My wife and I are festival regulars and I normally get in line when I wake up so I usually have a number somewhere between 300 and 600. Which always turns out a-ok for us. We don't take up much space, know where we like to sit for the day and have met dozens of lovely people over the years. This year on Sunday morning, I spotted a perfect little triangular space just to the left of the sound booth tower in between two giant tarps. I set my little bit of gear down and asked the person on my right if I could have a little of his space. "Sure," he said, "we'll have a big crew but we should have plenty of room." So I asked the person on my left the same question. "No," she said, "we'll have a big crew and there's not enough room." "Ok," I thought, "I can make this work" so I set up our little spot, sat down and waited for my wife and enjoyed a crystal-clear beautiful Dailey and Vincent set. The tarp on my right slowly filled up with people -- all very friendly, polite and engaging. The tarp on my left was populated only with on person, a cooler and chairs strategically placed on all four corners of the tarp. (Actually, they were two 8 x 8 tarps.) And the tarp on my left stayed that way most of the day. One or two people, a couple of kids and room enough for a small suburban home. People would walk through, see an empty tarp and ask if they could stay for a bit but "no, no room" was always the answer. Meanwhile, the tarp on our right was a big, fun party with wonderful people who my wife and I got to know as the day went on. Finally, mid-way through Greensky, the tarp on my left surrendered and began to let a few people stay there until they just gave up, rolled up and left without having had much fun all day. I don't really have a point here other than to say that that 120 square feet of prime real estate could have been much better used by the 15 or 20 homeless Festivarians who just wanted a place to plant for a while.
Listening to:
Etta James "Security"
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