#hikingaz

Labor day weekend! We head out for a long weekend adventure getaway in the minivan RV camper. We make our way to an invite only, low key, socially distanced event. A hidden music and arts camping festival deep in the AZ wilderness around a large open meadow. Live music died with the emergence of the covid pandemic in 2020. This event gave people some much deserved relief from the stress of the pandemic and helped out some participating bands and artist. The event had to change locations from the Flagstaff area to the Heber-Overgaard area last minute as it attracted more attention than anticipated. People were dying to hear some live music!

We decided to leave the night before to give us the whole day in cooler weather and avoid the crazy labor day traffic! We never camped out at a Walmart before which is a thing apparently so we tried it and had zero problems. We did it because finding a decent camping spot at night sucks. Forget a hotel room, cash is better spent elsewhere! We were also waiting on the location details which were not being released till noon, the day of the event.

We started the day with breakfast at The Pinon in Payson, AZ which had a nice small town country vibe. That food hit the spot and we were good to go hiking with JoJo. Raquel randomly picked See Spring Trail at the rim. It was a perfect hike on a perfect day. The sound of multiple springs trickling in nature's stereo surround sound was deeply relaxing.

After the hike we got the directions and headed to the festival. The roads deep in the woods were rough but we made it without issues. This festival was awesome! We were so stoked to be part of it. A huge main stage decorated with enormous psychedelic canvass at the end of a large meadow surrounded by nature. The meadow was filled with blooming yellow flowers and wild horses were hanging out! Spread out along the tree lines were many tents, campervans and RV's. There was a real sense of community. We noticed a donation area where people can grab needed supplies, food, blankets and whatever. Multiple vendors were set up throughout, donating proceeds to the bands. Local artists were live painting. Drum circles, costumes and art, seemed like anything goes. It was almost a burning man vibe but on a very necessary smaller scale. Check out artist Dapper Dan from Mesa.

We set up camp and ended up next to some mighty cool folks. Steve and Jeremy (brothers) and Jeremy's wife Carla. Steve actually lives close to us in Tempe. The newlyweds came from San Diego! Turns out the brothers grew up in our hometown of Chicago and are Cubs fans! We also learned Steve is a graduate from Barrett Honors at ASU. Our daughter just began her first year at Barrett! Small world. We kicked it with them for a minute. Everyone we met was happy and friendly, good vibes all around!

Unfortunately some of the bands scheduled to perform did not get the chance to hit the main stage due to law enforcement. The Adepts and The Irie for example, who we came to see specifically. We kept hearing some Slightly Stoopid jams, one of our favorite bands from a campsite about 50 yards away. We took a walk and found the band So/Below in a jam session. They came all the way from Houston. We were invited to chill as they jammed some semi acoustic tunes. See, we are huge fans of live music. I am a musician myself and played an awesome show with Bent Self and The Adepts at The Marquee Theater in March just before the shut down. We have missed live music so much and now here we are getting a private concert. Connecting with a new band, jamming songs we love in that reggae vibe, in the middle of the fucking wilderness lol! It gets better... Remember I mentioned the Irie did not get to perform the main stage? So/Below offered to let them set up right there and perform their set! What! That is who we came to see and were bummed they were not playing. Now we’re right up front at an impromptu, semi acoustic concert! Everything was dialed in nicely and sounded absolutely amazing! This was seriously some devine majestic shit that we were in that moment. Mind you, this was during the peak of the political divisive turmoil season, so this experience was far beyond refreshing and healing.

We were able to capture some video of this performance on the makeshift side stage so to speak. Unfortunately our battery died so we did not get to film So/Below on the main stage. They killed it and sounded great! We bought a sticker and slapped it on our cooler. The brothers convinced us to check out The Neumonics. I am glad we did! They were amazing! Psychedelic rock and roll. The songs were catchy, musicians were talented, and the band was super tight like they have been together for 20 years tight. Turns out only seven months! That's dope.

We will post some snippets in this video series but we will do a full song video from both bands in separate videos.

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