Day 59 – Tom was up bright and early, and so a bit later so were we. 🥱 He noticed the screen door to the camper was out of square, so he and I spent a bit of time that morning straightening it out and getting the door to open and close a bit easier. Then he and I were out to pursue some morning caffeine, where we found a sweet little breve shop not even a block away.
By the time we returned we found a freshened up Laura enjoying the morning view of the harbor from the roof top seats on The Ohana. After we all were feeling wander ready we drifted the docks and checked out some of the massively cool houseboats that were floating along it. (Ahhh…. perhaps a dream for another day)
We returned to the camper and made sure we had everything we needed for the festival. We snapped this picture before attempting our first walk to the park.
Well, this would be the longest journey in our many back and forth travels over the next few days. We drifted most likely the longest way possible as we wandered down to an overpass and proceeded to travel underneath it as far as we could. Then we crossed some train tracks, went to the wrong park, and eventually found the correct path to Port Covington Park. 😆
Once we were in the festival, we wandered the grounds to get our surroundings. There would be two large stages where events would take place, the event being lined with vendors as well as a lot of really neat murals that artists would be working on over the course of the next 3 days. One side of the event had the water running right along it, giving a nice chill area to catch a breath from the craziness as needed.
As we viewed the lineup schedule of bands for the event, we quickly realized how neat they had laid this festival out. One artist would play on a stage while the next band was setting up on the alternate one. Once the active performer was finished there was about a 10 minute break to grab what one might need and hustle over the other stage; then the next band would kick off. This made it so you never had to choose between bands playing at the same time, and we got to enjoy every artist and everything they had to offer.
We got to wander and listen to the artists that had helped shape my life and I had only listened to through the speakers that had surrounded me. Here we stood before them as they individually brought their amazing forms of expression through their sound and energy to the open field here in Baltimore.
We laughed, explored, danced, and sang along for hours. As the night ramped up and up in overwhelming energy, we thought we could take no more; but as soon as that heavy bass dropped and the next artist started we found the ability to continue along with them as they told their stories. The overall moral of their tales and lessons was one of people coming together and rising up in the interest of the overall greater good of humanity. No status class, no color, no judgment; just people being together and wanting the best for each other.
The final show of the night was The Dirty Heads, and as I stated before they punched the last show of the night hard with their own version of energy. This day had left me in a constant state of awe and shock; it really was hard to believe we were here seeing and hearing all of this!
That night we walked our way home, sore and drained from almost a full day of dancing and journeying. It was hard to fully embrace that we had two more days of this absolutely beautiful madness ahead of us.
🥺
Aching but prepared we arose to Day 60 of our journey. This morning we took a much more intelligent (and shorter) path to the festival. We were shone down upon by some really intense heat this day, but we stood below the blue skies strewn with gorgeous white clouds and soaked in every beat of the music as we once again had an amazing day of fully being blown away by more amazing music and messages.
Now, I knew a lot of the artists on this lineup; but not all of them. Some of the new bands we discovered were insanely talented, and I look forward to deep diving into their music even further in the future. On Day 2 Nattali Rize & Iya Terra were two that completely blew me away unexpectedly. If you are looking for something good to do, put some of the artists I posted on the lineup in the last blog on your mix to listen to; you will Thank Me Later. 😉
Otherwise, I was totally geeking out over what we were experiencing! I mean, as the day progressed so did the intensity of this fever-dream.
Seriously! We were seeing Atmosphere! Iration! Freakin’ Matisyahu! And SOJA to top it all off for the night! Holy Cow- I’m still blown away as I’m typing this a few weeks later!
After this adrenaline pumped full on day of Reggae, as we were wandering our way home I was tapped on the shoulder. I looked up to see the members of Troll Tribe, and it turned out they were playing in the bar we had happened to be walking by to get home! They still had one more set left for the night- so we headed in and enjoyed another dash of Reggae Music to top off an already incredible day. I was so stoked!
Day 61 we arose even rougher than the day before. Two days of nothing but dancing had left us a sore group of creatures, and having wore sandals the last few days had left my feet in a physical state similar to that of hamburger. Needless to say; I was prescribing myself some real shoes for Day 3 of the festival.
Once again we were greeted by amazing show after show! My artist discoveries for the day were many; but Common Kings took the cake of the biggest one. Those Hawaiian Boys know how to drop some massive bass and elevate some massive vibes!
Next arrived another round of huge head trips for the night; all kicked off by one of my favorite bands Ballyhoo! I made sure to rock the hat I had them sign when my brother and I watched them in Anchorage last winter. Here the hat was to greet them all the way on the other side of the country; and I guess along with me too!
Then I was swimming in some all too familiar territory of my music development, with artists that paved the way in the modern Reggae scene; Pepper & Slightly Stoopid!
During the Slightly Stoopid act, I didn’t think things could get any more insane.
Coincidentally, the night before I had been babbling at Tom; telling him how cool it would be if Chali 2na showed up and rocked the house with Slightly Stoopid. Chali does a lot of tracks with them, and I love his sound. But alas, I told him, that it was probably not going to happen because I hadn’t heard much from the 2na since Covid hit.
Well- halfway through the final act Chali freakin’ 2na busts out and rocks the house! I was on geek-out level cloud ninety-nine thousand at that moment!
Whew! All that was left after three days of an adrenaline pumping dream was to stumble our way back to The Ohana upon our pummeled feet. Still jazzed up about seeing Chali 2na; I showed Tom some Jurassic 5 on our way home. It was a beautiful night for the victory walk back, and we capped it off with the celebratory “We Survived!” picture to put a final cherry on this epic journey together. 😊
Geoff Murphy 8/20/2022