Attended the Sugar Maple Festival for the first time this year. Info on this sweet event can be found here:
http://sugarmaplefest.org/
The main venue is under a large tent. Parking is in a field just a few hundred yards away. Entry and exit from the parking area was effortless. It’s totally cool to bring in coolers of food and drink, and your own chairs. The vibes are casual and light; reminds me of hippies from the 60’s.
The headliner was Tim O’Brien, and he did not disappoint. He played solo, using three instruments: a large electric mandolin of some sort, guitar, and violin. His chops on stringed instruments are downright incendiary; speed, precision, complexity, and an element of rhythm and musicality (not to mention relaxation) that sets him apart. Tim played a set in the middle of the afternoon, and then again at 7pm. More on that in a moment.
Also of note was Liz Carroll, a Celtic violinist. The crowd was just wild for her.
Skeeter report. The bugs have been bad everywhere in this Summer of Too Much Rain, and this park is bad on a good day. A strong wind kept things delightful in the afternoon outside the tent. Inside the tent, the wind barely penetrated. The skeets were in there and only remained tolerable because they were so confused. Everyone was drenched with Off. The musicians complained. The bluegrass band Jack Straw, from Portland OR (where there are no mosquitoes) went straight from their set to the communal bug juice rack and sprayed themselves with reckless abandon.
At his 7pm show, Tim O’Brien played for about 75 minutes, then came back for an encore. We were packing up when unexpectedly, he came back for a 2nd encore, and that’s when all hell broke loose. Like someone had thrown a switch, a cloud of mosquitoes invaded the tent. It was just unreal. You couldn’t see them, but you could see the frantic reaction of every single person therein. Waving, slapping, packing up gear in a panic. That’s what we did too, encore or not. We ran for it, and got slaughtered on the way to the car. I could feel a painful jab every 5 seconds. We probably transported a hundred of them home with us, but with the AC in the van set to “meat locker”, they settled down. A shower and a couple of antihistamines later, sleep was possible.
I feel sorry for the act that followed O’Brien. There were probably 3 people left.
Click on the image for pictures:
