Message Board All Good Music Festival 2005 Click pictures to see full size ~ many have mouseover captions.

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OK here's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Once again traveling to All Good Festival on the way home from an extended trip I drove through PA, MD and then WV and love the country and views. It rained so hard near LaVale I had to stop but took advantage of knowing the town and stores and bought supplies. If you read last years menu you know that I was pretty inexperienced at shopping for camping, but I'm proud to say that I'm a pro now. Bought three oranges (they were too sour to eat) a pack of Brats and buns, SIX Snickers, a hunk of cheese, Doritos and a case of Amstell Lite. That ought to be good for four days. Light rain on the pleasant drive to the venue and then two or three hours in line. Didn't matter we all got out and visited and I met some great folks. One guy, George, got in line to buy his ticket for the next day not intending to stay Thursday with the early arrivals but once in line couldn't get out so had to wait til he got to the tickets and then fought traffic back out!
I got parked and carried a tent to the top of the ridge where I camped last year hoping to find Charlie and Wendy who should have arrived. They were nowhere to be found but I did find the hammock guy from last year and his girlfriend and they suggested I camp near them so I set up a tent. There were a few acts Thursday so I headed for the small stage at the bottom of the hill and got there in time for Papa Grows Funk who put on a rocking good show and had the crowd with them.
Next was a strange act, Matisyahu is a Hassidic Jew, who over the disapproval of his church is on the summer tour circuit doing songs of faith and spirituality. He also had a good number of followers in the crowd and put on a decent show doing some variations on raggae.
Leaving the area I found myself walking right next to Charles and walked him back to his LOWLAND campsite. It was nice to see Wendy again and there was a birthday party going on for Tim. As I left for my site the fog rolled up the valley and after having a few adult beverages I got lost in the fog and tried for maybe an hour to find my tent.
Got a good nights sleep once I found my way home and woke to a beautiful day. Met the rest of the neighborhood folks and am never surprised at festivals how much fun the neighbors are. Steve and Rick were camped right across the road from me (well I decided to camp IN the road at least with my shelter which came in handy during rains for visitors to stop a while). Next to me were Hammock Guy from last year, whos real nickname turned out to be Lurch (Steve cracked up at lurch and lurker, both of our real names being Michael) and his girlfriend Kate.
It rained Friday afternoon for about three hours and wind blew hard but being protected by the top of the ridge we were out of the wind and didn't have much runoff so we sat in our shelters and watched the storm and passed the time visiting with people looking to get out of the rain. People in parts of the lowlands were flooded out and there was skimboarding in one campground.
Wendy reported people riding inflatables down the ditch that flooded past their site. The water behind the dam we cross to the main venue was nearly to the top.
That evening just before dusk we were watching the sun set a guy came around and set up an easel and started to paint a landscape. He worked fast but Kate and I both thought that he was going to lose the light before he finished. Turned out he had a headlamp and worked right into the dark. Kyle let me photograph him working and turned out to be a pretty interesting guy I spent time with the next day.
Back to the main venue I got there in time to see Gabby LaLa from the front. I watched her with a girl named Lauren who kept telling me to take more pictures "She's got her blue hair on!" and for Laurens sake I wish I had because all of them turned out crappy as did the ones of Les Claypool. Gabby was not so enthusiastically received by the majority of the crowd but was better appreciated on the sitar with Claypool.
Saturday morning I took a walking tour of the whole area and met up with George, the guy from in line Thursday. He had a great site with the festival workers and a nice girlfriend. The walk took me all the way to the entrance where there were three tour busses were backing through the crowd. Thinking they were Keller and Spearhead and String Cheese I walked alongside them thinking I could walk right through the backstage gate by staying behind them but decided not to at the last minute knowing I'd get caught shortly and thrown out.
Stopped by to see Kyle and Ben for a while and to admire Kyle's finished painting. There were lots of intresting sights around as there always are but I wanted to be at the venue for Yonder Mountain to get near the front thus ready for front row for Keller and then Spearhead.
That plan worked. Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon was the guest MC replacing some pain in the ass guy who everybody hated. He also came out and joined Yonder Mountain String Band and sang one.
Michael Franti came out with Yonder Mountain and the crowd loved it! If that wasn't enough when Franti left Keller came out and played a few and that was the set change, YM left and Keller started his set. I was a little disappointed that it was the same show I saw last time I saw him (Summer Camp) but no matter Keller is always excellent.
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Sun goes down as Keller finishes and after a short wait Spearhead takes the stage and Michael Franti steals the show. Franti is an extremely energetic entertainer as well as talented but the most impressive thing about him is that when he asks,"How you FEELIN?" he really wants to know and cares. While his music is mostly rolicking good fun there are more serious songs and a few stories told about the plight of people he has met. It is all reminicent of the 60's. Except the music wasn't hip hop then. Check out Spearheads webpage
So to make my evening complete Keller comes back out with Spearhead! He sang, he danced, and looked like he was having the time of his life. But how could you not when your with Michael Franti?? Marvin's Mountain ROCKED!
OK so I was totally lazy on Sunday and didn't go to the venue. I felt kinda guilty but what the hell I was enjoying sitting aroung and visiting. I could hear the main stage pretty well and enjoyed a day of rest at home.
Monday the place is deserted because we were Police ordered to leave last night by midnight because of a storm warning of leftovers of a hurricane. Alot of people complied.

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