I’m back at work, still a little tired but clean shaven and no longer covered in dirt. Overall Wakarusa was a great time and I wouldn’t complain if I was still there. Things were not so great when we approached the festival. We avoided lines at the police checkpoint because my buddy Steve had a K-Tag, but that’s where our luck ran out. We than sat in the car for about an hour and a half waiting to get through the festival gates. It got even worse when we arrived at will call to find another line of people waiting for their tickets. We waited for another hour or so but it was all worth it when we were given our press passes for the weekend! Our friends from Virginia Coalition hooked us up with guest-list spots to the festival which resulted in our press passes.

Unfortunately all of this waiting forced us to miss VACO’s first set, but we were able to see them the next day for what they said was a better set anyway. We also missed Will Hoge’s set, which is probably my biggest disappointment of the weekend. Anyway, we arrived at our campsite sometime between four and five hours after leaving Kansas City. From there we spent some time sweating while setting up camp. Later in the night we enjoyed sets from 56 Hope Road and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, among others. We quickly realized that our press passes were not only good for prime viewing access in the VIP areas but also allowed us to enjoy some drinks for free.

We hung around the campsite for a few hours early on Friday and later caught up with Virginia Coalition as I mentioned before. I think the couple hundred people under the tent would agree with me when I say that their set sounded great! They took advantage of playing in-front of a jam band crowd by doing more improvising than I had seen from them before. Other highlights from the day included Jake Shimabukuro, a solo acoustic performance by Michael Franti and of course Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

Saturday morning again came earlier than I would have liked. It’s hard to sleep in your tent when it turns into a sauna once the sun rises. We spent some time swimming in the lake in an attempt to avoid the inescapable heat. It definitely helped but eventually it was time to get back to the music. I was especially impressed by both Assembly of Dust and Tea Leaf Green. It’s also nice to be able to say that I have seen The Flaming Lips and their incredibly interesting stage show.

After waking up various times throughout Saturday night’s storm, I finally popped out of the tent to see my recently purchased canopy broken into pieces on the ground. I guess a $20 purchase is too good to be true. The nice thing was that the storms actually cooled everything off, at least long enough for us to pack up the car. We decided to go ahead and get it all done before it got hot again, and I’m glad that we did. Just an hour or so later we were once again sweating while enjoying bands like ALO and MOFRO not to mention another solo performance, this time from Bela Fleck!

As I said before, the festival was an awesome event that I believe was even better than last year. Many people were/are complaining about the increase in security throughout the weekend, but that never affected me personally. I do think that the “shakedown street” from last years festival was much better, but that could be just my late night cravings for grilled cheese talking. The food from Ahli Baba’s Kabob Shop out of Burlington, VT did a good job at making up for it though. Now that I have a small taste of the VIP experience, I’m pretty much convinced that is the way to go. Sure the ticket price is expensive, but it includes the prime viewing spots, unlimited drinks including New Belgium beer, and to top it all off you get catered meals. Basically it allows you to experience the best of the festival with having even less things to worry about. Perhaps next year…