OntheWilderSide

Someone else’s pretty good photos are here.

Ian and I went to Clearwater to help with the PeaceSmiths table. There are other stories, and more photos over at the PeaceSmiths web-site.

Clearwater was wonderful. Well, the whole day Saturday was wonderful. And, Sunday was okay, until it poured, thundered and lightninged, so that the event had to be called off in the early afternoon. Even that had a silver lining, though, because there was so much leftover food from at the volunteer hospitality tent, that everyone was invited to share. (Yum, yum, vegetarian curry, and pound cake with blueberry syrup.)

Ian and I were in the Activist Section most of the time, so we did not get to take in as much of the music as we usually do. Still, there was some great music and great dancing in the dance tent. The Cajun music was lively as ever. And, one time, when we were dancing to something that seemed like Ska with latin overtones, there was a performance art surprise. There were 4 women dressed all in silver, who slowly danced through the crowd. One person told me later that when she experienced the silver people, two of them slowly snuck up on her, and then played with her hair, and then massaged her hair. She said she loved it!

We heard reports from other people that Pete Seeger’s new Circle of Song idea went off well. (Though, some performances of it was missed by the rain on Sunday.) And, another person said that the Pete Seeger concert was one of the best parts of the festival. We never got a peek of Pete this time. At past festivals, we found him singing in groups, or doing a song or two on the main stage.

There were children playing everywhere and enjoying the day. Two boys, about 3 years apart, were at the dance stage, and they were so wound up, they kept starting to dance arm around waist, they would bounce around together like that a few moments, until they wound up just chasing each other or rolling on the floor. As we drove back to our camp-site, there was a girl about 3 or 4 years old, she was in a field where there were only a few tents left on the outskirts, and she was chasing the birds that kept resting on the grass, and then flying away when she got close. She was so persistent in this game, you could see she really thought she would catch one. But, there was no way. Her dad shadowed her patiently and much more slowly, as she raced from one side of the field to the other.

The view of the Hudson River were beautiful and moving. On Sunday, there was warning of a hale storm. Well that storm never came, it changed direction. But, as it neared us, there was a great energy, lots of choppy waves on the river, and geese flying fiercely over the water to whichever way they thought was safety.

We saw lots of people we know. And, a lot of people who knew our friend Susan Blake came by to talk about her. Also, Ian and I realized that because “these are our people” almost everyone looked like someone we knew. It started to be difficult when you saw someone you recognized to realize if you were correct, or just feeling that sense of hippie-belonging again.

There was lots of beautiful clothing and some wild clothing. Our friend Luna happens to always have some of the prettiest dresses. She wore pastel calico this weekend. It is great to see so many children in tie-die. And, adults who wear fairy wings. I was a little insulted when someone looked at my organic cotton, tie-died socks and asked if my socks were supposed to be different colors. Roy Volpe, who with Sue, coordinates the Activist Section, won the prize for most changes. Roy is known for wearing a skirt to Clearwater. Though, with the rainstorm on Sunday, he had to change to waterproof red pants. And, then, when the sun came out, we found him in jeans. Ian teased him and said he had more clothes changes then Madonna.

That’s about it. More reports and photos to follow.

Filed under: activism, Environment Tagged: | clearwater, Environment, Hudson River