Folks Fest 2010

I'm a very happy mama after another perfectly wonderful festival weekend at the Rocky Mountains Folks Fest in Lyons, Colorado.

After a stressful Tuesday at work (in fancy clothes, nonetheless, which is rare for this geologist), I left the office around 4:00 p.m. and raced to the airport to pick up my dearest Rachel P. We packed up and organized (but mostly visited) Tuesday night, did some grocery shopping Wednesday morning, gave my hubby and baby big kisses, and hit the road Wednesday around 1:00 p.m. in the Toyota pickup. We headed for Fort Collins, and joined the organization I'm president of, the Rocky Mountain Association of Environmental Professionals (RMAEP) for our annual member field trip. This year we took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery and it was so much fun! We learned a lot about what an amazing company New Belgium is. Their company culture and environmental stewardship are truly inspiring!

After some delicious tastes of their beers, and a trip down their indoor spiral slide, we were officially on vacation! We arrived in Lyons around dinnertime and had a great night of food, beer, and video games at Oskar Blues Brewery!

Thursday was spent reading, playing music, wandering around Lyons, and lounging next to the St. Vrain River. Around 6 p.m. Thursday, we fired up our engines, and the land rush was on. We secured an awesome, shady campsite near some friends we made last year at this same festival.

Brian and Sadie arrived after camp was completely set up to my OCD satisfaction.

The weekend was perfectly lovely. Beautiful festivarians, good friends old and new, and perfect weather! It's a true miracle of nature that we made it through festival season without a single drop of rain!!! Yeah!

Best music of the weekend, hands down, was Ani Difranco's amazing performance Friday night. Rachel and I sat completely mesmerized by every expression on her face, every word coming out of her mouth, and every note from her guitar. I've seen Ani perform many times, but this was probably one of the very best performances I've ever seen of hers.

We seriously had a complete and total meltdown after it was over (and since I only had 2 beers I can't contribute it to the alcohol....). We fell into a pile in the grass and sobbed and laughed at the same time for at least 15-20 minutes. It felt so good! That's my favorite kind of crying....when you're so overcome by beauty and joy and raw emotion that you can't help but sob and laugh hysterically at the same time. AHHHH!!! So healthy.... Anyway, kudos to Ani for being that good that she had that affect on us!

So, once we'd recovered from that, we continued to soak up some amazing music for the rest of the weekend. I also really enjoyed Darrell Scott's set (of course), Michelle Shocked, and The Waifs. It was great to have my dad join us for the day on Sunday.

Sadie definitely was voted best baby of the festival (and not just by us...). She napped and slept at night like a champ. She smiled, laughed, danced, clapped, splashed, played on the beach, ran, sang, and generally kept us completely entertained. She also wore us out! Wow!

It's definitely a much different festival with a toddler. I used to sit in one spot all day in the sun. I'd knit, read, drink beer, nap, sunbathe, knit some more, maybe work on a crossword puzzle. You get the idea....

Well, needless to say, I didn't have much time for those activities amongst all the Sadie chasing. Yes, it's certainly a different festival experience these days, but I don't think I've ever enjoyed these festivals as much as I did this summer. Instead of being solely about the music, it was more about family and friends, enjoying being away from home in a beautiful natural setting, reveling in the amazing festivarian community, and teaching our daughter about the joy of festival life.

Brian and I definitely made a great team for making the experience great for each other and for Sadie.