Thursday, June 8: We move just a few miles, from the campground in Torrey onto the grounds of the Fort Desolation Festival. We are one of the first to arrive, and so Matthew takes the opportunity to try a time lapse sequence of all the campers setting up. He had purchased a bargain tripod at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago expressly for this moment. Two seconds into the movie, the tripod collapsed and broke. And that was that. Is there a lesson in there somewhere? I don’t know.
The first day of music was just two acts: Pixie and the Partygrass Boys (Bluegrass) and White Buffalo (Good ol’ Rock and Roll). Besides the main stage, the Festival has two smaller stages: one close to the main stage where local acts fill the time between the main stage music, and a late-night stage in the campground. Pixie played the late gig.
All this space will be filled with campers by sundown. (see the tripod being set up?) 
You answer to a higher power if you break the rules here. 
Some boys kickin’ up some dust at the show. 
Pixie et al. 
The little local stage for the in-between times. 
The main act. That red ball in the background is some of the canyon dramatically lit. 
Pixie played the Late Night Stage.
June 9: A much bigger day of music, starting at 4:00 pm. This is the day that Matthew and Kayla are most excited about. On the docket: Parker Milsap (Rock and Roll) Madison Cunningham (Alternative – the most dangerous music of the Festival), Houndmouth (Rock and Roll), and Shakey Graves (Holy Cow Rock and Roll). Madison’s music is amazing – her music serves her lyrics, so her songs go everywhere – no Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus for her.
We walk back to our campsite between each act, sometimes for food, sometimes for beverages. Kayla figures it is a half-mile walk each way, so we put in at least four miles of trudging through the dust.
Saturday, June 10: The final day of the Festival. This is when the Big Acts are playing, which for Matthew and Kayla are mostly less exciting than those that came the day before. On the docket: The Brothers Comatose (Bluegrass), Jamestown Revival (yay! A band we fell in love with when we saw them live a few years before. Americana), Morgan Wade (Country), Ben Harper (uh, rock? He’s a tough one to put in a box).
Kayla and Matthew took this day a little easier – we outright skipped Comatose (though, make no mistake, we could hear them plenty well from our campsite). Jamestown Revival had us in the front row, and put on a great show. We enjoyed Morgan Wade over cocktails at our campsite, and then trekked back to catch Ben Harper, but mainly from the food truck section.
The food trucks were tucked into a corner of the festival grounds. One truck served corndogs, and that was it. Everyone we passed who had a corndog was clearly in some sort of ecstatic fervor, and the line was always long. But Matthew was determined to get one. Guess what? He got THE VERY LAST CORNDOG. I mean the last one. He got his corndog and they closed up shop.
It did not disappoint. MT will probably never have another corndog, because there is no need. Once you’ve been to the top of the mountain, ain’t no reason to climb another. He even wrote a fan letter to The Corn Dog Company and said he would proudly wear one of their T-shirts if they sent him one.
While campers kind of had the VIP access to the festival, it was open to the public. Folks were pouring in for Ben Harper, and I’m guessing the crowd for his act was twice the size of anything the night before.
On the way to the Ben Harper show (or really, on our way to the food trucks) we caught the final act on the local’s stage. This stage made us feel pretty sad for the musicians all week. It was a Progressive Insurance Skee-Ball game, like you might find at a county fair, that the musicians climbed up on to perform. It was set up right at the entrance/exit to the main festival, so stopping to watch the musicians immediately put one in the way of everyone else. Tough gig! This final act, though, had folks actually stopping to take it in.
To cap off the evening, Jamestown Revival came back to play on the Late Night Stage. They really brought a crowd, which made things awkward as midnight approached. The band was having fun, the crowd was having fun, but I guess since the stage was in the campground, there was some concern about noise. The festival organizer came out to make a deal that the band would play one more song, but without amplification. Everyone got real quiet for a special final song before we all called it a night.
Sounds very fun!! I’m going to listen to some of those groups.
Another great post. Sounds like you two are living the life!