Impulse Music & Arts Festival 2012

Pyramid & Snuggles (Photo Credit: Mikey Curtis)

Rock Camp Productions was thrilled to attend the very first annual Impulse Music & Arts Festival this year, down in Union Point, Georgia! The festival, brought to you by Whateverz Klever Presents, spanned the beautiful Durhamtown Plantation Resort, a few thousand acre atv/motocross track/resort. I would estimate that about 2,000 people attended the fest, and the line-up was incredible!!! Boombox, Archnemesis, Papadosio, Emancipator, The Polish Ambassador, Zoogma, and EOTO (not to mention so many more). Rock Camp Productions produced the large, centerpiece installation of the festival, a 30' tall, stretch fabric, pyramid - which was live-painted throughout the weekend by Crazyredbeard a.k.a. Jonathon Blake. RCP also produced the all-night, raging, DJ booth in camping Friday night, with DJ RahBee, as well as the body painted and morph suit aliens, the ufo, Snuggles and The Panda, Siddhartha Glo and Puff T. Magic-Dragon!

Seth and I left Rock Camp pretty early on Tuesday. We headed into Floyd, VA to pick up a crew member, Mark, and had a little car trouble, putting the truck in the shop and delaying our arrival on site for Impulse a day. We crashed the night at a friends house, picked up the truck bright and early Wednesday morning and headed to Georgia.

It was a 6.5 hour drive from Floyd, VA...and we weren't really sure whether or not we were lost for about the last two hours of the trip. But we made it, checked in and set up camp before dark. There was a lot to do, but we were there, and that was half the battle!

Seth & The Pyramid

Thursday morning Seth and Mark headed out towards Loew's Home-Improvement to gather some essentials for pyramid building and puppet fixing. With hardly any materials to begin work while they were out, instead I organized and cleaned up camp...meticulously re-packing and placing every item. Around 3pm three of my crew members arrived: Rachel, Lauren and Lauren. Rachel went to high school with me, and the Laurens were her friends from SCAD. I had to hoof it ~1/4 mile from camp to the lodge to check the girls in, and guided them back to camp. Jonathon Blake and Julia (his 4 1/2 month pregnant, and incredibly amazing girlfriend) arrived and set up camp with us just a little later.

Crazyredbeard and crew painting stretch fabric

Eventually Seth and Mark returned with materials: pvc, joints, spray paint, glue, and so much more...and we all began work on the installation. We had been informed upon arrival that our installation was actually the centerpiece of the festival. The pressure was on...this had to be huge and it had to be great! But as we laid out our materials we realized, they boys  hadn't gotten the proper joints at Loew's! And they'd been gone all day - the store was an hour away! Not to mention it was getting later (probably 5pm at this point...) Seth had no choice but to head back out, because without those pvc joints, the center-pole of the centerpiece of the festival would not go up!

Robbie and Jennie arrived not long after dark and immediately began helping us set up. By 9pm Seth still had not returned and we were all worried. He'd been gone for hours. And we still had nothing put together! Finally I saw the truck come around the corner...and I had a tear in my eye. Robbie and I were about ready to start calling hospitals! Seth had gotten a little lost on the back roads of Georgia, and a little turned around, but he got the joints! We got to work immediately - we glued and spray painted pvc, we took measurements and took them again. I had to make Rachel and the poor Laurens move our gear and vending booth 4 times that day!! It was all kind of a crazy and chaotic, but by 3am we had a gorgeous pyramid standing! Jason and Seth stayed in the venue to complete the UFO while the rest of us headed back to camp.

The Pyramid, and Hunter working on the UFO

Getting the pyramid up was a job! We sunk the centerpole on some rebar, took measurements then 4 people took hold of the stretch fabric and stretched it equally, trying to keep the centerpole (made of flexible pvc) straight. We anchored the fabric with rebar an mounted blacklights around the structure. Then Jon began painting. He'd not worked with spray paint much before, but you'd never guess it as he brought life to the panels of fabric around the pyramid.

Seth and I watched the sun rise on Friday, and braced ourselves for the beginning of the festival. Around 8am (Friday) we went down to straighten out and get credentials for us and our crew. I submitted our list to Katie Smegielski, Impulse's incredible volunteer coordinator. Immediately I had profound respect for her and the way she ran her crew, and my respect only grew throughout the festival. It was only a matter of time until I found out she was a close friend of Jon's and she's from CT (I'm from Hartford!). Now I consider her a friend, and truly look forward to working with her in the future. Marcos would serve as our contact on site, throughout the festival, and was also incredibly on point. He was easy to find, easy to talk to, and always helpful.  I would love to work with him again as well!

Once we had our credentials we headed down into the venue, only to see our once-beautiful pyramid bowing down in the wind. Carefully and quickly we had to take it down, and in only 15 minutes Seth and an incredible volunteer, Hunter Hall, sunk a 30' telephone pole by hand!! Hunter and Seth took turns attacking that hole with post-hole diggers, a pick, and a dig bar....and my god they had the pole sunk safely in the ground before the gates of the festival opened to the public! They had blisters the size of nickels! Robbie was also instrumental in getting the pyramid up! His spacial reasoning and knowledge of construction was invaluable!

Hunter atop a ladder as we fix the pyramid

Then we began the job of adjusting the stretch fabric on the pyramid. Hunter scaled a ladder, and skillfully arranged the fabric as the rest of us attached it to it's rebar mounts. We could not have erected that pyramid without Hunter, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him from the bottom of my heart!

The Pyramid was up, and it wasn't going anywhere. Jon began painting away, and Jennie, Justin and a small crew set up our vending booth. We bumped into our good friends All Systems Glow, and we were thrilled to see their glow-dome not far from our pyramid! Robert (the master mind behind All Systems Glow) and Jason are two of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. Jason introduced us to his sister Stephanie, and she's an incredibly badass chick. We had an amazing time with those guys all weekend.

Jennie and Robbie worked to set up our DJ stage in the camping area. DJ RahBee (a.k.a. Robbie) began playing sometime during Papdosio, and didn't quit till 6am. He threw down a badass set, and there were tons of people raging the campgrounds with led hula-hoops, fire poi, led poi, panda bears and aliens! It was one helluva party!

As evening rolled around we finished checking in the rest of our crew, Beth and Dave, and prepared for some late night dragon sets. We got Puff T. out for Boombox and Papadosio. Finally Seth and I crashed in the back of the truck, I don't even remember falling asleep!

Puff T. Magic-Dragon (Photo Credit: Mikey Curtis)

Saturday was hot! Jason made us egg sandwiches with bacon on them, and candied bacon on the side for breakfast. We couldn't bring ourselves to do much in the hot midday sun, however Rachel, Beth, the Laurens and I did a body-painted alien set down at the pyramid while David ran around in one of our alien morph suits.

Rachel and I as body painted aliens!

Seth worked hard on Sid, our giant glowing male stick figure puppet all day and by evening we were able to do a puppet set, a dragon set, and a dragon chasing puppet set! Jason even puppeteered the head of the dragon during the duet-set (while Seth puppeteered Sid), joining a short list of people who've ever handled Puff's head! Crazyredbeard had made incredible progress on the pyramid and it looked fantastic!

I did an alien set with Jason as The Panda. We raged down at Area 51, which had a really cool set up!

Jason as The Panda

After scrubbing off my head-to-toe green body paint with baby-wipes, I finally passed out...but Seth stayed up all night to work on Molly (our giant female stick figure).
Sunday seemed even hotter than Saturday, and our day sets were limited. Jason and I made pancakes down at the All Systems Glow dome. We didn't have a bowl, so we cut a gallon jug in half. Then we didn't have a spoon so I used a giant glowstick to mix the batter. But we made some badass pancakes...then Jason made some more candied bacon. We fed a bunch of people...but that was about all we could handle in the sun.
By the time EOTO rolled around, we were ready. We threw down a badass dragon set for them, and they responded with the best shout out...no, song...that Puff's ever received! The climax of which was "What's that dragon smokin'?...oh God I hope it ain't that bath salt shit..." from Jason Hann! Thanks Boys! Check out the video here: EOTO @ IMPULSE "What's that dragon been smokin'?"
It was Stephanie's 23rd birthday and she helped us dragon for EOTO...so Seth and I gave her a Puff T. pin and patch! I hope she had a great birthday, we had a great time with her!

During the set I dislocated my knee. Jason, in full Panda garb, helped me over to Jamcare, where  I scored an ace bandage and some ibuprofen. The Jamcare guys provide a fantastic service that's been needed on the scene for some time! They are trained medical professionals equipped to decide whether someone is just spun, or require medical attention.

Not long after, we began to break down shop. Unfortunately we broke down the pyramid before we got a chance to show the EOTO guys, who we bumped into on site.
It  didn't take us long to break down our gear, but packing the truck was a puzzle! Luckily Jason and Stephanie were there to help! Steph gave me the most beautiful jade bracelet, we said our goodbyes, and hit the road.

Sid & Puff at the Pyramid

We got off site around midnight, and stopped at a motel in Lincolntown, GA around 3am. We had such a great weekend at Impulse. Most of the people on site were helping to produce the festival on some level. The sense of community and love and creation on site was incredible.

Pyramid with paint by Crazyredbeard (Photo Credit: Mikey Curtis)

Pyramid (Photo Credit: Mikey Curtis)

The Durhamtown Plantation guys also did a great job all weekend. The infrastructure of the grounds was incredibly useful, the layout was nice, and the staff seemed supportive and interested. They were helpful and attentive all weekend...

Rock Camp Productions has never produced a show like we did at IMPULSE. We built the centerpiece installation of the festival. Seth and Hunter sunk a telephone pole by hand! Crazyredbeard live-painted the 30' piece all weekend! And then that EOTO set!!! We worked our butts off, and it showed. We also had a great time, and truly learned about ourselves, our relationship to art, and our relationships with each other. I'd like to thank IMPULSE and Whateverz Klever Presents for providing us this incredible opportunity.

Ultimately IMPULSE 2013 will not be a festival you want to miss. We urge everyone to check it out. Everyone involved was passionate and creative, which made for a vibrant and magical vibe all weekend long. We had a great time, everyone on our crew had a truly life changing experience. Thanks IMPULSE. Thank you, for a real good time.

Pyramid (Photo Credit: Mikey Curtis)