I suppose there are those who would say we are merely "making an excuse," but I always find that I suffer from what we've come to think of as "festival brain" when I come back from participating in some kind of public event for several days.
One of several meadows where events took place
Mrs. Denmarkguy and I were gone for close to a week — we left last Wednesday and came back yesterday — to attend a retreat and festival in Central Oregon, where — among other things — I was set with a vendor's tent with my painted stones.
This was pretty much an off-grid type retreat, so we were essentially primitive camping, while also running a vendor booth. Actually that was not all — at least for Mrs. Denmarkguy, who was also attending a number of events and workshops related to the retreat.
All in all, it was certainly nice to break state and to be rather far out of reach and into nature. The event took place in a small canyon with old growth forest situated in the middle of otherwise rolling farmland with mostly wheat and vineyards.
The venue was actually in a location that was beyond the reach of cell service, and the electricity was limited to a couple of outlets in the kitchen shelter area where a few people would go to charge their phones but certainly not use them for anything other than photography.
We found a good camping spot in a meadow surrounded by 200-foot Douglas firs and spruce trees, mixed with a few old oak trees... which offered much needed shade during all but a few hours during the middle of the day when temperatures reached well into the 90's (30c+).
Now we are home again and back into the more "civilized" world, and even though the experience itself felt somewhat exhausting — I'm just not into "peopling" that much — I can now also recognize that my brain, spirit and general attitude has been somewhat refreshed.
Was it worthwhile?
Well, from the art standpoint we sold just about enough that it paid for most of the registration fees, the vendor Commission, and part of a tank of gas. If we were in a more financially stable position we probably wouldn't go as vendors, put that extra $600 makes excursions like this possible for those of us who live on very modest means.
It was a fairly small gathering this year — as I understand it — there were barely 120 people in attendance compared to some of the high points before Covid where these same gatherings drew about 300+ people. In a situation where there actually were 300 plus festival goers I dare say that the vending proposition would be rather more worthwhile.
Maybe I'm being a bit mercenary in making it "about money," but the bottom line is that these expenses to have to be paid in some way!
Workshop in progress!
Anyway, back home again, my brain is having "the slows" and I expect it will take me several days to get back into "running mode."
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2024-07-25 00:13 PDT
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