Rothbury 2008 Revisited

As we're heading into the home stretch in anticipation of this year's Rothbury, we thought it might help speed the wait by taking a another look at least year's amazing event.

We couldn't wait to get there, although we were more than a bit leary of the possibility of waiting 8 or more hours just to get on the site, which is fairly common with some of the other "big" festivals we'd been too. Fortunately, the line to get to the campgrounds was mercifully short (under an hour, actually) and within no time the tents and easy up were up, the coolers were out and we were in business.
A quick scan of the surroundings and we realized we were amazingly close to the venue entrance, and life was beyond good as a result. After a bit of getting to know our new neighbors, we made the first plunge into the venue.

The Entrance

On the way in we caught Underground Orchestra in the Tripolee area. The Tripolee stage was one we didn't see much of, outside from our way in and out each day, although this year I think I'll catch part of Wendy Darling's set before Jackie Greene comes on.

For those who haven't been yet, the Tripolee area is just after the main entrance not too far from the area where the vendors, the General Store, the Information tents and water refill stations are. There's several water refill areas throughout the venue which is an astounding thing to have in a festival this large. Hoofing it back to camp a couple times a day to reload the camelback isn't something one looks forward to. Fortunately, the upstate Michigan weather was more than accommodating. Unlike 'Roo (which we'd been at a few weeks prior) the temperatures were downright wonderful. Sleeping was quite nice, sans the "7:30 Wakeup Sauna Call" that we'd experienced in Manchester.

Welcome to the woods.

Once we got further into the venue, it become apparent pretty quickly that people were wasting no time acclimating themselves to the surroundings. There were really nice shade trees everywhere, and many of them had quite a few folks in them, around them, and hanging from them in the form of hammocks, improvised rope chairs and those who just plain climbed. The walking was interesting, for a number of reasons. First, there was the ground in Sherwood Forest. It was pretty spongy and just had a really different feel to it. Then there were all of the various sculptures around the grounds, which had been created from trash found on the grounds. This was a really neat idea, rather than just having the stuff end up in the landfill. Several of these sculptures were extremely clever and added a lot to the feel of the environment. One of the things we really liked was the large rhythm circle installation made of various barrels, and other materials. Throughout the event various people were playing the sculpture and as one person would drop out, another would take their place. Folks were wailing away on it every time we went past. Elsewhere there was a really huge sculpture created entirely from donated food cans. After the event, the food was distributed to various food banks.

The Magic Of Sherwood Forest

Between the Ranch Arena and Sherwood Court stages is several hundred feet of forest area one must traverse (although there is a shortcut as well that dumps out between The Odeum and Sherwood Court stages). At other festivals, this walk would have just been a plywood wall framed in pathway, or some path lined off with chain link fence. But this is Rothbury, and everything at Rothbury is part of the experience. Several platforms had motion controlled lighting that turned the forest at night into a truly magical place. Several sculptures were hanging from the trees, and many of the trees themselves had been decorated with all sorts of materials to reflect the light in all kinds of interesting ways. The effect was wondrous, and many people set up hammocks and tree chairs in the entire area. Depending on where one went, you could hear The Odeum, Sherwood Court and Ranch arena PA's really well without ever having to venture into the crowds.

in addition to all the nifty lighting and hanging sculpture stuff throughout the Sherwood forest area, various other interesting bits of performance art could be found along the paths between the stages. One night, a few folks had set up an impromptu rope suspension in amongst the trees. In another area, a pair of large gongs had been set up with a lounge chair between them. People waited in line to take a turn in the chair while others would work the gongs with mallets, surrounding the "listener" with a variety of sounds that could be felt as much as heard, bringing a whole new meaning to sensesurround.

What to do?

There were so many little things like this that contributed to the whole sense of magic and discovery that made Rothbury so special. Many times during the event we kept hearing things like "have you seen this or that yet". So much so, that there were quite a few things we completely missed and didn't hear about til after we'd left and were talking to other folks about it. With most of the other festivals we've attended the biggest "regret" is often not catching a particular band you want to see due to a scheduling conflict. At Rothbury, one could add to that "not enough time to see it all" where a lot of "it" wasn't even a particular band, because while the line was insanely great, there was just so much ELSE going on besides just the music, and that's what made it so unique.

But regardless of one's approach to "doing" Rothbury, either by careful planning against the schedule to try to catch as much as possible, or just sort of hanging out and letting it all happen around you, one thing was a given: Everybody I talked to who went agreed that this brand new just out of the box festival was a spectacular success. Rothbury wasn't just another huge mega festival that had a great line up (and it did, make no doubt about that), but there was so much MORE that took it to an entirely different level. And that, is a rare thing.

Afterwards, in many discussions with people who DID go, the common refrain was firmly in the "I'm so glad I went" camp, and for those who didn't but had heard about it, was the just as common "I wish I had gone."

And with that, we leave you with this thought:

This could be you.

In it's first year Rothbury came out of nowhere, and achieved "the stuff of legends" status in just four all too short days, and it's for that reason that this year's Rothbury is so very highly anticipated by those who went last year. In just a short while, we get to do it all over again, and it's not too late for you to be a part of it.

If you need any further convincing, we offer a few other tidbits:

The 2008 Rothbury Review

The 2008 Rothbury Photo Galleries

The 2008 Rothbury Event Gallery

Tickets are still available, and you can get them HERE

And everything else you may need to know can be found HERE

In another few weeks, Rothbury 2009 will be one for the history books, and the only variable will be if you fall into the "glad you went" or "wish you had" categories, or if you're like me, perhaps the "I wish I could have done both Rothbury AND Greatfulfest 10" category. Fortunately, we'll be covering both. Even if The Dead don't play Loose Lucy, we have no doubts that people will still be singing "Thank you, for a real good time".