Balloons
I've just returned from a weekend at the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Northern Minnesota. The music was phenomenal. The best show I saw was the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Their bass player did things I still can't understand. The Everyone Orquestra, Cyro Baptista & Beat the Donkey, Les Claypool, Gabby La La, and Buckethead were some of the craziest and most fun sets I've ever seen, while parts of Trey's second set, MOFRO, and parts of Widespread Panic were pretty mind blowing.
There was a beautiful moment during Trey's first set when people from the back of the standing area pushed a few hundred balloons into the crowd. The rainbow of balloons bounced slowly towards the front of the crowd and then were moved off to the sides naturally where they were bounced by and floated over the crowd. The sun was just about to set and the day was cooling off. Eventually the balloons encountered some of the more aggressive assholes in the crowd and were popped, much to my dismay. While the balloons were aloft, however, not only was the crowd's energy lifted, but the band's increased noticeably as well. During this whole event Trey was soloing and it seemed that the solo would never end, nor would the energy abate. Of course, with the fisrt round of audible "pops" people were brought back to reality, the solo ended and the concert went on.
I was struck by the gesture. Someone went through the effort to blow up all of those balloons, coordinate their release and watch them go. To my understanding, there was no other motivation than to create this experience for everyone there. It seemed a sort of selfless act of theater or art.
During the second set the act was in a way repeated. There was a group of people waling around throwing handfuls of glow sticks into the crowd. Again, the effect of dozens of glowing sticks flying over the heads of thousands of people with the stage as the backdrop was spectacular. I was struck by the amount of selflessness that abounded at the festival, despite the relative poverty of most of the people there. What there was, was to be shared.
There was a beautiful moment during Trey's first set when people from the back of the standing area pushed a few hundred balloons into the crowd. The rainbow of balloons bounced slowly towards the front of the crowd and then were moved off to the sides naturally where they were bounced by and floated over the crowd. The sun was just about to set and the day was cooling off. Eventually the balloons encountered some of the more aggressive assholes in the crowd and were popped, much to my dismay. While the balloons were aloft, however, not only was the crowd's energy lifted, but the band's increased noticeably as well. During this whole event Trey was soloing and it seemed that the solo would never end, nor would the energy abate. Of course, with the fisrt round of audible "pops" people were brought back to reality, the solo ended and the concert went on.
I was struck by the gesture. Someone went through the effort to blow up all of those balloons, coordinate their release and watch them go. To my understanding, there was no other motivation than to create this experience for everyone there. It seemed a sort of selfless act of theater or art.
During the second set the act was in a way repeated. There was a group of people waling around throwing handfuls of glow sticks into the crowd. Again, the effect of dozens of glowing sticks flying over the heads of thousands of people with the stage as the backdrop was spectacular. I was struck by the amount of selflessness that abounded at the festival, despite the relative poverty of most of the people there. What there was, was to be shared.
posted by Jay Boren at 5:57 PM
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