As the haze of pot smoke and taste of warm beer began to clear from my mind, the long-anticipated hot water stung my sunburned skin, reminding me of the four days of glorious indulgence from which I have not yet fully returned. I say "indulgence" because I feel that no other word suffices to describe the complete dismissal of all anxiety, apprehension, and sense of order that occurred as festival goers entered the Gorge Amphitheater for this year's Sasquatch Music Festival. Crowds of people were drinking twelve dollar beers and feasting on seven dollar servings of pizza while sunbathing and tripping on acid. No computers, no homework, no bosses, and only a few scattered sheriffs.
Our schedule for each day: wake up with the sun, share a lazy morning with our Canadian neighbors, join the masses in the euphoric trek from the campground to the festival, lie down in the sunshine with thousands of new friends, soak in hours of tunes, dance until the stars come out, return to the campground for an after party, and retreat to a fortress of blankets for a deep drunken slumber.
The grand finale (a misleading phrase as there was, of course, an after party) was the UFO Show from the Flaming Lips. I don't want to say too much about the show as I know that Dana's description will be infinitely more intriguing than my own, but I will say that it was by far the highlight of the entire festival. The front man came out of a giant, flashing, moving UFO in an inflatable ball and rolled across the audience. There were Telletubbies, an enormous astronaut, a gigantic caterpillar, balloons the size of people, and literally tons of confetti.
The completely overdone and ostentatious Flaming Lips show that probably sent pounds of pollution down the Columbia River and perpetuated the constant eroticization of women was one of the best concerts I have ever experienced. As critical as I am about practically every aspect of mainstream culture and as much as the concert contradicted my environmentalist and feminist ideals, I could not help but feel strangely moved by the crowd, the performers, and the incredible collective joy shared by thousands of people.
As the show concluded, Sam and I were down in the pit, about twenty feet from the stage, and the Flaming Lips played their last song, "Do You Realize." The lyrics resonated deeply with me as I stood with a person who I still love at the end of our amazing relationship, preparing to leave a comfortable and happy life for new excitement and adventures.
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