. But tonight was the night they were going to shine beyond glory. The western Ny reggae
scenese most loved moment of the year, Grassroots. This show we met back up with most of our hometown campers
smoked a joint of that nice headie, and I could not stop packing bowls non stop throughout the show. I ate the rest
of molly, which was a good bit. You could tell from the start the show was going to be dead on, and full of intense
dub. The crowd was crawling with engagement. A younger but older woman was totally eating my vibes as we danced our
freaking asses off, was sort of uncomfortable with her infatuation at first, but everything was so overwhelming
everyone just had to share in the vibes. The pulled out the most wicked and funky dubs, and it had my head inside
out, and by the end of that realization I felt high and rolling as much as I ever had ever in my life, and I could
not feel my legs normally, they felt like whisps of cold cold air not connected to anything and I was sweating
beyond abnormal. Everything was just way out of sight, and after the show we checked the other stages but all music
was over and we headed back to the shuttle, where I was most intensely confused in my stupor. Got back to the
campsite found my buds smoking a blunt, and I did some coke with them, blasted my chill Willie Nelson Cd and played
with my LED flashlight in the fog of the sky to his songs. We smoked some opium, and I called it a night.

Synchronicity is powerful at these times. *

I wake up the next morning to some pretty heavy rain. A little dissapointing at first, but I'm happy to be at my
favorite place in the world. Fall back asleep and wake up again to the calling of my name by some high pitched
hippie chick voice I've never heard "Brendon, Brendon, Brendon!" ... Ummm. I open my tent to the rain and this
short nerdy looking hippie girl, "can me and my buds borrow your guitar." ... "Sure" .... "Awww Thanks kid, I love
youu..." Fall back asleep in the funneh. Wake up and I can hear my guitar being played across the driving path.
This time I put on Dead hoodie, and it's still raining out. I take a little walk and by the people with my guitar.
Wave. On the way back they wave me over. There's a skinny dude in a cowboy hat with a goutee, and bunch of other
sketchky but cool hippies, one is playing my guitar, Althea. I was offered a few shots of their vodka for
breakfast, yum, and then the dude in the hat handed me his ring. A lightning bolt ring, "Now this hear I give to
you in love, because I had to do some things to earn this" The vibe is good, I grab my djembe from my car and drum
out to some more Dead on my acoustic guitar. Eventually he broke a string, I assured him it was alright, even
though that kind of sucked. I went back to my campsite and my friend was telling how last night at the Show he
smoked up this older gent with a blunt that has never smoked a blunt before. This guy should be noted. I go back to
sleep for the second time, and this time I wake up to something about a fight outside, I dont care, I lay it off.
Bunch of comotion and yelling my campsite is a part of it because we got someone's back as a witness. I still don't
care but eventually I get out, and I'm told I missed a fight, and I see camp security talking to my lightning bolt
man, Apparently he wasn't the one fighting, one who broke it up, but he was getting kicked out. That chick that
woke me up, the dude, and his girl all had their bracelets cut off. My buddie is talking to the security about it,
and I am like, why are they getting kicked out? Apparently there was bad blood in this group of kids that these
dead heads were a part of, and they were heroin users. Now I remember how my new friend showed his needle marks
through a joke...Why?

It was a strange morning, I just befriended some junkie dead heads that are getting kicked out. We drive to the
store that morning and they are sitting outside the premises, I say "Sorry!" and the girl flips me off then gives
the peace sign. They were waiting for the cops to come pick them up.....We saw the State Police escort them back to get their stuff.


TO BE CONTINUED, I HOPE

 

OH yea, I just taped back up my wristband with some clear scotch tape.

 

Day 2, Friday.. Continued

I've changed the tape on my bracelet a few times now, this is going to have to be done a bit throughout the fest, especially with the dampness. I should have mentioned that earlier on in the first day of setting up we have have befriended our neighbor, a couple twenty year old dudes with some schwag. We smoke some blunts with them and enjoy some outdoor recreation like frisbee and holy board. They're good to have chill. Also a major part of the offsite experience of this fest is the drum cirlces in the woods. A few of my friends take part the first night, but I needed to take it easy after such an intense night.

The earlier parts of Friday were spent smoking weed, grilling grub, and blasting the jam. Mainly Umphrey's McGee, while some folks down the way blasted some Phish. We had to get out the jam at this roots fest. In my car we brought my djembe and my friend's drum. A lot of the time is spent drumming at our campsite. I'm not sure what I want to do drug wise tonight, I was thinking probably acid, we all brought a good amount, but maybe I want to candy flip. Some folks came around our place the first day with some Homer Simpson presses, and one of my friend had them and said they were good. I take a walk to where they said they were located, and after a few minutes of sketchy searching I was called over by the exact people. I got my 15 dollar double stack. I save it for now.

Back at the campsite my friend is suggesting I take one of his dank tabs. I take half to start at the campsite. Quite a few of our friends take a half hit or one, including one who's never dosed. Some other friends take some of their own, and some boomers. Good mood lift I expected. We decide to head off to the festival site around 5. By the gate at the dance tent is some catcy melodied bluegrass band rocking it out, but we head to the main stage to catch the local Native American Folk Rock singer, Keith Secola. His show is accompanied by a childrens school of dance and the guitarist from Donna the Buffalo. I take the other half hit. We leave halfway to check out the other music. By this time in my trip I'm not sure who I'm with but I'm mainly checking out the dance tent on my own. I am really digging on this bluegrass, they whip out a version of Soulshine, I'm pumped. I spend the rest of my time dancing around the tent to this intense picking. The vibe at this place is unexplainable, and the amazing vibe of the music is founding it. The show is a double encore.

Next are the Black Seeds at the mainstage, I know for sure this time I am wandering around by myself, but back in the mainstage field I run into a huge group of friends, including some not part of our campsite. Apparently we are all on acid. I found it funny a huge group of teenagers sitting around on acid. This part is real chill, and I'm totally just checking the place all around me and eating up the vibes. I don't know what to expect from the Black Seeds for except for maybe some pop reggae. But boy was I wrong. They took the stage with the sexiest bass beats, and no wonder the announcer said it was gonna make us want to dance on eachother. The grooves just pick up. They whipped out some sexy dub too. About halfway through the show my friend hands me the maraccas. Oh gee am I going to spend some time with these. And I did spend the whole half of that show shaking those maraccas in playful rhythyms. It's sure nice to have an acoustic outlet to enjoy along with the music. We've also brought a combo fan/spray bottle and we spend lots of time spraying that around at eachother. Oh! And I also dissolved the roll in my mouth during the first half, and by the end I am flipping intensely.

It is dark and clear out at this point.

The large group splits unexpectedly after the show, and a group of three of us good friends head over to the grandstand where Sim Redmond is playing. His music can be described as atmospheric catchy reggae tinge folk rock. All I know upon our arrival is it is absolutely fitting into our mental states. We decide to take it easy sitting in the grandstand. Smoke a little bit of a blunt, and I'm really becoming aware of my candy flip, and in its intensity. I am admittedly uncomfortable for some time, and I feel my lower half freeze off from the bottom of me just like the previous night. But suddenly with an increase of awareness of the musical melodies filling the air, and the good vibes of the crowd floating around, I become extremely content and comfortable with everything. I speak of us all being good friends for as long as we come to grassroots. Everyone is in loving agreement. Rusted Root is taking the stage back in the main field, but we dont care, we've seen them quite a few times so far, and this Sim Redmond is untouchable feel goodness. "Just last night I had my arms around the sun, arms around the sun..."

That amazing little part of the night is over and we quickly speed off to Rusted Root. At this point of the flip, just the speedwalk from stage to stage is so enjoyable and so wonderful with all the great people and vibes surrounding us. Memory is a little harsh but I believe we got there during Ecstacy, and I'm picking up on how psychedelic and beautiful of a show they are putting on in comparison to the other 4 shows I've seen. The music is so flowing to dance to, and I know how sort of awkward it is to be a tripping person in these large crowds but if there is one place where that is entirely transcended it is Grassroots. They finish up the show with Lost in a Crowd, Suspicious Minds then Send Me on My Way.

Next up is Oliver Mtukudzi at the Grandstand. There is a sense of urgency in our venture to him, because the previous year we fell in love with the Mali sounds of Oumou Sangare and we were psyched for a similar beautiful experience. Oliver is the #1 recording artist in Zimbabwe. You'd think that would still be something poppy and catch oriented, but boy you couldn't be more wrong. This is the deepest folk music you can come across, almost in the whole world in my opinion. It isn't boring and danceless as you think with folk althought it has the atmosphere and pace of it. Oliver plays guitar and sings. His picking is so soft, beautiful, and enchanting and is a major change of pace for the night. I spend this time in mental and body meditation. Oliver had some beautiful things to say I'm sure, but no one could understand his accent. But that isn't to say I didn't try really hard to figure it out. The tone made us all feel good, and the accompaning female singer made it full circle.

John Brown's Body had just started on the mainstage when Oliver had finished. This is a favorite of ours and one we've seen quite a few times before. Its' good ole John Brown's Body, full spiritual reggae dub uniqueness. I'm a little lost and confused upon arriving there, but as we get into the crowd a bit and warm up, I really start to enjoy the slow dance provided for by John Brown's Body. Out come the shakers again. This in a way distracts attention from you, because people just become one with the maracca shaker. It was good to make eye contact and smiles with those checking out the maraccas. I am flipping my butt off but we smoke a blunt anyways, and I continue the maracca shaking. At one point an older gent next to me can't help himself and he turns, gives me a good stare, and says "God damn you think I could try one of those." And off he goes on one, and then a woman comes up and I give her the other one. I'm tripping my nuts off, but these two are shaking the maraccas at eachother. We share them throughout the time, and I make a little small talk with the woman even though I am beyond useful reference points. During the show we meet up with one of our hometown buds, and he points to the old man that shook my maraccas and says "this is the Man, Richard, who has never smoked a blunt before" Just some funny synchronicity.

That was it for the major shows of the night, but there was some rocking going on at the Grandstand, and just me and my best of friends there check it out. It's some heavy rocking, psychedelic, native american band. We find ourselves in love but slightly confused. What is it about their melody or tone that rings of Native American spirituality. We have no idea. But we sit in silence and soak it up for the last couple songs. Next we check out the barn where there is supposed to be a Dj, which is an oddity for Grassroots. I'm not digging on the style of trance right now, and I really only stay for a few minutes. Outside at the dance tent is Bonsoir, Catin... A somewhat succesful national Zydeco/Cajun Folk group. This however sounds oh so pleasant to the soul, I dance for a bit. But then after meeting back up with a friend we check out the field by the dance tent to smoke a bowl. We smoke a small bowl, and I'm going hard again. My good friend leaves us to check out the music up close. My other friend has passed out in the field, and I decide to totally chill in the peace of this experience. The music is just nearby and comforting. The sky is clear with what appears to be big dark clouds approaching the moon. I take turns sitting and looking around the festival or laying and checking out the trees and sky. The fest has people sitting and laying in the same field, some of the girls checking out the tripping kid. In the sky and trees I can see those green powerful lasers that have become so popular. They're entertaining to the eyes. The moon is started to be covered by the clouds rolling in. The cloud looks so heavy, large, and dark but I can't seem to tell if it really is or not. I spend a good amount of time playing with the sky with my hands trying to figure it out. Turns out it wasn't a huge dark cloud.

The closed eye visuals at this time are beautiful. Basically my own indoor lightshow with moving beams of light almost exactly like a concert. I can still sense the central force of energy emitting from the core, and this is the most important thing for me to be aware of. I would say the visuals aren't what they could be compared to a straight LSD experience.

I've had about enough and most the people that have been sitting around the field have been replaced with others. So I leave my stuff with my passed out friend and head to the dance tent to look for my friend and dance to the current upbeat zydeco tune. But that's over and they pull out a ballad, I go back to my stuff and in that short time my other bud had dissapeared. I couldn't find anyone so I took the shuttle back myself.

Back at my campsite I see no one, I assume some are sleeping and some are at the circle. I say "Hellooo" and Ben emerges from his tent, and that was good, because I wanted to go to the Drum circle with another drummer. We get our drums and head down the way to the entrance of the woods. The drum circle is not too far into the woods this time. It is around a pretty big camp fire with many people just lounging around, a good few drumming, a good few dancing. The drumming isn't on, it's been dying down apparently, but atleast it just got two more drummers. It's a little confusing at first, just because no one is really leading, but still fun. A black dude asked to borrow my djembe for a little. I am so down to share my drum with others but this guy was rolling or something and would not keep drumming. He said he needed to listen for the beat. By this time we had a guy come in with the confidence to lead, the kid was pulling off some cool beats but was still just sitting there with it. So I took it back, and then things started to shape up. I started to have a stronger voice in the circle. I brought myself in a little closer, and I started offering the diversity of sound of my djembe to the circle. A bit in we even had a few leaders so the beats were coming strong. One of the coolest things about the drum circles is that they'd reach these climaxes of speed and volume, everyone would cheer and some shout "Grassroots" while all of us spit out hard as possible on the drums. The dancers would also pick out individual drummers to dance around at a time. By the end of my time at the drum circle it had died down some more, but by this time I was more confident to lead. There were a few times that me and another drummer would have a duel. It had gotten to 6 in the morning, and it was obviously light out. I was the only leader left. The one keeping the steady beat. But this kid had some bongos there and was totally improvising sick fills over it. This one couple seemed to be rolling and sat on the drum next to me that someone shared with them. The woman was trying to teach her boyfriend how to keep a beat with me, and he did a pretty good job and so did all of the accompaning drummers. My friends there had left the cirlce earlier apparently and I followed around 6 am, saying good morning to a fellow drummer as I left.

By this time I was still rolling/stimulated with a lingering frying going on. I could tell the press the earlier evening was a little speedy and the dealer told us we wouldn't come down for 24 hours, and boy was that true. Saturday morning but still Friday night I get back to my campsite and a bunch of us are still up, and it was funny, they were finishing rolling a blunt. And I walk in with my drum silently, sit, and say nothing until I notice, then shout "Blunnttt!" We smoke a blunt, and I remember I had purchased a 40 Oc from a dude just the previous day and I want to get a little opi buzz added to the experience. Boy was that nice, blew about 25 mg and it totally made the visual extra crisp, especially the semi clouded blue sky. Grassroots was flowing through our souls.

Even with an intense opiate buzz going on in my head, I'm not sleeping. I'm high and staying up. Most people are up still and the company is good. My life is mostly lonely, so if Grassroots is about 4 days of escape, it's about 4 days of loving sharing for me. Everyone finds something so utterly hilarious about everything and it's an incredibly giggly morning. We meet a few people on their way past, some GDF, and have some more laughs. By the time I wanted to get some sleep it was too warm to sleep in a tent. So a few of us brought out our blankets under our canopy outside, but that was slightly annoying because the place was crawling with ants. Still, I was able to get some rest.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNjCklj4WM&NR=1"]YouTube- Sim Redmond Band: "Save Me" - Grassroots '09

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOW6dGW_3LI"]YouTube- THE BLACK SEEDS "Fire" - live @ The Gothic

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubzSmIOCywo"]YouTube- Zimbabwe - African Music Legends - Oliver Mtukudzi 1

 

I don't think this performance is particularly good but this is JBB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOaQbZEnBWU&feature=fvst"]YouTube- John Brown's Body - Push Some Air

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkdtSHFC0lg"]YouTube- Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad "Love You More" Live 01.01.10

 

I was at this particular show. IT is nothing compared to their new potential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FQjl0NtX-8&feature=related"]YouTube- Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad ".45" Live 01.01.10

 

We started loving Panda because their roots is roots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vmZHCB0TtU"]YouTube- Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad - Glide

 

Their old school dub.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jjR8E1jKNQ&feature=channel"]YouTube- GIANT PANDA GUERILLA DUB SQUAD "Sunshine" - acoustic

 

I mean I'm getting really sentimental here. This is old roots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjIOzDIYtw8&feature=related"]YouTube- GIANT PANDA GUERILLA DUB SQUAD "Jamaica Song" - acoustic

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DCTrTyfVP8&feature=related"]YouTube- Let Love Move Me-by Donna the Buffalo - 2/3/06 - 2 camera angles

 

I've read only part way through post 1 and wanted to stop off and say, Thanks for a great trip report. I'm savoring this one. Now back to the post.

 

Nice post man! Sounds like an awesome festy with a wonderful vibe! Glad you had fun!

 

That's cool as shit man!

 

Thanks Guys, I love sharing this stuff. But you know, I hope I keep the motivation to write the other two days up. I'm busy with work and fun and it's getting further in the future from Grassroots 2010. But writing a report has never felt so good and I will have the other days up soon hopefully. Re reading through my post the first day was faster written but had more color as the second day I wrote a little more like a time line than a story. There are so many aspects I have left out, it's almost saddening. But having experienced another amazing Grassroots and having to leave it behind in its fantasy is the most saddening.

I suggest everyone gets out to a Camping Music fest at least once a summer. You will NOT regret it if you have the right attitude and approach.

 

Saturday picks up where the Friday story leaves off, considering I barely slept. It was just one big double day, and as it turned out 20 minutes of sleep wound up not being enough.

Before I was able to get that tiny bit of rest, I was getting agitated. I don't know what was in the air, but later on in the morning it seemed like a lot of the people at our campsite were getting argumentative. Or rather one friend of ours was sort of being obnoxious. We had been laughing our asses off together all morning but now it seemed he had a negative comment for just about every situation, even, or other comment. That's a bit exagerrated, and it didn't need to bother me in the least bit. So unlike I thought, unrested is not a good feeling. It doesn't help to be coming down from cid and a speedy roll, but It seemed atleast at the time I was upset at pretty stupid and out of line behavior. There was one situation where he was calling my little bong plastic when it was clearly glass, and he insisted otherwise, when the whole campsite was saying "It's glass" Eh while I'm at it there was a similar argument at the question of the object in an impressionistic waterpainting he had just bought from a man. The picture was titled Absolve and it was an old boat semi submerged in a creek. He insisted it was a bridge over the water. My final input was "That's the beauty of art, it's completely up for interpretation." I wasn't very involved in either of the "debates" but it did annoy me as if I was.

This is all relevant really as it is a part of a trip report as well as Festival story. I wish I didn't get bothered. The more I look back on it, it seemed to be more a symptom of lack of sleep as well as coming off Methamphetamine than how I am usually as a person trying to enjoy themself. Future Festivals I would definitely consider not rolling more than once the whole weekend. I wish I had a more straight acid experience than candy flip. The combination is awesome for awhile but I have come to the same conclusion in the past.

Onwards,
Most of Saturday was spent around the campsite. I failed to mention that Friday during the day a few of us took a walk through the woods to the pretty closeby river. The woods are pretty packed as far as campers go. I haven't camped in the woods yet at Grassroots. It looks like an awesome idea. There seems to be more people walking around in there than out in the field. Plus the drum circles are held in the woods. We revisit the river on Saturday later in the day, this time there are far more people there washing themselves or just hanging out. We walk more uphill in the river and walk around the shallow flat rock part, and spot some interesting marine life.

By now in the festival everything is muddy, and it's only going to rain more later. I have my sandles in my hand, but most the time in the woods it feels much better just to go barefoot than wear sandles in the mud. By the time I get back to the campsite I'm pretty ready to head to Onsite for the music. But there's only one other person down for that. It's getting around 6 o clock and most everyone is set on staying at the campsite. The bothering thing is I would like more of my friends at the music with us, but they somehow feel the trashed out campsite is the best place. One friend took dosed in the morning, and to only sit around the campsite. I have one friend also who didn't sleep the first two nights, I assume the second night when he wasn't rolling was because he is a dumbass. So he is sitting there staring at nothing like a Zombie. And it's just pathetic to see silly decisions take toll in demotivation.

With the mix of negative attitude, total laziness, and lack of interest in the music I begin to think a few of my friends there do not belong at a 4 day music festival. However, that comes around in my mind, and I begin to realize that a festival like this is also about living just as we'd each like. To each his own, I wasn't thinking how they all partied pretty hard onsite the first couple nights, but that's because I did too. AND they all atleast showed up for one special show on Saturday night.

The one bothersome friend aspect that is true without exception. Throw out your fucking trash!!!!!!!!!! Please. I told everyone before we even left Rochester for Grassroots that this year we aren't going to leave trash lying around because it's not that hard to throw out that fucking shit right after you use it, and everyone agreed enthusiastically. And that's why I brought garbage bags and had one hanging up at all times. The first couple nights I assumed the duty of trashpickup. My pleasure. But by Saturday I was yelling at the campsite that it's fucking ridiculous they can't place trash in the OBVIOUS trash bag right when they are done with it. Yea, no one cared. Most other campsites you can see they dont leave trash lying around. It's just wrong and extremely dumb in my opinion.

This negative interpretation and writing of the experience is best left for Saturday because it was the day it was met and resolved all in my mind. There was slight resonating negativity under the influence of acid this night as you will see soon.

I took one hit of the WoW I brought to the Festival with me probably around 5, when we got back from the river. I wasn't planning on tripping persay, but I was looking for the lovely mood lift that lower dosing sometimes brings. I suppose it worked in that aspect at first, but I think I was also just excited for the music that were going to see this evening. I also bring along some excedrin to fight any fatigue I might encounter. Leaving the campsite to go to the shuttle then Onsite was redundant because there were only two of us that were gonna go (atleast at this point) and some people were saying they would come too, but wound up not. It wound up being just me and my good friend. Also at this time in the day it is mostly cloudy with some sun, but I wasn't expecting any storm. We trug through the mud to the shuttle, just more absolving into the the Festival in its entire experience. I begin to realize around the time of the shuttle that I go beyond any subtle mood effects of the acid, and I notice it in more strength. It's hard to avoid a prominent acid experience. No worries, just another night of tripping. I should mention that in my bag we brought a pretty strong mixdrink.

The band playing around 6 in the Dance tent is one we've seen a couple times before. Thousands of One, pretty good reggae dub. There aren't really too many people on site, but the Dance tent is becoming crowded getting ready for Thousands of One. We enter from the back of the tent because it was so crowded and find a little bit of dancing space in the back by the soundboard. Thousands of One gets on stage and sets off with their trancy reggae, everyone is dancy, except it is a little too crowded for everyone to dance as much as they liked to. I feel people are a little bothered by that circumstance, I know I am to an extent (I wouldn't leave a show I liked because it was too crowded). But maybe also the overcast like skies and fatigue from the first couple nights were why people seemed a little down. Throughout the show it got darker with the clouds, and thunder and lightning became audible and visble outside the tent. IT was pretty cool to hear the Thunder roll in along with the reggae music. "Is that part of the music?" Shoooooo...and it starts downpouring heavier than ever. EVeryone's really cramming in now. It didn't turn the experience downward, and I became intrigued watching the indentations on the roof of the tent of the huge amounts of rain hitting it and rolling down the sides. Although at the beginning of the downpour I felt hopelessly lost in mud. "More rain, so much more mud"

The next experience created a slight down turn and it involved another human. I find people staring at me at all times of my life, for who knows what. People do at this Festival but so far the vibe has been so kind and loving, and this is most often not the case in everyday citizen life. It's either confusion or wonder, or sometimes disgust. I guess it's my long hair. But yea, at this fest it is loving, and a sort of attention I began to enjoy.

However in the dance tent there is a older man with long grey hair tied back, and he has a rough looking face. someone that doesn't appear kind in the first place. I am aware of this man earlier on because he is one of the people close in my personal space. Later on in the show I catch a glimpse of the staring eyes, and it is his. I shoot a smile his way, and make eye contact as to let him know I see him see me. The man makes that slight movement of the face to displeasure or whatever negativity it is. It fucking pisses me off actually, and I am really urged to go just call him an asshole or maybe just question the issue, but I don't because that's not the way I am. I was going to make a dirty face at him next time he looked in my direction. But he didn't.

Bleh.... The whole point of mentioning the situation is this sort of returned me to my dissillusionment with humanity that I have found myself deep in before. It has to do with uneven distribution of love. That we see humanity as so loving, but the mistake is in not seeing that that love is not given unconditionally. Being hateful in the first place is one condition but there are so many unjust conditions that I think most of us on Hipforums would see as irrelevent as to whether or not you give out kindness and compassion. It's like most people assume they are so loving and kind to everybody, until they face an unkown situation or person and they feel the opposite or nothing at all is just. This is a truth atleast from my experience, that in so many cases the unequal distribution is obvious. Also in my experience I have known that this truth is irrelevent to the grander scheme of the existence of life. So it's almost like a choice....(IS)


Thousands of One were good, but they played a lot of songs they played the other night they appeared. Still, I always enjoy dancing. By the end of them it had stopped raining, and you can see it has gotten much lighter as though skies might clear. Upon getting out from under the tent, the first thing we notice is the huge and full rainbow taking place right from the Grandstand area to the main stage in the field. It is massive and overwhelmingingly beautiful. But I was still in the mental rut, and a rainbow in the sky at grassroots is almost like my personal hopeless loss of true happiness. With the angered desire to spend time giving hate to those that might hate, I felt "Wow, Will I be bitter for the rest of my life?"

I'm still at Grassroots though, my most favorite place and time of the year. And the next band in line for us to see is another hometown local group that we love so much.

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Sorry for leaving off here, but I'm all doped out and tired from working my ass off in the heat today. I think recalling all that was the most tiring thing though, so I need to take a break. It gets way awesome again, so it's best to keep the bad from the good. At least in this case.