Bluesfest

For some inexplicable reason, my camera died just before Bluesfest. Sadness! So all of these photos are ripped off the Bluesfest website to try capture some of the day's events. Mind you, any photo with sunshine was not from Monday, the final day of the five day festival and the only day Austin and I attended. Bluesfest is notoriously wet and rainy but Monday went down in history as the muddiest festival day ever. Above is a shot of a few of the six stages at this ACL-like festival.

All of the major performances were covered by massive tents. People were pretty chilled, and it was fairly easy to work our way up close to the stage.


This photo does not begin to capture the magnitude of mud during our day at the festival! Austin and I arrived unprepared and without gumboots. Rather we both showed up to the festival in flip flops. As I trudged through ankle deep mud, I had to yank my foot up behind me, which sent mud sailing up my back and over my head. In no time at all, we were carrying our thongs and slopping through mud and puddles that were mid-calf deep in some places.

The theme of the day was definitely colorful gumboots everywhere you looked.

Let me paint a bit of a picture for you. This is a typical festival goer...

...and here's another one. Is this guy for real? Lots of festival goers camped nearby. I cannot imagine anything worse in the neverending rainfall throughout the weekend. We were oh so happy to return to our cosy little B&B at the end of the night.

We arrived to Augie March playing a familiar Aussie tune.

Some randoms posed for our crowd shot.

Look, there are the randoms behind us!

The next performer was Xavier Rudd.

Only Xavier would need three didgeridoos.

Next we were treated to one of my favorites, Missy Higgins.

Ah yeah, she's getting into it!

There was a big theme throughout the day, where many of the artists (above) used their voice to back the 'Save the Kimberley' campaign, which is the next and last place on my Australian travel list! It is a unique untouched part of the outback that is at risk for development. While I appreciate the cause, I did not appreciate the lengthy interruption of my limited concert time.

The artists get down with the photographer.

Jason Mraz erred on the side of bluesy for the first half of his set, but moved into some of the poppier, more upbeat tunes in his second half, which were much more enjoyable. Along with the majority of the festival goers, he seemed quite high during his performance.

A few snaps of the crowd...

Here are a few shots of the mud as we exited the festival in the pouring rain.

Austin found it remarkable that no one thought it strange that we were wading in near knee level puddles waiting for the shuttle.

Are we still having fun?? What is with the mud dribbling down my chin? We were so dirty and muddy and wet by the time we arrived back at the room, that we both bee-lined it for the shower and jumped in fully clothed. I washed Austin's back for him (the back of his t-shirt that is). What an insane mess! Rather hysterical looking back, and even then.