Gathering of the Vibes 2011 - It's too darn HOT!!

Together for a year!

Both Seth and I are veteran VibeTribe members, and we LOVE this festival. We love the unique Seaside setting, but this fest truly holds a special place in our hearts. I've been attending this festival, what I consider my "hometown" congregation, with my dad Robert FOREVER! Vibes is where Seth really got his start, on his own, professionally. Vibes (in'06) was the last time Seth saw his mom, Pinky, alive...the last time they partied together. And Vibes ('10) is where Seth and I began dating (and consummated our relationship). This Vibes was our one year anniversary.
Maybe that's why, after only having been home a day and a half from All Good, we left Wednesday morning for Vibes. We made good time to CT...though we were kicking ourselves the whole way...All Good is about halfway between Rock Camp and CT, and my dad lives in Bristol. Had we been thinking clearly we'd have left All Good straight for my dad's chilled out THERE for a day and a half then made the 45 minute trek to Vibes. Instead we drove 12 hours straight from Rock Camp, WV to Norwalk, CT to stay with a friend of ours.
Thursday morning, after a load of laundry, some showers, and an hour spent looking for our friends lost keys, we jumped in the truck and made our way to Seaside Park. We stopped at WalMart (evil, but unquestionably a one-stop-shop for all of your festie needs) and picked up the essentials (water, gatorade, redbull, ice, etc) then headed into Vibes.
We checked in at the artist/vip gate...and ran into our first hang-up. Despite the fact that we were billed in the playbill/schedule booklet, they didn't have us in their computers. Luckily, they recognized us as legitimate (we have our own department: The Freaky People Department), called our contact, and got us registered and in. Vibes gave us plain old "camping" bracelets...which would end up causing a number of hassles throughout the weekend. They did provide us with an AWESOME contact person though, Tony....who graciously helped us at every turn. If you ever read this, WE LOVE YOU TONY!
Alright, so now we're checked in...it's hotter-than-hell already, WELL up over 95...and though we enjoyed the air conditioning the truck offered we were anxious to get in to our campsite. However, at every gate we were redirected (incorrectly) because the poorly informed parking staff didn't recognize our Friends & Family parking pass. We drove around the venue and waited in line for 4 HOURS until we nearly reached a security check point at which they demanded $20 for day-early admission. At that we said "uh-uh" and finally called wonderful Tony, who escorted us out of line and through the venue to our proper campsite.
Funny enough, we ended up camping 50 feet and one fence away from where we were camped last year. In fact Seth had argued with a parking attendant (in '10) to camp exactly where we camped this year.
Check out this shot from the CT Post of our campsite: Picture #205

So we set up camp, met our wonderful neighbor, Smilin' Christopher, discovered the friend who's house in Norwalk we'd stayed at Wednesday was camped right behind us, headed into the venue to check out Dumpstaphunk and geared up for some DSO.
Seth jumped into the orange bear costume for his first bear set of the season. I donned my skeleton body suit, and we made our way to Dark Star. We wiggled our way into the front row, we wanted Donna Jean (who was singing with DSO for a special beginning of Vibes treat) to see us, as she'll be our Friday night headliner at Pink Moon III. We raged in the DSO crowd until someone smacked Sethro in the face and the chicken wire innards of the bear head sliced his nose open. It was so hot, even at night, that when we got back to camp Seth was DRENCHED in sweat from head to toe.

 
We were exhausted from All Good, from the drive to CT, from not enough sleep, from the heat, from waiting for hours in line, from our bear set...and even though one of our crew members was on their way an yet to check in...we crashed out in the back of the truck. We knew Alex (the crew member on his way) would have no problems getting in or finding us.

Alex

We were right! When we woke up Friday morning, there he was sitting in camp smoking a cigarette. It was HOT HOT HOT again. I showered off at the misting tent Vibes provided this year. My all-natural bug repellent soap was a real chick magnet under there, let me tell you. By the time I returned to camp two more of our crew members had arrived. Jessi and Slatkin are Cleo siblings of ours...(Cleo is a co-ed literary society on the Trinity College Campus in Hartford...kind of like a fraternity...Seth and I are both siblings there). They set up their tents and coolers while we all struggled to keep out of the sun. I'm telling you, Bridgeport CT (and the whole Eastern USA) had a record breaking heat wave! It got up past 103 degrees!

Cleos at Vibes, (L2R: Seth, Me, Jessi, Slatkin, Tom)

As evening, and some relief from the heat rolled in, another Cleo, an old friend and RCP veteran, Tom found us. We were still waiting on two of our official crew members who were trying to check in (they were ultimately unsuccessful, because of their own shortcomings, and stayed the night in a hotel to come join us on Saturday)...but with Tom we had enough people to dragon! So we headed out for our first set with Furthur. We knocked it out of the park, and returned to camp briefly to collect our heads. We hurried back our for a second set with Furthur, bringing along the heart I'd made at All Good for Phil. Vibes, which began sixteen years ago as "Deadhead Heaven" is truly a Grateful Dead Family party....and you could feel it in Furthur's set. I'm not saying they didn't put on a good show at All Good, but you could tell that they really were "bringing it" for the VibeTribe. My point was proven when Phil not only gave his organ donor speech, but ALSO gave Puff T. a shout-out! While this crazy, life-changing, long anticipated event was going on, I handed the heart to a wonderful gentleman standing at the very front of the stage (within the security barrier). He held it up in front of Phil throughout Furthur's entire encore (Ripple) and laid it on the stage for them. I saw a stage hand pick it up and bring it backstage. I know somewhere in my heart that Phil has RCP's heart. (If anyone has a video of Phil's shout-out, please email it to me at jessicajmola@gmail.com)
We made sure to hit Big Gigantic on the Green Stage with the dragon, to make sure they noticed us, as we hit them after Furthur at All Good.
We got back to camp and I gave Tom a back rub...he'd been wearing the 50lb, makeshift, battery back pack for three sets, and was hurting. Alex dressed up in the red bear suit and went out and did a set. Jessi and Seth and I went for a long walk on the beach, and sooner than we expected, watched the sun rise over the Sound.

It was at our sweet spot on the beach that Jessi and I met two other Jess' and a melodica player. After a fantastic sunrise jam sesh, complete with three guitars, a fiddle, a makeshift drum set and a melodica Seth, Jessi and I headed back to camp for a nap.

We woke up Saturday afternoon in the sweltering heat. As soon as we were alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic(!) we sent out a cast of crazy costumed characters. We were still waiting on two more cast members. When they FINALLY arrived at 6:30pm on Saturday evening; they'd already missed the majority of the festival. They didn't seem to understand that they were expected to work (despite the fact that one was a RCP veteran AND the deal had been explained to them) or why everyone was annoyed and frustrated with them after busting ass all weekend. Needless to say they will not be invited onto the team again.

As soon as the lollygaggers arrived we began body painting. We cranked out seven skeletons, but due to the lateness of our stragglers, we didn't get out before the sun set. It detracted from our skeleton set so hugely that we ran back to camp (gosh, security check points are easy when you're naked!) and busted out Puff T. in our birthday/skeleton suits. Elvis Costello seemed to love the dragon...I could see him staring it down and just smiiiiiiiling! He played a beautiful "Must've been the roses" that melted my heart.

When we got to camp, the latecomers decided they were going to leave (after only one set??). Seth begged them to stay for one more dragon show. Seth, Slatkin, Jessi and I went to sit by the beach to cool off before our Jane's Addiction set. After about fifteen minutes we headed back to camp, only to discover that the latecomers had left...Seth and I were so disappointed.
But we raged it for Jane's Addiction anyway. The crowd was rougher and tougher than even the Primus crowd at All Good...and a few of them didn't seem to appreciate Puff at all. Jane's Addiction didn't quite give us a shout-out, but they skirted around it quite a bit....I don't think they quite knew what to think of us.

We were exhausted, so we brought Puff home. On the way back to our campsite, we passed hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hippies sitting by the beach, all pissed off at the choice of Jane's Addiction as a Saturday night headliner (and vocal about it)...and they DID appreciate Puff!

Puff T. and Kate

Again, once we got back to camp Alex donned the red bear suit and raged the Green Vibes stage for P-Groove. We washed off our skeleton paint and promptly passed out for the evening.
Sunday is always an odd day at festivals, always a very uncomfortable transition back to reality. Slatkin, Jessi and I went on a hunt for an anniversary present for Sethro. I found a beautiful psychedelic print from one of our favorite Vibes artists, Larry Carlson. His wonderful wife Kate runs their booth and always charges our dragon battery for us. The print looks just like [a very psychedelic version of] our mountain here in Rock Camp. It was the perfect anniversary present.
Slowly but surely we packed up camp. We said goodbye to our remaining crew members and finally left Vibes.