The Sappyfest Chronicles

Oh Sappyfest...you came and went like a pleasant daydream.  Wait, was it a dream?  No, it was real...I have the blisters on my feet to prove it.

Sappyfest is the only music festival on my radar these days.  It's within a 4 hour drive from my house, the crowd is there (mostly) to listen to music and I only recognize 3 or 4 of the bands in the lineup.

Sappyfest:  your port-a-potties were air freshened with well cured sinsemilla smoke rather than ammonia pucks.  Your festival guide told me to accept lineup changes:  "things change, get over it".  I did.

The drive to Sackville was hopeful, filled with anticipation.  This was my second foray into the fest' that is sappy so I had a vague idea of what, when and where to expect it.  

The air on the highway was hot and the windows were down.  I'm sure I wasn't the only driver who had a Don Quixote moment when passing the large wind power array at the NS/NB border.  

Once I crossed the Tantramar marshes (it was just like the Sappy Times handout said....utter those words like a mystical incantation:  tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes), it was as if I had entered Mordor.  Epic cumulus clouds and sunny skies were replaced with a thick blanket of grey fog that enshrouded my home away from home.  At the time, I thought I wanted more sun.  As it turns out, I didn't know what I wanted.

Skip ahead to the last day of the festival.  I sat in a shady corner of a parking lot, enjoying the support of the soft driver's seat in my car.  I felt like I was drowning.  It's not the heat, it's the humidity.  Actually, it was everything.  A weekend of sensory overload.  I was suffering from hipster fatigue.

I bolted.  

Staying in Sackville for another 4 hours quickly started to feel like getting up for work after a heavenly and relaxing long weekend.  I started assessing my festival experience the way day traders perform a price/earnings ratio analysis of stocks and bonds.  I realized how Sappy happy I felt.  I stopped thinking about getting my money's worth from my ticket the way ravenous diners approach a cheap buffet.

I couldn't stay any longer, so I didn't.  I escaped.

I fueled up my body and my car and hit the road.  I gave my new Eternal Summers cd a test run as I had another Don Quixote moment.  I was awake, alert and happy to be driving.  Maybe I was just happy to be in a comfortable, air conditioned seat.  

I ran.  I ran back to my cosy Lunenburg county home.  I ran back to the chilly embrace of my familiar Atlantic ocean.

I was happy to see a thick bank of fog greeting me as I crossed the county line.  I rolled down the windows.  I inhaled and exhaled.  I cooled down.

Thank you, Sappyfest.  See you next year.

(more pics and stories to follow)