Earlier this month I attended the first ever ‘Dirtybird Campout’ Music Festival in sunny Silverado California by non other than the Dirtybird crew. If you guys are not familiar with them, they are a collective of House Music DJ’s from the San Francisco Bay Area. These guys have been in the music industry for over a decade hustling to create a movement/home for the house music community. They currently own their own record label, Dirtybird Records, an innovative American house music label with quirky ideas, bass driven funk, and a crew of humble characters who like to have fun. Since creating the label, Claude VonStroke has A&R'd some of the most influential house music producers in the world. A short list includes Justin Martin, Catz 'n Dogz, Julio Bashmore, Riva Starr, Breach, Shiba San, Eats Everything, Style of Eye, J Phlip, Kill Frenzy, and many many more. 

Being a huge fan of the crew, I knew I had to attend their first ever music festival and submerge myself into this house music community for the weekend. To be honest, I was a bit concerned with the outcome, considering so many things could potential go wrong on this first occasion. Man, was I proven wrong all throughout the weekend time and time again. To say I had ‘an amazing time’ would be a lie, I can’t even begin to put into worlds how much that weekend means to me now. The vibes all around were beyond positive, so much love filled the camp that not one single person could be seen having a bad time. 

Since the theme of the festival was a ‘campout’ I decided to create several costumes fitting for the theme. Above you will find my rendition of the character ‘Russell’ form the Pixar classic ‘Up’ that I wore on day three of the festival. Not only was the costume very easy to make, it was incredibly cheap considering I already owned the shorts and yellow shirt. The reason I wanted to share this costume with you guys, was to give you yet ANOTHER idea for a costume this Halloween. I rarely have anything catering to the guy community, so guy’s this one is for you! 

Below you will find a quick run down of how I assembled the costume together::

Patches Sash: Bought 1/4 yard of brown felt from Joann’s Fabric. I also picked up a misc bag of colorful buttons in different shapes and hot glued them onto the sash to give a ‘patched’ look. Joann’s sells patches, but they run anywhere from $2-6 dollars each, so I highly recommend browning their button section of the store of this misc bag of colorful buttons. 

Yellow Shirt: They sell yellow shirts at Joann’s for $5 bucks. I purchased some yellow, green, brown, and orange felt squares to create the front round patch for the shirt, hat, and flag. My patches said ‘DB’ for ‘Dirtybird,’ but feel free to customize the letters to your liking. Overall the patches are a no brainer on how to put together, just use from hot glue to make sure the letters and over patch stays on your shirt, hat, and flag. 

Hat: For the hat I simply took an old hat I owned and covered the front bill with yellow felt fabric. I then glued one of my created patches to the center of the hat. 

Flag: For the flag I used a square of ‘stiff’ orange felt and cut that into a triangle. I glued another patch onto the center of the flag, and finished it off by securing it onto a craft stick. 

Additional Items: Orange bandana, boots, and backpack with misc camp supplies attached throughout it. 

I had an amazing time running around the festival dancing my butt off dressed like Russell and I hope you will have a great time too! 

Sending all of you lots of love and light, 

Drea :)