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GREAT BLUE HERON FEST
One in 8,000+
When I started writing this article it began as an editorial, but what I really want to share is a sense of the wonder, excitement, energy, and compassionate community at the Great Blue Heron Festival. So I tried to recall each step of the 2009 experience. The very first thing that comes to mind is the smiles. Everyone from the parking and check in volunteers to the staff to most all of the people around us smiled. It didn’t matter that their shoes or feet or boots were caked with mud. It didn’t matter that they may have been up for many hours or on their feet volunteering their time – they all smiled.
This is not a review of the 2009 Great Blue Heron Festival in Sherman NY. This is simply one of thousands of possible perspectives on the festival. There were more than 8,000 people at this year’s festival and more than 201,000 memorable moments.
The fashion statement this year was boots or galoshes of all descriptions. Some with flowers others with peace signs and even some everyday type boots of basic working design. Beneath flowing flowered skirts, rough and ready shorts, jeans, or even Dockers, boots and galoshes appeared in greater numbers than I remember from previous years. Although some people simply reveled in the free mud bath and walked the grounds barefoot. No one had to worry about broken glass or sharp objects they only had to worry about slipping. Even then there would have been a person of random kindness and honest beauty there to help them up. That’s the way it is at GBH and I imagine at many of the bluegrass festivals. It seems like it is a truly caring community.
The best affirmation of the compassionate nature of the festival is in the thousands of people involved in making the festival a celebration. Every one of the volunteers, staff, musicians, contributors, planners, landowners, and organizers deserve millions of thanks for the awesome work they do. To me, everything about the Great Blue Heron Fest has always seemed flawless and perfectly accomplished. Oh and the clean grounds, free of broken glass and such, is courtesy of the Rainbow Recycling Center on site and the recycling stations conveniently located all over the vast property. Everything is clearly marked, well managed, convenient, and regularly checked by the crew of extraordinary volunteers. Plus, many of the partiers are sensitive of their role as Earth stewards and pick up after themselves and/or others. I’m sure there was still a lot to be done after the last partiers left at sundown on Sunday, but there are volunteers for the clean up too.
That compassion, that sense of random kindness seems to flow through everyone at the festival. Kind of like the holiday spirit in July, without fancy packages or bows, and at a huge music party to boot. The Emcee even said, “let’s make every day like a Great Blue Heron day”. How many times have you wished you could bottle the holiday spirit of kindness and joy? There it was at the festival amidst music, laughter, and dancing.
There were families with silky haired babes on up through teens in tow. There were groups of friends and couples and solo revelers. The new fiddler with The Town Pants had blue hair on Friday to signify she was a GBH virgin. It was our fifth year and our second honeymoon at the festival.
There were seas of tie-dye and oceans of flowing skirts contrasted by jeans and shorts and even elaborate costumes. Glow sticks are absolutely everywhere at the festival and there are entire “glow groups” that gather together at night. One glow group tossed a glow ball back and forth in time with the music. Other glow groups and individual glowers created interesting visuals as they danced in all their glow finery.
Among the compassion, the glow, and the incredible diversity, there is also a wealth of fragrant meal fare to choose from. You can smell fresh cut fries and falafels and fresh brewed coffee. The crepe stand kept really busy serving up a host of delicious choices and I heard more than one person rave about the breakfast burritos. I gave a dollar to someone that was just short of enjoying one so I could see their face light with joy. Plus there are clothing vendors, a massage therapist, henna artists, hand made instruments, hammocks, and so much more. Mmm is that fried dough I smell…?
The delights and enchantments are outside the vendor area too with morning yoga sessions and cozy personal workshops in the large tent by the beach. You can sit down among festival friends and begin learning about banjo, fiddle, scrub board, singing/chanting, drumming, playing the djeridoo, and even try flatfoot mountain dancing. Then wander back to the Café in the Woods for even more music and dancing or an ice cream or coffee. Continue on the path to the drumming circle deep within the forest and join the jam with other drummers. Along the way send up a GBH shout-out through the woods in answer to the hoots and hollers that echo among the trees from dawn to very, very late night.
The kids and their parents were kept happily engaged in Compost Theater, kite making, soccer games, Blue Heron Puppet Making, storytelling, as well as the tree house with a plush giraffe up top and there were kid costumes to create their own stories too. Teens had air hockey, movies, hacky sack lessons, primitive pottery and tie-dye making, and a Beach Party with Fire Spinning to enjoy during the weekend.
To finish the weekend there were “Dances of Universal Peace” near the tree house, a walking tour of the shiitake mushroom yard, and blanket vending of unique hand made home crafts and delights.
I was just one of 8,000 revelers at the festival this year, but I still feel like a vital part of this organic, caring, Americana Bluegrass Roots Zydeco festival community.
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