«The Festival – Part 2»

06-12-2309

On the second day of the festival, I woke up to the cry of the evil magpie, awake at the crack of dawn and willing to share the experience with everyone. I looked up at the already illuminated world with dirty, bloodshot eyes. To my right Leona, still immune to anything audio, was well asleep. To my left Brick was still snoring away, like a shield against any noise that could potentially wake him. I envied his defense as I rolled over and covered my head with the sweatshirt I’d used as a makeshift pillow.

I couldn’t tell if I actually rested over the next two hours, or just tossed and turned myself around one little nap, but I didn’t start getting up until the others did sometime around 9 in the morning. We roused ourselves slowly, eating what we could find appetizing that early in the morning, which wasn’t much more than a PB&J sandwich and a granola bar. We were anxious to meet up with the other group, so we briefly washed up and got on our way to find us a map.

We got our first taste of the strange world around us. Passing by a small pocket of food stands apparently on loan from a carnival, with flashing lights and an iridescent paint jobs, we found ourselves on the paved road we’d used to drive in last night.

“We should probably head that way,” Brick was pointing opposite of the way we came in, the direction everyone else seemed to be traveling in.

“Looks good to me. Do you think that giant question mark will be of any use to us,” I asked, noting the floating white balloon nearby to our right.

“Couldn’t hurt to check,” Brick shrugged as he started to lead the way.

The giant question mark was labeled well enough. There they filled us in on all we needed to know, handing us each a map plate with the abbreviated concert information contained. Before getting back to the road, I used the map to locate the closest water station to fill up with fresh water before searching for my brother’s camp among these thousands of other camps.

“Good morning,” I said spitefully over the phone.

“Oh, hey. What’s up?” my brother simply responded.

“…Not much, where can we find you?”

“Uh, well we’re….you can…if you…well right now…” he continued, unhelpfully.

“Heavens, man! Where are you?” I was past impatient with him and I hadn’t even seen him yet.

“Balloon three. We’re by balloon number three right now, ge-” I cut him off after I heard all I needed to, hanging up the phone and pulling the map out of a cargo pocket to find #3.

The plastic card, loaded with a single program, displayed an aerial view of the 700 acre farm, broken up by a score of streets and avenues. The camping areas were in yellow, themselves each containing a dozen smaller lanes, and the 100 acre event center was in white at the south side of the farm, boasting 5 main stages, several small stages and hundreds of artisans and vendors–according to the info bubble.

The green circle with a “3” in it was located very close to the entrance of Centeroo, marking east-most secton in the first ring radiating from it. We ended up at the far end of the thoroughfare and could see the green balloon tied off somewhere ahead, and even further off, the very tip of the entrance arch visible over the top of the swarming crowd before us.

All three of us, the Martian and both Earthlings, marveled at everything we passed on display. Bags and blankets, with intricate, trippy patterns woven of hemp. Flowing hippie skirts and tie-dye shirts and accessories. Incense and burners of each shape and size, made of wood, stone and ceramic. Of course, there were the pipes and bongs, but most of what we saw looked thin and generic, nothing truly outstanding that called to us to waste our money on. They also sold food of the strangest types, brought in from all sides of the solar system, and all supposedly healthier for you–well, not the funnel cakes.

They definitely appeared to be on something when we found them. In an apparent daze, staring about and confused by their surroundings, was how we spotted them, loitering about a food stand. Rip and Zech were brightly colored, each with curly messes of hair atop their heads, cut by the same barber. Minkus was uncharacteristically bald, and appeared bruised about the eyes and forehead, like he’d been in an accident, or bar fight. He was bobbing up and down, singing back the name of his order to the beat of a nearby band playing when we sauntered up to them through the mud.

“Blue-Berry-Pan-Cakes! Blue-Berry-Pan-Cakes!” he went on in a deep voice, mimicking the bassline.

“What up, motha gorkas?!” I shouted sliding in when they hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Blu-Oh hey, what’s up!?” Minkus said, giving me a hug.

“Hey, man!” Rip was next, throwing an arm around me.

I stepped up to my brother, glaring at him for a second, before hugging the little guy. Well, not so little anymore it seemed, though he was only two years younger than me, it was strange to see he was as big as me now, and had more hair on his face. “Hey bro,” I finally said.

“What’s up, man?” a voice from behind me asked.

I turned to see Eli standing there, apparently having been there the whole time. “Whoa, I didn’t even notice you, man. How are you?” I asked, embarrassed I didn’t see him. He just shrugged.

“Hi guys,” Brick said, clearing his throat from behind everyone.

“Oh right, everyone this is Brick and Leona. They go to school in New Tros, and Brick‘s from Olympus county, he knew Linda,” I said to my old friends, who each nodded in understanding. “Guys, these are Rip, Minkus, Eli; they all went to school with me, Mink goes to school up north now, too. And this fuzzy guy is my brother, Zech.” I felt like I’d introduced everyone well enough.

After Minkus had received his blueberry pancakes, singing the theme song between each bite, we began the short walk to their camp site. Literally just around the corner from where we were standing, it didn’t take long at all for all seven of us to reach the nose of my brother’s supersized SUV. They opened the hatch to reveal a few seats on the tail and also pulled the cooler around for another.

“Sorry, we haven’t had this many people here. We didn’t realize we wouldn’t have enough seats,” Rip said, apologizing for his camp.

“No worries, I think I can fit up inside the hold, are you guys gonna be ok?” I asked my two companions.

“I’ll be fine for now, Leo?” Brick passed the question on.

“Yes, for now. I’ve got a folding seat back at our camp I could bring here. And a lamp for later at night,” she added, not noticing any of the tarps or lanterns you’d see accessorizing the other sites.

“You guys may wanna head back pretty soon and take care of that while it’s still early. It gets kinda hard to go back and forth all the time with this many people here,” Rip advised.

“Yeah, but first things first,” I insisted before anyone started moving.

“Hey, he’s right. You guys haven’t smoked yet right?” Minkus asked, his mouth full of breakfast.

“Oh, right on,” this convinced Brick to get comfortable and he sat down on the cooler, offering the other half to his roommate. Rip began to remove his box of goodies, a strange variation on the multi-pocketed case he usually carried his accoutrements.

“Check this out,” he said to me, removing his brand new teal blue pipe and handing it up to me on the tail.

“Wow, is this a…ah…what the gork? This is amazing, man,” I said, admiring the unnaturally blown glass with shock.

“Look what I got,” my brother chimed in from behind, displaying his bizarrely stretched pipe. I rolled the sturdy thing over in my hands, inspecting it.

“Well done, this one is perfect. I’m really impressed with these guys,” I passed both on to my original companions to appraise them.

“And I got this thing,” Eli said, leaning back from one of the front seats with a small blue chillum in his hand, still loaded with what looked like a ball of resin.

“Wait a sec,” I said, smelling something familiar before even taking the piece out of his hand. “Is this opium in here?”

“Yeah, son!” he said, excitedly snatching it back and removing a lighter to hit it.

“Pipes, opium…” I started

“Midies,” Minkus added, holding up a large bag he’d brought in.

“and Heads” Rip finished, producing a jar of what looked like purple and a bag of something orange, as well as the small baggie of black tar.

“Gork, how did you guys get all this stuff, you’ve only been here a day,” I was understandably impressed.

“We willed it all to us,” Rip explained in a deep, mystical voice as he clutched at an invisible ball of energy at his chest. I laughed a second until I noticed the deadpan expression on everyone else’s face.

“No really, we did. We manifested our desires,” Minkus said, usually skeptic of these sorts of things.

“Wait, really?” I was in disbelief.

“Yeah, it started when I sent Rip to find something for us to do,” he went on, “I was just telling Zech that I’d love to try chasing the dragon, and then bam, he appears again with opium.”

“Then I wished that we had something to smoke out of, besides the little thing I bought my mom,” Rip continued. “Then a glass blower wandered in and sold your bro and I our new pieces.

“Yep, then I wished for some dank, and someone came by to deliver it to us in moments,” Zech said. “Craziest thing ever, man.”

“Does it work with anything?” my mouth was agape as I looked about, marveling at the possibilities.

“Everything we’ve tried so far…here, hold on,” Minkus said, passing a freshly packed bowl to me to start. He stretched his arms for a second as he stood up, flinched his head a few times and cleared his throat before saying, very loudly “Man, I could really use some pussy!”

Everyone held their breaths as they waited to see if it would work. Would a desperately, attractive girl come running out of nowhere? Would a naked hooker fall from the sky? Would a kitty cat appear? After a minute it was apparent nothing would happen.

“Maybe it only works with drugs,” Brick suggested.

“Maybe everyone only gets one wish,” Leona said, looking around to everyone contemplatively nodding to her answer.

“Well, I don’t want to waste a wish, so somebody hand me a lighter,” I said, eyeing a green bowl in front of me.

After we were thoroughly baked, we wend our way through the other camps to find our own. Brick, Leona, Rip and I arrived back at the b-site in near no time, bringing with us a sleeping bag, pillow and jacket more suitable for Earth’s moist climate. We made sure to prepare everything we thought we’d need for the day: sunblock, water, snacks, maps, cigs, and a few umbrellas and ponchos incase the rain made a second appearance tonight. I grabbed my guitar to leave at the other camp and we were back on our way and harassed by the pushers in no time.

“Rolls, rolls, rolls,” some people would say under their breath as they passed. ‘Dust’, ‘Meteor’, and ‘Ultima’ were also whispered in such a way. The most common messages shot out this way were just initials like ‘K’, ‘H’, ‘X’, or “Q”.

“Lucy? Who was looking for Lucy, I found her,” another would say, less subtly. Girl’s names like ‘Molly’, ‘Stella’, or ‘Helen’ were often used, but sometimes over played, so people would start to get creative. ‘Kaleidoscope Eyes’ and ‘Chocolate Covered Shoelaces’ were obscure choices, but not as confusing as ‘8 Medal Olympian’. Eventually, you just assume anyone speaking in your general direction as they pass is trying to sell you something.

“I’ve got acid, 5 bucks a hit,” the most indiscreet of the salesmen would tell you as you walked by them. So forward and honest it was truly surreal, one had to marvel at it. What an amazing place where you can be so straightforward with your clients, and even haggle back with your vendors.

“Cookies. Five dollar cookies,” one kid with a large tuberware said passing by. I could see Rip straighten to attention, his antennae perking up a bit.

“C’mon,” he said back to us with determination as he sped up, tapping the kid on his bare shoulder and inviting him to take a walk down the nearest lane, away from all the prying eyes of the street.

“Alright, how many do you guys need?” he asked, getting his wallet out and opening the lid by rote.

“Uhm, well let’s see,” our Ionian-Davidian representative spoke, for us, turning to count heads real quick. “What if we get a bunch, will you cut a deal?”

“Yeah, just hurry up, what are you thinking, five for twenty? Six for twenty-five?”

“How about eight for thirty?” Leona chimed in real quick. I was already handing Rip 10 from me and another 10 from Brick to add to the pool. The salesman locked eyes with her for a second and then saw Rip handing him 30 dollars.

“Alright, alright,” he said, scooping out eight sugar cookies, benign enough in appearance, and trading them for the cash. “Pleasure doing business, gents. Enjoy,” he said, and returned to the real world.

“Ok, who wants how many?” Rip asked as he took two for himself and offered the other six.

“Oh, I don’t want any yet, thank you,” Leona politely turned it down.

“Really?” Brick asked. “Ok, I’ll take two then, Klay?”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll take two and we can give one to Mink and One to Zech,” I said taking my two and leaving the remaining pair for Rip to pocket. “I could always give my brother one of mine… or half of…naaaah,” I said, deciding to eat both as we hiked back.

I handed Eli the guitar, who graciously snatched it and disappeared for a while to play by himself, somewhere still in earshot. The rest of us discussed the plan for the remainder of the day.

“So what are we taking tonight?” Minkus asked of Representative Gozo, distracted by the act of packing his pipe.

“Hmm. Not sure yet,” he stopped everything to ponder. “I’d like to find E or Molly, maybe even 2CI or B. I think any of those will make this night most enjoyable,” he threw in.

“Well, you guys have fun with that, I think we’re gonna call it a night after Karp,” I said, speaking for the rest of the other camp, looking to them for confirmation to see they already looked ready to pass out.

“Aww, but you’re gonna miss Cedarpleat if you go to sleep. And Shiney Dots,” Rip said.

“Yeah, and GuyChat, dude; so sick,” Minkus added.

“Don’t you at least wanna see Ferrous Fortress,” my brother asked, insisting.

“You know, I’ve supposed to see them in Olympus two times already, I’m sure I’ll have another chance to when I’m less sleepy,” I said, received with a general shrug from the others.

“Hey did you ever finish all those flowers you guys had?” Zech queried. Brick and I looked at each other and shuddered slightly, remembering how close we came to dying that night.

“Yes, I think we’ve still got about an eighth left, I’m sure we didn’t eat anymore than a half each. They’re probably just in the cooler, too, Klay.”

“Do ya…want them?” I asked.

“Yes! What, you don’t?”

“Heavens, no. Please, you’d be doing Brick and I a favor.”

“Hey, can I have some, too?” Minkus asked my brother and I, whoever was in charge of doling it out.

“Yeah, and me too?” Eli wondered, miraculously appearing at sound of a new drug.

“Yes–gorkin’ vultures–you may. But I’m not just getting it for you. Follow me if you want the Flowers of Taurus,” I declared standing as I flipped my yellow scarf dramatically, and turned to lead them away.

“Wait, we’ll have to head to the shows soon,” Rip shouted to stop me.

“Hmm, well what do you suggest?” I asked, stopping mid-step.

“Well I think we were gonna go find some food,” Leona said, looking to Brick who nodded back, hunger behind his eyes.

“I guess I’ll go looking for tonight’s main course while the rest of you are gone then. Rendezvous here at 1500 hours?”

“When?” Zech asked facetiously.

“40 minutes, bro; let’s go.”

And so we split into three different missions, like in some RPG where all your characters separate to go on their own quests somewhere early on–so early you don’t get to choose who you take in each of your new parties. Brick and Leona’s goal seemed easy enough to handle by themselves, and Rip was leveled well enough to make it on his own. I, as the main character, felt like I was just dragging along a few expendable NPCs.

We got to the camp sometime after 2:30, the tent and crawler already hot to the touch from the unrestricted sun. I thumbed the keys in my pocket to open the door and began digging in the cooler for the psychedelic remnants.

“Hey, any of you guys want a beer? They’re still ice cold.” They all asked for one and I handed them out, they’d need something to wash what I removed next. “Behold!”

“Coffee?” Minkus asked.

“Chocolate truffle coffee?” Zech asked, looking more closely at it.

“Shut up,” I began to open the package and dig around the finely ground stuff with my wet fingers. I sighed, wiped my hand off on my pants, and poured half Venusian bean on the ground. I stopped when the baggy fell out.

“Behold,” I said again, retrieving it for them. “It’s up to you guys to decide how much you each get,” I handed the flowers to my brother. I grabbed myself a snack and popped open a beer while I watched them divvy up the larger pieces of heads and stems, then take pinches of the bluish powder at the bottom.

It’s always amusing to see people react to the filthy, mucusy texture when eating them raw. I happen to like it; it reminds me of the taste of sunflower seeds. The two blonde Earthlings grimaced and cringed with each tangy bite, immediately washing it down with a big swig of lager when they couldn’t take it anymore. The dark haired one, face shaded by the brim of his baseball cap, ate it like candy, delighting in the end of the bag when the others didn’t want anymore. We grabbed another round of beers before heading off to join the other parties.

After our rendezvous, we made our way to the event center. The lanes and roads were well established by sandled foot by now, the main streets slick with mud from runoff at all the water stations and cafes, laid over with hay that too had saturated and slipped under foot. Rip had to head back before filing through the security checkpoint into Centeroo, he had to drop off the pure MDMA he’d just bought himself and the others who were staying up late tonight. We entered separately but managed to reunite again at an easy enough landmark, a blue pillar with a hood over top like a mushroom cap that dispensed water.

The first band I saw was Mammal Commune, one of the prime names on the ticket for me. Unfortunately, it was mostly stuff of their new album; more mellow than their typical lineups of the past, and was too relaxing of a show to start my concert off at. Brick and Leona were willing to stick around with me while I waited for them to play something I liked, the other four went to see some other sets and promised to meet back up at the same place to see the next band on the same stage.

This was the ‘Which Stage’, the second main stage of Bonnaroo. The first was called ‘What Stage’, and there were three smaller tents called ‘That’, ‘This’ and ‘The Other’. Then, on top of that, there was a series of smaller, even harder to remember venues, and if you think this explanation is confusing, it’s not any easier when you actually have a map.

We sat on our blanket, amidst dozens of other groups of happy concertgoers similarly seated, surviving only on frozen lemonade treats after the Mammals were over with and we waited for the others to get back in the afternoon sun. A few minutes before The No No Nos were about to go on, Rip and Minkus returned. They had no idea where Zech or Eli were, lost somewhere in the mass of others aimlessly crowding all of the paths.

“It’s fine,” Rip said, packing the pipe he snuck in. “We’re each getting our own versions of Bonnaroo. If your bro’s ever not enjoying himself, he can always leave and go see something else, or even just find us,” he finished, handing it to me. I hit it as the band started, their female lead as hot as ever, seeming to be making love with the very air around her. I would have been content to stay and watch their entire set, no matter how repetitive it would have gotten, but after the first few songs we packed up our spot and began to find our next event.

Rip chose Sinisilver, the spunky Neptunian-Earthling girl who’s gotten real big just over this past year so. She was really fun to watch and had amazing report with the audience. After Eli had met up with us, my original party retreated with me to grab some food somewhere still in earshot of That Tent.

The three of us made it on to Art Blue, the old fellow at What Tent. None of us were particularly fans of his, or really all that familiar with his body of work, but we knew he had been popular since before our parents were our age. It was also amusing to see what kind of a crowd the soul singer drew, until we got too much a taste of an old couple in front of us.

It was just painful to watch one purple guy dancing with an over enthusiastic lady, double fisting two empty beer bottles so he wouldn’t actually have to lay his hands on her. We also tried to keep our eyes off the cellulite wedgie-matic, or the man dancing with another girl that continued to pick it out for her no matter how many times it lodged itself between her cheeks. For a while I wished I had gone to see 3D on the Teli with the others, but I’d already been unsatisfied at one of their shows.

We were so relieved when Art finished his set and the crowd had dispersed. We picked up our stuff and eagerly made our way a little closer to the stage, setting back down where we could see the stage and both of the building sized screens on either side of it. We were joined by someone, Minkus I believe, shortly after the start of the next band.

The Devlish Dudes, long lasting cult icons of rock, hip hop and rap, weren’t doing too bad in their old age. In their lengthy set they managed to play all of my favorites, a truly wholesome lineup they could have easily gone out on. Minkus departed before the end to meet up with the others at the main camp, just before the band began to fall apart. They managed to sabotage one of their most famous songs, but for our sake attempted to get it right instead of giving up.

When they’d given their bows and cleared off, Leona, Brick and I moved up even closer to the stage, but not by much. We still remained far enough back where we could set up and take a rave nap while the next act got ready. It was the main event of Friday evening, the recently reunited Karp, who got back together shortly after the leader’s year of court ordered rehab.

Either he had relapsed or never needed them though, because they still put on a satisfyingly psychedelic performance. During the first song, at every crescendo and turnaround, a wave glowsticks and other illuminated objects erupted into the night sky. The audience was truly participating, small pulses rising consistently at every beat and more swells emerging every couple of measures. The screen showed the band’s incredulous reaction, staring out under the hundreds of bright lights to see the multicolored swarm hovering over the crowd. You could tell they were enjoying this show too.

The crowd’s enthusiasm dwindled reasonably, settling in to enjoy the extended jam sessions that stretched each song to at least 10 minutes. We ached where we stood, our bodies requesting sleep from us as we tried to enjoy the rest of the show. We made it to the end though, a couple grueling but enjoyable hours later. Satiated, we grabbed our belongings one final time and trudged our way back to the camping areas along with the rest of the slow moving crowd.

Just outside of the gates we ran into the others, on their way to take molly and dance their asses off to the evening lineup for another 4 hours.

“Hey Zech, gimmie your keys, I wanna grab something from your truck on the way back,” I said, stopping him for only a second as he shouted back.

“It’s open. The batteries dead so the doors won’t lock. Just don’t lock it or we’re gorked,” he warned, running to catch up with the others.

At his quiet campsite we collected the items we’d left there over the day, sunglasses and hats, our battery powered lantern and the green that Brick had found earlier. I also grabbed my brothers new pipe, since none of us had anything appropriate with us, and they had others to use if they so need to tonight or in the morning. I had a feeling I would likely be its custodian this summer, or at least at just over Bonnaroo, so I tucked it with care into my pocket as if it were my own.

Back at our camp, we immediately climbed into the crawler and sunk into the seats, turning on the AC even though it was night time, just to cut through the layer of humidity stuck to our skin. Brick turned up the music, Leona passed us beers from the back seat, and I packed a bowl at the end of the second day.