What a great day! It started out sunny with just a few clouds floating around aimlessly. There were breakfast parties all over town. Woodsmoke and the smell of bar-b-que was in the air. I walked Roland early in the morning. On the way I stopped to talk to my buddy Rabbit who was putting on the yearly event. Billed as the "Biggest Little Blue Party" we always have stellar performers. This year the line-up included the United Church Gospel Choir, Delta Sonics, Dan Treanor and Dave Booker, the Informants, the Budz Blues Band and Felonious Smith! Rabbit is famous for raiding the cashbox at the beer stand saying things like, "I need $50 more dollars to pay this band!" The ticket box at the gate is riffled regularly as this is a seat of the pants production that always turns out well. I've volunteered every year I could and enjoyed every one of them.
I put Roland up for the day, got dressed and headed out to visit before I worked. I met up with a friend at the Coffee Shop and sat for a while visiting before I headed down to the show. The whole town was in party mode. Big events get carried off up here with a surprising amount of organization, creativity, and an equally surprising lack of stress. We've done this before so it should work out fine!
I never know where the pictures are going to end up on this blog! The ones above are of Rabbit our fearless leader and founder of this festival. Lonnie, beside him has been cooking for KYGT for all the years this has been going on. The kids were the surprise debut band smiling huge and surprisingly good! As one person put it, the hope of Clear Creek County music! Obviously not a rock fan! The third picture is of a long time Empire concert goer. You will notice all the things he has for his comfort including shade, chair, coolers, rain gear for the traditional deluge. This man is prepared!
Apparently today all my pictures will show on the top. So I will just continue the narative down here. The usual group started showing up, our Town Board Members, County Commisioners, parents, kids, grandparents, witches, rockers, blues guys who are going to sit in on a jam, people selling tshirts, jewelry and food. We get several hundred people despite one rainstorm after another. Did I mention it has been drought dry until this day? And that the same thing happens every year? The sound guy and his crew had everything covered in minutes. They've got the routine down. It doesn't seem to bother anyone as the kids run in the rain and the grown ups get shelter where they can or just ignore it.
The Onion music guy came up to review it. It's a quiet little scene much like a family reunion, just big enough to break even and donate some money to the radio station, have a good time listening to great music, and party with your friends.
