Port Townsend is exceptionally beautiful but also, it smells like bad cabbage and farting goats.
Just as we turned into town we saw a big deer and a baby deer. My notes say to show a photo. I did not take a photo of this.
Bob booked an airbnb–this was part of how he tricked me, it was a good rate and he wanted to grab it while he could–Do it! I said, happily pliable with anesthesia.
It was a room in someone’s house and it was perfect. We took a quick nap and took off for the day, heading for the shuttle stop.
The venue was Fort Worden Historical State Park and parking was limited so the organizers worked out parking lots with shuttles. Our room was about a half hour walk from Fort Worden and a short walk from a shuttle stop. Remember this piece of information for later.
As we walked down the hill we saw a shuttle and ran and waved to catch it. We were the first ones on the bus. The bus drove a long route and many happy people with backpacks and sunhats boarded. Already we were having fun.
This is our shuttle driver cosplaying my dad. Like the way he uses his phone while he drives the bus?
This music festival was exactly like the other ones I’ve done: the fun parts were super fun, but the not fun parts were terrible. I’m not really music festival material. Maybe if I did drugs? I think you have to be able to just relax and go with whatever is happening. I can’t get over the desire for things to follow a schedule and proceed in an orderly fashion.
Fun parts: Everywhere you look around Port Townsend is beautiful. The weather was sunny but mild. People were super friendly. I didn’t know much about the music so enjoyed it in the moment and it was a wide variety and really fun.
This is my new favorite: Black Belt Eagle Scout — I have waited my entire life to see an indigenous woman lead a band like this.
We also saw John C. Reilly, the actor, who has a band that does bluegrass/classic country/folk songs and he was AMAZING. He is so funny and genuine and charming. He seems like someone you could be friends with.
We loved Orville Peck., Giants in the Trees and Cafe Tacvba We liked everything we saw but I can’t remember them all. Here’s a link to the complete lineup: Thing NW.
Welcome to The Thing festival.
Officer and A Gentleman was filmed in this town and there was a late night reading of the script with some local actor/podcast type people plus John C Reilly as the Lou Gossett Jr. character. That big building behind the stage is the blimp hangar where they big beatdown scene took place.
So now for the not fun parts: everything else. There were organizational problems and long lines for everything. The food was expensive and not very good. There weren’t enough vendors so the ones there were working like crazy, running out of stuff, and completely harried. There was a very long, special line to buy booze tickets and you had to pay for booze with the tickets. There was no work around. The schedule fell apart for some of our events and communication was poo.
This would bite us in the boodini, later.
