Grey Fox was pretty damn cool. It shouldn’t be surprising, but I wasn’t confident in the new place. When we first arrived, we drove through the (new) ghetto. Even though its a lot nicer than the old one, its not really a great first impression. The next thing I saw was flat. It turns out this isn’t as bad as I figured it would be, and really makes the whole place much more accessible. And the view from the amphitheater isn’t bad, although nowhere near the old place. It was the top of the amphitheater that sold me on the place. From there you can look down on the stage, and past that the camping. I was able to camp up there, and I’m certain it made the whole experience better.
Ron Thomason, in his infinite wisdom, put it well. He said, “I’ve talked to a lot of people who’ve mentioned that they miss the other site. And that’s just the way it oughta be, because think of all the good times we had there. And the way I kinda look at it is: I ain’t done havin them yet, and I hope you all ain’t either.” That pretty much set the tone for this year’s fest.
One thing that bugged me more this year than in previous years was my allergies. For some reason, living in a hay field for a week didn’t sit well with my allergies, and I was almost constantly congested. I quickly found out that if I was working on something, or walking around, my nose wasn’t clogged. So I would go for walks instead of sitting around, just so I could breathe comfortably. It was kind of like Crank, with snot.
It struck me as weird this year, because I realized that I probably won’t be there next year. Granted I won’t be too upset about missing it for the tour, but there are many great people there who I only see once a year. I think I’ll have to bring the bus to visit some of them.
I’ve got a bunch of pictures of the new site on Flickr. Someday I’ll probably take pictures of people or things that happen there, but it’ll probably be a while. I think I take pictures of the physical place because the environment there is so hard to explain and convey, in either photographs or text. Video could work, but anything short of being there just doesn’t do it justice.
I’ll try to write a couple stories about Grey Fox (both past and present). Its weird that I wrote so damn much about my one time at Bonnaroo, but I’ve barely written anything about a festival I’ve been going to for twenty-one years.