<<CLICK HERE to read Part 1 of our What The Festival coverage>>
Saturday June 20th, 2015
My first night ended in excellence, bringing on the morning light with new friends. Determined to receive the full experience during my limited time, I went on a lone adventure after watching a set at the Dragon Stage and wound up chasing the sun into the clearing. There, we shared pizza slices sitting criss-cross apple sauce in the grass. “A Pizza Sunrise,” they called it. They were a handsomely gregarious bunch, the girls in braids, boys with long hair.
5:37 AM My intent was to head back to the car for some shut eye. Brenda had already beat me to it hours before. But, I’m persuaded to change course. By white awnings this time… little cabanas, surrounding 2 still rectangles of water. There’s a deck dividing it down the middle, it seems like you can hop from one pool to the next with just a step. No one’s around, except for ever present security patrolling the perimeter. So t h i s is the pool stage. I plop myself into a cabana. I have a VIP view to the skyline from here, and I’d like to know the inside scoop from the hawks themselves. Sorbet oranges and soft pinks collide with the clouds while I drift in and out of sleep as I’m told stories of Sasquatch versus WTF. Security declares: WTFest trumps all.
10:45 AM Breakfast. I sit on some steps waiting for a kale, spinach, mango, and pineapple smoothie that I ordered. They’re hustling bags of ice out of the truck behind me; I’m thankful for the blasts of cold air. I managed to get in Power Nap 2 back at the Honda after my cabana siesta earlier, and that, plus today’s wardrobe change has me feeling jazzed. Not to mention, my smoothie is tip-top-with-the-sh*ts. I’m wearing a sheer black romper number and a pink hand me down baseball cap from Mother, that reads, “Never Kissed A Frog, Never Had To.” To the pool party we go.
Whoa. I’m not certain what time it is now. What was once my delightful lil sleep spot is now l i v e & t u r n t. Beach balls, inflated zebras, and alligators playfully float above heads while we twist and splash to the tunes below. Snowballs are passed out (WTF?). Pure summertime vibes in all its splendor. https://soundcloud.com/tylertastemaker/live-from-splash-pool-what-the-festival-2015
*(Note: It is mandatory to listen to this set, children. This guy kills it. He is the disc jockey Gandalf of the NW. Magic in his fingas; and perhaps his mane?).
4:19 PM For me to think I could continue to recount a detailed description of my happenings here was a deeply ambitious thought. The rest of my reports are dotted amidst all the music and beautiful commotion. Thus far, these are the standouts of the afternoon:
There’s a plush pink unicorn hitching a ride atop a bubblemachine. He’s strapped to a wagon and accompanied around, leaving a trail of bubbles in its wake.
…I’ve laid lazily on a neon innertube and stared into the periwinkle sky – hihats and bass vibrated straight through the water into my bones.
I’ve successfully found two dear friends from back home… they were royalty in their amber tinted lenses.
…I’ve Kumbaya’ed back at the blue Magic Schoolbus’ deck then ventured on a day-lit escape
into
the
woods.
…………..L i s t e n. Did you know the Earth,
..has a heartbeat? She breathed her being into me, the bark chips rising & falling into my palms. They prefer you right up close, cheek pressed into the grains. Their warmness will radiate out if you’re patient.
Even the weeds, the twigs (they’re quite persistent, those ones), they have something to say, as well. The vines, the thorns, the shrubs, the flies. Everything. All living things, they inhale and exhale in unison to their own tempo. It’s fascinating.
I could hear each and every voice distinctly – those that were in nearby presence, yes, but comforting voices, too, of those that were miles away from here and live inside the layers of my skull.
And oh, how about the alluring pocket of the wood, with the artistically swaying limbs of human form. A moving meditation class I walked right into. The instructor spoke smoothly, directing our breathing. http://whatthefestival.com/movement-classes/teresa-toogie-barcelo/
(In retrospect, I must’ve put that lesson into immediate practice and swirled myself into a billow throughout the trees… because I’m certain the rest of my time spent wandering I did so in rhythmic motion).
I like to think that as I physically descended into each layer of the forest, was another layer of my mental unearthed. The voices and the plants beckoned me away from the makeshift paths, forcing me to create my own. I emerged later onto a new plateau.
Sunday June 20th, 2015 – 7:32 AM The 48th hour. We’ve left the festival, cruising into the cumulus clouds of the rising day, as the portal That Once Was closes behind us. We have to make it back home in time so I can clock back in for my regularly programmed Sunday shift. I’m riding shotgun, contemplating the trek we’ve conquered. I was previously very uninformed. Perhaps not so much “uninformed,” as not In The Know. But I must say, truth be told, a certain kind of trip such as this is GOOD for the MIND & SOUL.
Imagine, a place that eludes reality, that simply exists to allow you to explore and express the brilliance of your own imagination and others. It is quite the feat, trying to explain to those that weren’t there, to conjure a tangible thing such as this; I understand.
However, I shall leave you on this note – music, evoked emotion, memories, creative vision – these are all ways to travel into the unknown. The unknown is reality in its most unaltered form. The unknown is the beginning of our understanding. You see… what are we creating? What is being created in your immediate universe? You are a Creator. Every, single, solitary thing; every figment of thought or speech, creates vibes. Everything has waves. This reigns true for even the inanimate objects around us. (P.S. on the trulytrulytrue, nothing is inanimate – but that’s for another time and place). Vibes, good or bad, are established because we birth them into existence. Yes, the existence of darkness is ever apparent, but do you speak to the light? The waves, they don’t stop … we harness energy and consequently, bring forth whatever energy we emanate.
This realization could have dawned on me in any setting. Fortunately enough, I was in the presence of some major tunes and majestic sights that helped a girl out; plus, I do believe the environment in its entirety this particular weekend was an analogy for things much greater. This dimension, on top of which, was unlocked for me during the solstice, but let’s not get carried away. I’m not even halfway down the rabbit hole.
As Goldilocks The Goon, himself, put it, “… this is real life, visual, poetic sh*t.” The world we reside in now is merely the surface – the canvas we have to work with. The realms we reach are limited by our own revelations.
But, who knows? …It was just an altoid.
Story by Xalivia Kalynmoor :: Photos by Brenda Vaugn for WOHM