This summer myself and two friends embarked on a road trip from our town of Fernie, BC.
Destination: Pemberton, for the first ever Pemberton Music festival.
Whip: My 1988 Toyota Corolla, "SHE-RA" princess of power.
Morning of departure, i ask my supposed co-pilot, the only other friend with a license:
"so, uh Dan. You know how to drive standard, right?"
"No."
"Oh. God Damn."
13 hours of driving later($85 gas split 3 ways) we made it to Hongcouver. Stayed with some friends (case of beer) for a couple days and then drove up to Pemberton.
This festival, lauded as being another Sasquatch, Coachella or Glastonbury, had a $300 price tag, along with fees+taxes+$60 a head for camping. Being the ski-bum-broke-asses that we were(are) we volunteered for the festival, meaning we didn't pay anything.($0).
40,000 people arrived in a town of 1500 over the course of one day. Wait times to check in were upwards of 5 hours. They searched every car for outside booze, so that cheap Alberta beer you brought had to be polished before you even got inside. Masses of people were pissed, both with anger and lots and lots of alcohol. Because of our volunteer status, we got in right away and they didnt search my car and find the cheap booze we bought in Montana the weekend prior. Lesson? Booze in BC is expensive. Once inside, it was $ 7 PER BEER. The first night, there were riots. It was mayhem at its finest.
We showed up to volunteer, and no one knew what to do with us. We kept getting sent around to various people, all of whom had no idea what we were even talking about. After a (semi)honest effort of TRYING to volunteer, we said fuck it, and with our festival wristbands already provided, we snaked the festival hard.
Mayhem aside, 4 days of live music tucked in the majestic mountains with 40,000 other people was a party never seen before in Canada. There were some bad reviews regarding the sheer disorganization of the festival, and maybe i too would be soured if i had actually paid all that money to go.
But i didnt. So it was awesome.
legs
It was unreal, the Pemberton.
ReplyDeleteWe trekked from Winnipeg, in a soccer-mom van. One crew member discussed what the preferred technique for smuggling happy pills inside would be, and decided duct tape between the cheeks of the ass would be sufficient. No need to be invasive and all, you know.
Our route found us descending on Pemberton from the north, like music-hungry party vultures. This route, which they call the Lillooet route, went through Lilloet, BC. So we missed Vancouver. A pity, as I heard they built some new condos that were pretty nice, and someone finally realized that they could functionally oust a few n'er-do-wells from the downtown East Side with a simple Olympic Festival. That should make it prettier. And I'm sure they'll find somewhere nice to go; BC's a pretty welcoming place, 'cept for the bears that seem to think they can just wander into our backyards... the nerve!! Unfortunately, I think moving is easier when you have $coin$... someone's surely working on that, though... right..?
After winding our way down in a convoy of party-going VW vans and hand-me-down cars, we arrived through the festival's back door, and spent our afternoon and most of the evening in a parking lot, finding myriad games you can play with a whole bunch of party people and a limited number of recreational sports leagues to join. Our favorite was this:
2 players. One has a coin in their hand, flip-readily poised on their bent thumb. You are standing 5 paces apart (exactly). You approach each other, as quickly as your skill level warrants. You pass each other, and as you do, the coin flipper tosses the coin backwards over their shoulder and as high as possible, while player B (or 2) attempts to catch it.
Variations: You can keep the coin after. Sometimes judges are used. Drinking may change the goal and/or any of the aforementioned rules.
Best moment: First night, exhausted, hearing the audio equivalent of 'the wave' when forty thousand people unanimously agreed that it rocked to be there, and cheers would spontaneously erupt from one locale or another, and get carried across the campground's entirety...
Most surreal moment: Sticking around the deserted mainstage area after Tom Petty. The day before, it had been a farmer's field, and had been rapidly replaced by a dusty melange of trash, broken stunner shades and a watch in the unsexy lights of white fieldlights. The watch is still in good condition, though missing a strap, size 24mm and apparently impossible to find. Let me know if you have one, please. I'll beat anyone else's offer by 10% of the difference.
The music also rocked. I'd go back in a second.
Getting into concerts for free is surprisingly easy. Me and a friend did it once at Soundset 08. We just came and started help a guy move around a sofa and some merch stuff. It was all good until we started messing with the security guys. We still had tickets, but that's not the point.
ReplyDeleteAll you need to do is look like you're supposed to be there, and people leave you alone
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