A Wanderlustrous Weekend

Common set the tone at Wanderlust

Big news came Friday night when I logged onto my Facebook account.  It turns out that Michael Franti, the headliner of the Wanderlust Festival, had appendicitis and had to cancel his performance at the festival.  The good news was that the replacement was hip hop phenomenon Common.  I was super excited as I much prefer the sounds and beats of Common over Franti.  Best wishes of good health returning to Franti!

So due to the headliner change, we decided to have a plan overhaul and just head up to Squaw by 6 p.m. in order to see Common, followed by the Mutaytor, followed by Girl Talk and then the late night DJs.  We were in it for the long haul expecting to be out until past 2 a.m., so we did not want to burn out early from baking in the hot sun.

We arrived to Squaw in the early evening of Saturday where we enjoyed VIP parking in the usual Locker Room/VIP garage used by rich patrons in the winter months.  Nice to have some shade and  a quick walk to the venue.  We took the Funitel a.k.a. the Funi up to Gold Coast for Common’s performance.  When we arrived to the top of the mountain, I sincerely felt surreal, being in a place that I’m usually accustomed to filled with feet of snow.  The stage was set up with an intense view of the Palisades in the background.

Sunset from the Funi

While we waited for Common to set up and sound check, we found the Converse dome.  This place was a creativity surplus, and I dug it hard.  There were a variety of things to do in the dome including picking three designs to screen-print anywhere you wanted on a T-shirt; getting your “rock star” picture taken equip with boas, fancy sunglasses and an array of hats and musical instrument options; naming a topic to have a poem written about, and painting the actual dome itself as well as the furniture within the dome.

We then went back to the stage area where Common broke it down for us, and we danced and waved our hands in the air in return.  Although the performance was quick, lasting only about an hour, it enthused the crowd and started off our Wanderlust experience on the right beat.  We checked out the VIP lounge and section which were cool featuring free snacks and water and Honest Tea.  Then, we took the Funi back down in search of the Globetrotter stage.

We spent some time walking around the Village in search of our VIP gift pack, only to be lead on a two-day long goose chase… more on that to come.  As we toured the Vill, we spotted members of the Mutaytor, a Burning Man sensation act featuring dozens of musicians and performers.  I, personally, like to call individual members of the group – Mutaytors.  We found some Mutaytors on stilts, Mutaytors twirling fire, Mutaytors twirling fire while on stilts, and then we found the crazy white faced, brightly colored outfit and hair dancing troupe of drag queens and outgoing ladies.  After taking some photography of the acts, we entered the Globetrotter stage which was set up to the left of the Funi and the Vill.

The Mutaytor impressed, stunned and amazed while I decided to try my own hands at performing and picked up a pair of glowing nun-chucks.  The fun lasted for a few minutes until a nun-chuck whacked me in the forehead.  Ouch.  We then saw some old friends, met some new friends and found the VIP section just in time for Girl Talk, a mash-up DJ who plays extremely danceable songs and is an expert of getting the crowd stirred up and literally jumping in the air.

Then there were girls, dozens of girls from the audience going onto the stage, and I knew that I must go onto the stage as well.  I started for it, but lost Cheyenne quickly.  A random girl grabbed me, and said, “We’re going on stage – Let’s go!”, and soon enough, there we were on stage for all to see.  My soul filled with adrenaline, and then I knew I had to find Cheyenne, who I spotted from my stage view.  Unfortunately, my nemesis was working the backstage area and refused to let her join me on stage, so I stayed for a few more songs, then returned to the audience.  We still had an ample viewing spot from the front row.

Girl Talk rocked our socks off for about 2 hours, and then we moved onto our next stop.  The VIP DJ room.  This DJ was not my favorite; extremely mellow.  But I did meet a new friend, the vocalist/guitarist of Big Light – Fred a.k.a. Freddie.  We decided to leave DJ Mella for the Giant Twister game outside.  This game was a hoot.  People were doing some crazy yoga poses while twisting on the Twister, and it was honestly almost too much for me to handle.

So onward to the other late night DJ – Lazer Sword.   All and all, the Saturday night portion of Wanderlust was incredibly amazing and debaucherous, and I loved it.  I may not have had the true experience of the fest, since I did not yoga it up.  But the music was hot, and I had a blast.

Music in the Mountains - this is how it always should be!

Although Sunday’s musical experience was more mellow, and I sought for shade from the hot rays of the sun beating down on you at 8,200 feet, it was still a good time.  We checked out Broken Social Scene and Spoon.  Both performances were awesome and a perfect vibe in the mountain air.

After our two day goose chase for out goodie bag, we found it from Mike in the VIP bar in Goldcoast.  The bag was awesome featuring a Wanderlust imprinted Klean Kanteen bottle, yoga videos, Luna bars and more!  It was well worth the hunt!

I do not think the Wanderlust Festival had the attendance expected, and I read in the NY Times that the festy did not break even, but the light attendance and the overall spiritual energy held by the attendees made the festival even more spectacular in its inaugural year.  I sincerely hope that the Wanderlust will return again!

EXPERIENCE THE WANDERLUST

Tuesday, I received an email from Tahoe TV and Tahoetopia.com urging me to go to their website to enter a contest to win two VIP tickets to the upcoming Wanderlust Festival this weekend.  I did so, and low and behold, I won!  I received an email yesterday a.m. from Eric of Tahoe TV congratulating me on my luck!  So, this weekend my roomie and I will be living the high life in style at Squaw.  More details to come…

My Green Scene column in the Summer 2009 edition of the Advocate – North Lake Tahoe Chamber’s newsletter.

On July 24-26, an innovative and unique festival will be held at Squaw Valley USA.  The Wanderlust Festival will combine music with yoga, local food and environmentalism in the beautiful mountain setting of Squaw Valley USA.

The festival will showcase musicians who are forward-thinking and culturally relevant.  The headliner will be Michael Franti and Spearhead, musical talents who embody a rare spirituality and an ability to inspire and motivate audiences whenever they take the stage.  Other gifted artists set to perform at the Wanderlust Festival include Spoon, Andrew Bird and Jenny Lewis.

This soiree of energizing musical talent will be paired with the sacred art of yoga.  There is a new generation of highly respected teachers who have developed modernized schools of yoga that have changed the way the activity is practiced.  Wanderlust will bring some of these exceptional teachers like John Friend, Shiva Rea and Duncan Wong to Squaw Valley.

From an environmental perspective, Wanderlust will focus on local sourcing, organics, reusability, carbon offsetting and sustainability.  The festival will strive to be as close to “zero impact” as possible for a large scale festival.  Wanderlust will train a group of over fifty volunteers to become part of an on-site “Green Team”.  Members of the Team will be stationed at waste reclamation stations to explain the proper separation and disposal of compostable materials, recyclables and waste.  There will also be an informational booth detailing all of the festival’s many environmental commitments.

The festival has also committed to offering a sustainable food and beverage program and will source foods from local vendors and farmers.  The products (utensils, cups, plates, etc.) will all be made of sustainable materials.  Wanderlust also plans to offer B20 biodiesel refueling on-site for all artist tour busses.

The goal of Wanderlust is to offset all emissions generated at the event.  To support this, the ticketholders will have the option of donating $5 to carbon offsets when purchasing tickets.

Tickets for the three-day extravaganza went on sale on May 12^th.  A variety of ticket packages are available, including VIP passes.  To buy tickets and learn more about this creative festival experience, log onto www.wanderlustfestival.com.

Side Quote:

While there are many thoughts and serious underpinnings to Wanderlust, the main point is to have fun. The word, Wanderlust, mean an innate desire to travel. This means both physical and spiritual exploration. We’ve put incredible music, the world’s best yoga teachers, the best late night parties all on top of a mountain. Explore and have fun.

— Jeff, Schuyler & Sean, Wanderlust Festival Creators

High Sierra Music Festival 2009 – Take Two

Leftover Salmon

This was my second year to attend the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA.  The festival takes place each year on the fourth of July weekend.  I attended for two days, Saturday, the 4th and Sunday, the 5th.  The venue of HSMF is awesome – shady groves of trees, old farm buildings made into stages complete with original decors for the weekend of music, and huge grassy fields for dancing, chilling and camping.  The main stage stands on a huge field of grass where the sun beats down steady all day, but the festival managers placed up huge shade tents which were helpful in creating some shade.  Tip: We brought our own umbrella for sun protection!  Also, many festival-goers brought water bottles to cool off themselves and others.  Remember to bring a water bottle!!

The people are great! The crowds is very respectful of one another, of the environment and of the music.  This is one of the cleanest festivals I’ve been too; I saw very little trash on the ground, even early in the morning.  Major props to that and the Clean Vibes crew that help keep the place garbage free!  Although some people seemed out of it from drugs, late nights, sun or perhaps the combination of all, most people were all smiles and friendliness.  We saw several people from Tahoe which is always fun.

Although I wasn’t super excited about this year’s line up, I still was anxious to attend the festival after last year’s experience, just because the vibe and locale are so on.  I ended up enjoying most of the music, and I was super stoked on one of my current favorite bands, The Devil Makes Three.  I’ve seen the Devil Makes Three a few times, but maybe they were impressed with the vibes as well because they played a killer show that had everyone in the audience dancing and singing like crazy!  I have seen them probably six or seven times in the last two years, and they keep getting better.  Their songs were tight, their voices were strong, and they pretty much played the hell out of that 1 1/2 hour set.  I keep trying to think of the words to describe their sound.  They are definitely blue grassy with an old timey rag time feel, yet their roots are both country and punk.  It’s an original sound that reminds me of dirt roads, tattoos and whiskey and what could really be better than that?

I was also impressed with Leftover Salmon.  This is the first time I’ve seen the band since the death of Mark Vann in 2002.  I believe the last time I saw Leftover was at a festival down in Florida.  It’s always nice to see bands at beautiful outdoor festies on both coasts!  They rocked it out with their bluegrass sounds that had me do’ se’ do’ in and skip to me lou’in.  Galactic was in full force with their horn-y beats and colorful smoke backdrops.  I was super stoked when a rapper came out and gave us some solid rhymes.

The fire circle was definitely a highlight, as it was last year.  Although we stumbled upon it last year, this year it was definitely on my “To Do” list.  There were acrobatics, fire twirling and dancing – I have no idea how these people ever learn to do this, and especially how they can pull it off at midnight and 1:15 a.m.

Hunting Snipes or Invisible Raves

Supposedly, there was a 20 djs in the enchanted/abstrakt forest – rave full moon party on Saturday night.  I rallied up some peeps, and we headed out, following another car to this mysterious locale that only few held directions to its whereabouts.  We took a detour to a 3 keg party where there were no kegs at all, and everyone was drinking from their own hidden stash.  Finally, I rallied the peeps again to go in search of the rave.

The directions said go 14.5 miles to mile marker 13 – hmm… that’s a little strange, but maybe possible.  Then take a dirt road and go this many miles, left, this many miles, right and then there you are.  Well, we drove and drove and no mile marker 13 existed and 14.5 miles out took you to another county.

I wondered all night if this party was a total bust, a fake-ness that someone created just to be a jerk, but why oh why?  After Internet research this a.m., I discovered on a web site that the party was busted at 7 p.m. by tons of cops who searched everyone and their cars.

But then, I have heard from numerous people that these invisible raves do exist – fake raves that people make up just to fool other people.  Or as my friend Ryan would say, hunting snipes.

So forever I’ll wonder, was this just an invisible rave or did it exist and get broken up early… Beware of something that seems too odd to be true… maybe it is.