I had one of the most interesting experiences of my life yesterday. I hit up the local music festival Gathering of the Vibes. One week/weekend in July the three day festival takes place at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

For me, it is only about 20 minutes south. And $20 for the entire day was too good to pass up. A couple weeks ahead of time I made arrangements with my husband so he would watch our lovely children and I could have a day with one of my girlfriends.

I knew he wouldn’t be interested in the festival at all, and while my oldest son may have been interested I didn’t feel right bringing him. Once I did attend and check it all out, there was tons of awesome stuff for children to do, and of course I changed my mind. Maybe next year the kids will join me?

Anyway! The entire day was interesting, hysterical, fun, moving… so many different words and experiences to describe the day as a whole.

We started off by checking out all the vendors, having a beer and seeing the sights. I have to admit, I am not a fan of beer at all, in fact I hate most of it. But I had this lemonade type that was actually pretty good. It would have been much better if it wasn’t $7. But that is what you get at a festival.

This is when the day got interesting. As we were relaxing under that nice tree right there, two older gentleman walked up and stood probably six feet away from us. They were much older, even older than my own parents. I would say probably about 65. Full on card carrying AARP members with their prim and proper polo pull overs and dockers.

Then they proceeded to pull out pot and smoke it right there… out in the open, for everyone to see. I took one look at Leigh, and trying not to laugh hysterically… just asked her if this was for real. Oh yes, it really was, and as the day went on we learned how many people in the venue would do the same exact thing. I was honestly shocked with all the police that were walking all over the place.

As we were excusing ourselves from the area, we ran into this fella.

Yes, he was dressed like peas in a pod, and apparently is a mental health professor at a pretty big university. While you could have fooled me, it certainly explains that old lesson of not judging a book by its cover!

We spent time by the water to keep cool. Honestly, the venue itself of this gorgeous park couldn’t be any better for this kind of festival.

A couple minutes after this we were in that water cooling down. Much needed in the heat yesterday! A lot of people had the same idea, especially most of those who were spending the weekend and camping.

Food was two big thumbs up. I have never seen such a wide array of choices at a concert venue. From pizza to Chinese food, Mexican, Tai… Everything you could imagine. Oh and heavenly cheese fries.

Then it was time for the main stage. We took in two of the acts there, one being an awesome Reggae band called Steel Pulse, and then The Avett Brothers who is the entire reason I went. Ever since reading the book Slammed a couple months back I have been obsessed with their music. The lyrics are so meaningful and they are genuinely talented.

By the time we were rocking out to them I was exhausted and hurting. My back, feet, legs, you know all those typical aches. But it didn’t stop us from completely rocking out.

The Avett Brothers get two big thumbs up from me. I have seen a lot of bands perform over the years, but they were by far the best live act.

The overall moral of the story… if they are back in Bridgeport next year for the festival, I not only plan on going again, but camping out for the weekend. The kids would love it and it is an awesome time.

Tags: festival, gathering of the vibes, the avett brothers, the vibes

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2012 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.