It’s only been a month since my
trip to Europe and already I’ve sprung for the road. Desire, close friends and
family and a really chill boss have all combined to make possible an excursion
that has seen a first leg from Philly to Chicago to Iowa and now Denver.
Currently I’m sitting poolside at
an apartment complex in downtown Denver, CO. The sun shines a little brighter
through the clouds here and the air is full of fresh mountain air with an
occasional waft of natural herbs. Volleyball is king here and the outdoor
leagues are seriously competitive. I burst a blood vessel in my arm last night
trying to bump the other teams serve. I also got flagged for grazing the net
after throwing down a devastating spike.
Denver is also the most conscious farming city I’ve ever stepped foot in. Just outside the
city I passed a sign on the side of the road that read, “If you ate today…thank
a farmer”. That pretty much sums it up. Not a lot of people process how exactly
they get the food they eat, and just like the emphasis on farming communities
in Ireland, Denver has the same type of outlook that inspires people to buy
local and eat right.
Before I got to Denver I had a
chance to pass through the farming communities of another state; good ol’ Iowa.
A lot of people told me how boring the trip would be through Iowa, as it is covered
almost entirely with rows and rows of corn. However, I definitely took a liking
to the green pastures, corn row patterns and slightly rolling hills all along
the highways.
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| John Neal's Mural in Des Moines, IO |
The goal passing through Iowa was
not only to continue the adventure to Denver, but also to make a stopover in
Des Moines where a first time music festival I would be volunteering was set to
take place. Due to flash floods early in the week (which would’ve made camping
a nightmare as it was set on a river) it switched locations at the last minute
to St. Charles, just a half hour south of Des Moines. This ended up working out
even better as the main stage was set at the bottom of a hill surrounded by a
natural amphitheater of trees.
First time festivals are always
an interesting experience, especially when you’re a volunteer. The event
essentially unfolds in front of your eyes, making improvisation and
adaptability crucial to the festivals functioning. Of course, there’s a basic
makeup that makes every festival a success, but there are a lot of X factors
that go into making each festival unique, such as location, crowd size, weather
predictability, so forth and so on.
As far as Hinterland went, you
got a pretty accurate idea you were somewhere in the Midwest. All it took was a
look at the main stage video screen, which was hung with metal cables by a
giant forklift. You could also get an idea from the giant glass mason jars that
hung like chandeliers above the stage. Even if you were blind, you could still
tell you were around the Midwest with all the Minnesotans and North Dakotans
who speak like Canadians.
I actually got to camp next to a
couple from Fargo, North Dakota and we had a really fun time bonding over music
and art as we strategized ways to avoid the thick Iowa heat. Music festivals,
and camping in general offer an intriguing dynamic because you find yourself in
a temporary space that you treat as your own home. The regular hospitality you would offer guests back home you get to share with complete strangers who often times, as in my
case, become good friends.
The performances at Hinterland
were quite amazing that weekend. Old Crow Medicine Show put on a vibrant and
enthusiastic performance that turned the place into a hoedown as they closed
out the festival Saturday night. Lucius, one of the bands I came to see also
made a whole new following of fans with their soothing vocal harmonies and on
point percussion. St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a seven piece from Birmingham,
AL was easily one of the standouts of the festival. The lead singer showed up
in his traditional suit and tie get up and brought down the house with some of
the rawest blues singing you’ve ever heard. Probably my favorite performance of
the night was by seasoned folk touring ensemble Yonder Mountain String band.
With the recent addition of a new female fiddliest the band brought you along
for a ride you didn’t want to get off of.
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| Hinterland. St. Charles, IO |
Out of all those amazing
performances, the best may have been the one we had back at the camp site after
the shows that night. I was determined to get a crew of musicians together as
the night before there wasn’t much going on, and by selling tie dyes early that day and
checking wristbands the night before I had already made friends with at least
five people who had instruments with them. We set a place and time right after
the shows let out, but neither the place nor time held up as its quite hard to
round up five plus people to jam together, much less last minute at a music
festival.
However, everything ended up
working out as it always does. We got together two acoustic guitars from
Colorado, a steel one from Cedar Rapids, a harmonica acoustic guitar combo from
Iowa City and myself on Djembe playing percussion. We also had an amazing
female vocalist from somewhere in Michigan. All of this culminated in some
extended jams the likes of the Beatles, Shovels & Rope, Neil Young, and
Mumford and Sons. A few highlights from that jam session included a cameo by a
white rapper from Minnesota and a collaboration between the steel guitar male
singer and the female singer who transitioned beautifully from “Wagon Wheel”
into Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”.
That jam session was just another
example of how music can bring people together. It may have been on a much
smaller scale then the festival, but it was also on a much more personal level.
Hinterland taught me a lot about Midwesterners and it also rekindled my old
flame for volunteering and helping to serve others. This upcoming weekend I’ll
take part in another music festival in Loveland, CO that combines Music, art,
yoga and workshops on social change. That should make for another amazing
experience, which I’ll surely include on here, but right now I need to walk my
good friends white lab, the least I can do for housing me in this incredible
city they call Denver.
