'Bluesfest' Easter

There's been a bit of a delay in my blogging about Easter as I became very ill while I was away BUT otherwise what a brilliant Festival!!

The idea began some 3 years ago after the frustration of a 2 day conference encouraging new forms of missional church and some of the ego driven 'nutbars' I encountered at a 2 day Brian McLaren event. I decided not to attend anymore talkfests about mission but to be engaged in it instead. As a Consultant this exacerbated the issue because you spend plenty of time trying to convince, cajole and encourage others to adapt and change accordingly without necessarily being grounded in your own action!!

I am a huge fan of a quality Easter Camp but when our suggestion of a Sydney metro based intentionally multi-cultural camp was not taken up by those networks an opportunity arose to think differently about inviting a group of young adults to try an experiment.

For that age group you'd have to do an enormous amount of work to create an event... why not go to one that's already created and form temporary community in that space. If only a few sign up, it's still on because it'll still draw a crowd and it can be research for future.

I chose 'Bluesfest' because of the quality of the event and the bill where they stretch the definition for mainstage to draw a young and diverse crowd alongside longtime blues fans...

Check out the artist list and pics and fallout here but it's hard to top:

Crowded House

The Fray

The Break

John Butler Trio

The Flood

Jessica Mauboy

Kev Carmody

[3] tapings of Rockwiz

Buena Vista Social Club

Jack Johnson

Jen Cloher

and many more

Bands don't start until midday giving plenty of spare time for what I suggested as a basic approach to group discussion like a. reflecting on what day of Easter it was and b. what does that mean here and what is 'good news' for people in this context?

I prepared a reflection each day including a song [some by feature artists] a painting and a brief reflection on a reading for that day.

I was too unwell to participate in these conversations but Jeri and Naomi were given mp3 players to listen to each song and spent a few afternoons in the beer garden talking about the material.

The no alcohol, no noise rules in the camping ground were rules honoured by their breaking but the 2am and 4am karaoke serenades were made worse by my feeling unwell.

The girls made good friends with our neighbours and there was a great vibe in the Festival ground itself. We were 200m from the entrance so also the thump of the music went until 12.30am.

There was such a richness to the music on offer across 5 or 6 different venues and the food vendors, bar and markets were all top notch. I found the experience of a number of acts to be quite transcendent in really low key ways and the Easter weekend was on peoples minds even if a little dismissively.

My own 'Easter' moment came when I had almost forgotten Kev Carmody was playing and he did his Kev and friends set focused around the 'Cannot Buy My Soul' tribute album. I had been to hospital emergency, was on antibiotics and was energy-less but as Kev spoke about the bloke upstairs and actually sang 'Cannot Buy My Soul' and there were tears... I hadn't gone looking for overt references, they were there all weekend in subtle and obvious ways in the values laden music of so many bands and the effervesence of the crowds!!

More soon... but essentially... huge potential!!