{the night starts here}

now that you know how much i like live music, you might understand that the week after folk fest is always a bit draggy and melancholy around here. it's exactly like when you go on a space shuttle to the moon and spend a weekend there doing astronaut stuff and then you have to come back to earth and do your normal life grocery-shopping-bills-paying-dishes-doing stuff, i think.
folk fest runs friday to saturday, just once a year, and the line-up has everything from i've never heard of them before to they've been my favourite band since grade 10. my friend, becky, and i have the whole thing down to a science so that we don't have to miss a millisecond. i know that to some, it comes across as obsessive and ridiculous, but...yeah, i guess it is a little. oh well. i'm obsessive and ridiculous. {i still manage to have a few people who'll hang out with me sometimes and not make too many snarky comments about the excessive hand-washing.}
the point really, really is not that.

the point is actually that you need to be a little crazy to get the most out of the weekend. there are three free stages running at all times during the day with "workshops", which are basically mini concerts featuring three or four bands jamming each other's songs, unrehearsed. they might throw a rap artist in with a group from africa and an indie band from toronto, and the sounds that come out of it are brilliant.
but in preparation, you have to go through the schedule with a fine-toothed comb and work out which stage you need to be at in order to see your favourite artists, and what time you need to leave, and how early you need to be depending on the popularity or obscurity of the bands playing, and which bands you're willing to miss and which ones are non-negotiable and whatnot. it's a fantastic mess sometimes. it's fun. plus: food trucks and handmade market.
the evening stages run from 6 pm - 12ish, and they cost money to see, unless you're willing to stand in the back and peer over the creepy bird-shaped fences. because i'm the thriftiest cheap-skate frugal mcdougal on the block, i usually just bring a blanket and pack a picnic and camp out there for the evening.
imagine my luck, though, when a friend who'd paid to go in decided not to {i still don't understand this decision, but am pretty thankful about it}, and gave me her pass...for free. i made this face. all night.  this has probably ruined me for next year, because once you've stood in the very, very front and had torquil campbell sweat on you, i don't know if you can go back to sitting behind the fence, even if the sound quality is about the same.
i ended up spending the night in the pit with hannah, and i have a fairly amazing video of her dancing to austra. she left before the encore, but i stayed and stood by myself in the back so that i could soak up the last few minutes. i don't like to miss anything. dear everyone, can life just be music festivals and laying in parks all day with friends eating mini doughnuts and and people watching?

WHY NOT?