As we drove up route 81 to the sweet sounds of a great JGB show on Sirius Satelite's Grateful Dead Channel, I noticed the car ahead of us: a little gold sedan with the license plate "MIS JERY". I pointed this out to the boys and we pulled up closer and noticed his Jerry window sticker. As we passed I flashed him a peace sign, and he nodded back. I wondered if he too was headed to Elysian Fields and made a mental note to search the lot for his car. (I never did...womp womp)
The sun went down as we approached our exit. I always think of Dugald when we pass the Rt. 66 exit on 81N. Last year, around this time, we met Dug just off that exit and exchanged tickets and fliers in a random gas station parking lot. We looked so sketchy shuffling around that day, but it was just some goofy Pink Moon business. God I miss that kid. We actually first met Dugald at Elysian Fields last year...it's odd to think how close we became in less than a year. He was such a wonderful person.
As we got off the highway I got super excited. We passed the ice cream shop with the pink picnic tables that Jesse, Andrew, Brandon, Cree, Seth and I stopped at after the fest last year. It was about 10:30pm when we finally pulled into Elysian Fields.
We checked in and headed all the way to the back of the camping area, next to the huge stack of round hay bails. I HATE setting up camp in the dark, but it didn't take us very long. We could hear PBR and then The DJ Williams Projekt from our site as we laid Puff out and popped our EZ-up and introduced ourselves to Kristy, our neighbor who excitedly agreed to help us dragon for The Bridge. And dragon we did! I threw on the 50+ pound battery back pack, grabbed the front two ribs while Kristy grabbed the back rib, Justin the tail, and Seth the head and out walked Puff. We slinked around the venue and picked up a few more dragoneers, including Dylan who graciously took the front rib from me and was an absolute natural. The fluidity with which he moved the dragon, beer in hand even, was incredible. At one point I tapped him on the shoulder and told him that if he got tired he could give it back, and he smiled and said "I've found what I want to do with the rest of my life". Note to self: find Dylan, invite him on a gig.
After a killer set we brought Puff back to camp and chilled with our new found dragoneers. We did another set for The Bridge's encore (feat. DJ Williams)...and then another silent late night set after the music ended (around 12:30). Back at camp we met Katie, an incredible woman with a wonderful head on her shoulders. We discussed her journey from Oregon to the Native American Reservation she now lives on. We talked about Pink Moon and Puff and our lives in WV. We talked about politics and festie rituals. It was wonderful.
Tom & Beck's son, Christian found us and chilled at camp for a bit, as well as the PBR guys (they'd helped us dragon as well earlier!)
The best reunion of the evening though was seeing Jesse again. We met Jesse at Elysian Fields last year. We has a great time and he ended up coming to the farm, living with us and helping a ton with Pink Moon II. He found us during our first set with The Bridge and camped with us all weekend this year. It was so fantastic seeing him again.
I think we finally drifted off to sleep, to an unusually quiet festival scene, at around 4:30am.
I woke up at 9:30am to the sounds of dogs barking, babies cooing and a strong breeze. Jesse had not slept at all that night and was sitting in camp bleary eyed. Justin was asleep in the backseat of the truck and Seth was asleep on the mattress in the back of the truck. I started the morning off by hanging some tapestries on the EZ up and painting some signs...one for Dugald and one for our Pink Moon website. I placed the "We miss you Dugald" sign right in front of our camp and the www.pinkmoonfestival.com sign up in the venue.
When Seth and Justin finally woke up we headed down to see PBR play. They killed it! No one was dancing though, so in my pink dress, sparkly sunglasses, and pink party hat I raged my butt off. I handed out a few Pink Moon fliers and we headed back to camp.
At some point, it started to rain. It started off light...enjoyable. Just a sprinkle, fun to dance in even. Then, all of a sudden...it came DOWN! I had just been commenting about how remarkably dry I was...when suddenly all of our stuff was getting soaked. Quickly we yanked the tarp out from under our mattress in the back of the truck and threw it over both truck and EZ up. This stopped most everything from getting soaked, but most of the damage was done. The end of our mattress was oozing brown water, Puff was kind of puddly, and I was finally very wet. Not to mention, our Pink Moon fliers do not hold up well in wetness. So all the fliers I'd handed out so far were ruined for sure.
We were all huddled together under our tarp/EZ up construction when I realized we'd have a lot more room if we weren't hanging out on top of a pile of trash. I spent a few minutes spinning in circles, standing in place, picking up trash in the 3-foot radius of me...and everyone laughed at my display. I did, however, create a lot more room and order.
Once the rain ceased, and the sun peaked out again, we emerged from our soggy campsite to hit the lot with a new round of fliers. I donned a pair of bunny ears and my big pink glasses and Seth his pink party hat, and we hit the town. We fliered and talked to tons of people. I think it meant a lot that we weren't just street teamers, but the people who throw the fest, the dragon people. I choked up every time I met one of Dug's friends.
Once we finished our street teaming we finally went to hang out with our super cool neighbors in their awesome hay bail/tarp tent. We were kicking ourselves for not going over there sooner....these folks were the bomb and their huge shelter was super dry. And when we finally heard the sounds of Keller and The Keels, we picked up our dragon and danced out to the venue for "Mr. Keller! Mr. Keller!"...we kept it to a short dragon set cause we have this hunch that Mr. Keller doesn't like Puff. Last year at Elysian Fields we came out during "Focus on the Bass" which, admittedly wasn't very good timing. After our dragon set, I wanted to see the rest of the show, making it back to the stage in time for "Bird Song". Keller's "3 minute" encore was a cover of Cee-lo Green's "Fuck You"....and it seemed like an odd way to end the fest. When he warned the parents in the crowd "earmuffs" I got all excited that it'd be his gatecrasher song, but oh well. We headed back to chill with Kendall and Lynn (our hay bail neighbors) till we finally passed out before dawn.
I want to give a shout out to the security guy for Elysian Fields. Dude was awesome, and effective at his job.
I woke up on Sunday at 8:30...(ugh so early!) and the fest was already clearing out. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I started packing up camp and picking up trash. When everyone else woke up we finished packing the truck, said our goodbyes to Kendall, Lynn and crew, then went for a walk to do one more round of fliering. We met a few cool cats who'd been to Pink Moon II, and said it was the best fest they went to all season!! I also met one of the members of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, who was wearing a great pink fuzzy party hat, and gave him a hug and a bunch of fliers.
Finally, sweaty and tired, we said goodbye to Jesse and piled into the wonderfully air conditioned truck and headed home. The drive back took a lot less time (we didn't make any stops and didn't take the back roads). We stopped at home before taking Justin to Sabrina's, to grab a bite to eat and chill for a minute. It was incredibly difficult after spending a wonderful half an hour on the couch to get back in the truck and bring Justin home though. Seth and I were beat, and got the best night sleep ever.
I really miss Dugald, and I'm really glad we went to Elysian Fields. It was a great cathartic experience. Every one of his friends that I talked to could feel his love and his presence there. We raged our dragon for you Dug...we love you.
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