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The weekend of August 3rd-5th, 2007 was the first time I took m’lady to my favourite little festival-in-the-woods, Blue Skies. We had been dating for two years at this point but I had spent the past two Blue Skies weekends on bicycle trips (to Newfoundland and Scandinavia respectively) so this was my first chance to show her how we aging Ontario hippies do a weekend of camping.
There’s a fair chance that we drove up on the Friday – which would have been August 3rd – even though my ticket book suggests otherwise. I mean, it would be almost blasphemous not to show up at Blue Skies as early as possible but I do occasionally have heathen leanings, so it’s possible we didn’t arrive until Saturday. If we skipped out on the Friday there must have been a very good reason, but who knows. Either way, we would have enjoyed a pleasant country drive that lasted for a couple of hours before winding down a dirt road just outside the magical mystery plot of rolling hills and forest nestled among the mighty Canadian Shield that is Oskar Graf’s farm.
(I suppose it’s more of a workshop than it is a farm. Oskar Graf is a busy luthier who is quite well-known in Canadian custom guitar circles. He crafts wonderful acoustic guitars that sit well out of my price range down there in his little country workshop. Actually, his workshop is one of the only permanent structures on the Blue Skies acreage, the others being a a handful of scattered outhouses. Actually, it might not even have been his land anymore by this point. Several years ago the festival itself purchased the Blue Skies property from Oskar so that the fest could live on in perpetuity.)
We would have set up camp in the Finger (I always do) and done a whole lot of hanging out with the other “always doers” like Corey, Karina and family, Jason, Jennifer and family, and a whole slew of others (and family).
It’s so strange how much I enjoy a festival that is so family-friendly. I won’t say I’m necessarily family-grumpy but in camping/entertainment/travelling/eating/relaxing/etcetera situations I generally am. But not at Blue Skies. At Blue Skies the kids add tons to the wondrous vibe of affirmation and renewal.
Speaking of which, there would have been workshops. I love the workshops and I would have dragged m’lady to as many of them as possible.
It is written in my ticket book that on August 4th I saw Old Man Luedecke, Ball & Chain and the Wreckers, Kobotown, and Mr. Something Something. In other words I saw a seven-piece Trinidadian group, a Toronto-based Afrobeat funk band, a Juno-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, and wonderful old-timey Creole fiddle music.
That sounds about right for a Blue Skies Saturday night.
And all of it would have been capped by campfire jams as varied and as entertaining as the acts on the mainstage. Matter of fact, it’s not uncommon to find yourself trading licks across the fire with a headlining artist or two. They are all camped among us, and they all feel the vibe too.
So yeah, it gets pretty magical.
Have I mentioned the glowing forest? Maybe another time.
And after a whole other day of the same magic, at the end of it all comes Monday morning. Which quickly turns into Monday afternoon as gear is lackadaisically packed up, leftover food is consumed, goodbyes, hugs and handshakes are exchanged and the car is retrieved and packed to the roof. And then it is a blissful, fast-food fuelled drive back to Ottawa where hot showers and fresh clothes await.
Do I make it sound even close to as great as it is?
Todd Man Out 