HOW TO BLUES FEST ON JULY 4TH

The Blues Fest, or Waterfront Blues Festival, can be tricky.

From once showing up with two cans of food for admission to now, it’s been a long strange trip.

Back then you’d go in, drink beer, walk around, get something to eat, drink beer, and leave.

Today it’s reservations and lobster rolls before going in.

Lobster rolls? I’ve never had one.

We had a table in King Tide Fish & Shell right behind the South Stage while the show was blasting from the North Stage.

By the time we were ready to go the South Stage kicked it up.

Perfect timing.

One thing stood out from our perch: human variety.

You can go out into the world and look around, but the Blues Fest brings a part of the world right to our doorstep.

The blues part.

 

Blues Fest On 4th Of July

The boats were floating, flags a flying, and before we got there we had another big surprise.

If there’s a scheduled jet flyover, I’m going out of my way to see them.

From Council Crest to a Beaverton graveyard to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington Park, I’m a fan of the fast movers.

Not this year.

This years is more of a logistics exercise. With plans to pack the car with as many people who wanted to jam in, I skipped the flyover.

But the flyover didn’t skip me.

Driving down for a pick up I looked up to see two fighter jets go right over.

I logged it as a good blues omen.

 

After packing away those lobster rolls we rolled into the Blues Fest.

Instead of the first gate, or the VIP gate, we were directed to the main entrance on Front where things fell into place.

Set up chairs, get settled for those settling in, then walk around with a walk around beer.

What is it about a walk around beer that says, “This is the right place at the right time?”

It was hot, but not scorching hot. I had ear plugs for getting close to the stage.

Perfect.

 

Have you heard of music miracles? I had one yesterday.

A few years back the Foo Fighters played the Gorge, a five hour drive away.

My buddy was making it a logistic concert with multiple people showing up from different starting places.

They all found each other.

Mark and I were driving up in his motorhome with no way of finding the other guys.

But we did.

Not only did we find their campsite, we found them inside the bowl during the concert.

That never happens even with the best planning.

Yesterday I walked down to set up chairs and someone yelled my name, which I never respond to since there’s more than one David out there.

But it was Mark’s sister, and he was there with her.

Call it a special blues moment.

 

Meanwhile, Later That Night

My kid and I drank a couple of walk around beers, checked in at the chairs, walked around more, then had to re-up my parking.

He called Uber for a ride home to get ready for the drone show at the high school.

Two hour later we showed up to a neighborhood more crowded than I’d ever seen.

People wanted to see what’s happening with drones.

Since we stopped by home first, I tried to weasel out of going with, “But the dog needs me here to comfort her.”

It didn’t work and I’m glad.

With no place to park in the neighborhood, and a friend’s car parked in front of his driveway, we had to improvise.

Improvisational parking? We parked in his yard.

In fading light we picked our way down a broken sidewalk, across a busy street down to huge sports fields.

My kid talked me in and waved when I got close enough.

That’s when our rocket powered grandkid took aim from far away and blasted off at full speed.

In a gathering of thousands, this one short-stuff shined brightest of all.

Then the show took off to surprising effect.

Fireworks can’t do this:

 

From 11:00 am to 11:00 pm it was a big July Fourth.

Next year will be better with a bigger group.

I’m looking forward to adding three more for the big day, three people who’ve had the best Independence Day I’ve ever heard of.

What are you lookin g forward to?