The last day of the festival…

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but I am a big fan of naps. And not just at bluegrass festivals. In general I take a lot of naps. Between 3-5 pm is usually when my energy is at its absolute lowest and a 20-minute nap is the perfect remedy.

At Grass Valley, the warmest part of the day tended to be between 3 and 5pm. After a full day of volunteering and listening to awesome music, those 5pm naps were golden.

Especially when I got to take them in the hammock.

But sometimes the nap just wasn’t quite enough. I’m actually an introvert, and being around people, interacting with people for hours, well, it’s… exhausting. At this point in my life I know when I need my “down time,” and one evening after my nap, as Michael was getting ready to head out in search of a pick, I stayed in the hammock with my book. After being together for almost 20 years, Michael is also aware of my need for solo time, and he let me know where he was headed and said he hoped I’d join up with him later.

I read until it was getting pretty dark, at which point I figured I really should join Michael. I figured it was around 8:15, maybe 8:30. I looked at my watch.

It was 9:30.

Summer days are long in California.

Anyway, I put all my stuff away, grabbed my guitar, and hiked all the way to the other side of the fairgrounds. I swear it was the most exercise I got at this entire festival. But I found Michael and a couple of other friends. Right as their jam was breaking up.

Well. We took a walk in search of another pick, found a few of them, and eventually ended up back in front of the midnight hot dog stand. I think it was 12:30 this time.

The notes in my journal from the next morning:

NO MORE MIDNIGHT HOT DOGS

The all-caps have not been added for emphasis. “Sure they taste great but they’re making me feel terrible,” I wrote underneath my warning.

On Sunday we worked the morning volunteer shift. Not too hot and we got to see some good gospel sets. One of the bands definitely treated the set a lot more like a sermon than a set, but that was okay. I couldn’t help but laugh through most of their song “We Missed You In Church Last Sunday.”

We missed you in church last Sunday / Were you sick was there something to do / We missed you in church last Sunday / But we all said a prayer for you

Man, that old Catholic guilt was on full display for this song.

Moving on… I want to mention one of the bands we saw on Sunday, Sister Sadie.

In my opinion women are sorely under-represented on bluegrass festival stages and I was quite happy to see this all-female band in the lineup. As you’d expect, these ladies are ridiculously talented. I sure hope I get the chance to see them again.

The Father’s Day Festival is one of the most popular bluegrass festivals in California – we met people who said they’d been coming to it for 20 years. I can see why. The talent was fabulous, the picking scene was amazing, and how can you beat Midnight Hot Dogs? (At least once, anyway.) And on the whole I have to say that the volunteer experience was actually pretty good. Now that I know what to expect, I think I’d like to do it again. It was a pretty good bargain, really: we camped and got in to the festival for free – in exchange for a total of 16 hours of easy work.

Guess that means I’ll mark my calendar for Father’s Day weekend next year!