Pemberton Festival

Thanks to the media's mega coverage of all that went wrong with this event, I'm sure we're all a little "Pemberton-ed Out", but this is MY little story...

[I have quite a few fotos and a few videos to show you, so let me know if you had trouble viewing this blog.]

I was invited to go at the last minute for the last day (Sunday). When I was young, I didn't go to a lot of concerts and never to a biggie outdoor one, so how could I say no?

The photo above is how is how I've always seen the Pemberton/Whistler area in summer... beautiful, green, pristine...

I really had no idea what to expect but I certainly didn't expect this:

(yikes! a garbage mine field - some plates still full of left over food which left for some squishy steps if you weren't looking.)

Yup... it was a mess and yup, the traffic was crazy. We all heard a lot about it on the radio and TV, but that is ALL I am going to say about the negative stuff. I have to give the organizers kudos for putting together this HUGE event for the first time...

My friend and I were REALLY there to see Cold Play and the rest of the bands were a bonus. Sunday started off with Vampire Weekend - they were fun, trendy and had some great tunes. [I am not a very articulate music critic, just basic and to the point!]

After Vampire Weekend, N.E.R.D. was up. As one concert ended and the next began, we had a chance to move further to the front to wait for Cold Play. The crowd grew restless as N.E.R.D. showing up became less of a possibility. It was kind of neat as the crowd spontaneously started to sing "O Canada" as we waited [and waited and waited].

N.E.R.D. finally came on minus 2 band members - uhh... great excuse guys: "we were stuck in traffic". How about preparation and wouldn't they be travelling together? Whatever...

This was a totally new experience for me, especially seeing as the crowd was oh...maybe between 18-26 years of age and my friend and I are in our 40s... clearly strange fish in this pond! This band really got the energy of the crowd moving - amazing how a small group can have such control over the masses. In my naivety (being so close to the front), I was all of the sudden in the midst of "slam dancing" and "surfing". Wow! I had 3 guys land on my head and got bounced around like a rag doll!

I was actually having a blast in this new youthful experience!

Death Cab for Cutie was up next and at least I knew a bit of their music. They were more on the mellow side, a little break between the rappers.

Here's a little clip of Jay Z. It's really tough to take a proper video when you're being shoved and bounced in every direction... but you'll get the idea.

All in all though, I've gotta say that it was a good crowd... everybody was truly enjoying themselves.

Ok... so now my friend decides that he's gotta do one for the "bucket list" and try to crowd surf. Oh heck, why not! All the college kids were totally egging him on and before I knew it, he was on his way... RIGHT to the front...

Lost him... but now Cold Play was next and I was corralled closer to the front of the oxygen deprived stage area. It's tough to get some air when you're so short!

Here a shot of Cold Play's arrival on stage:

AND... a wee clip of them starting out...

I finally found my frient by the bus shuttle line up, and by that time, the line up was unreal and the traffic, crazy. We decided to walk back to the airport (like a lot of other people) where the car was parked. I just had to get a snap of these trees... don't really know why... maybe I liked the fence behind them.

Made it back to the car eventually and the next day, took the long way home through Mount Currie and the back roads of Lillooet Lake through to Harrison. A little dusty, but GORGEOUS!

Anyway... there's always lots of stories and I'm not much of a writer. I'm learning to write and express myself through blogging - a great exercise so far!