Sunday, August 17, 2008

Faerieworlds


Faerieworlds at the Secret House vineyards in Oregon was like being in another world. On July 31st my friend Anne and I packed up my Smart car for a weekend of camping and festival arts and entertainment. No one believed we could do it, we even amazed ourselves with our abilities to pack the Smart. Not only did we have a tent, mattress, stove, ropes, clips, sleeping bags, all the things you need for camping, we also had the most important fashion statement of the weekend our four pair of wings. I had one pair. We had to leave the cooler out so food was minimal, and I am a minimalist when it comes to food. Being a vegetarian with food allergies makes life interesting in ways we can not imagine so food was all I feared for the adventurous weekend ahead. Quiet camping was miss advertised, don't call it quiet camping if you have a drum circle all night long. The two showers for the whole camp site were built by volunteers out of recycled boards and shower stalls, not meant for the modest. They had two vender's selling food which was handy considering our minimal snacks.
At the festival music played most of the day on the main stage, I think 90% of the festival goers were in costume, it was a photo op all weekend, never ceasing to amaze the senses at the creativity,time and energy put into the costumes. We were also amazed at the number of vender's and how much money we didn't have for all the creations we wanted to buy, not to mention we had no room in the Smart for more stuff. Which was a good thing.



Karen and Anne in the dinning tent or place of shade and rest.



At the edge of the parking lot customers at the chocolate stand "Lulu's Raw Chocolate Alchemy" amazing chocolate. Anne is in the little mirror.


"Arg!" Pirates in the chapel. "Man Overboard"

"Tricky Pixie" Two of the three.




Lots of hola hoops






Mother and her two daughters

Karen with Brian and Wendy Froud. Brian spent most of his time signing autographs and having his photo taken. their son Toby Froud



A shade tent.

The hurdy-gurdy maker and his harpist






There were fairies and woodland creatures of all ages









Karen and the giant, he must have been 12 feet tall. It was most amazing at night seeing him dance among the evening crowed.


Fairies shopping


3 comments:

Laume said...

Fun photos, it's amazing how much there was to see, yes? I'm still putting up Faerieworld photos on my blogs, I took so many!

My hubby would have loved to meet and gab with you about your Smart car. He wants one soooo badly. We went to Europe this spring and there were Smart cars (and his other favorite car, a Mini) EVERYWHERE. The irony is my hubby is 6'4". Go figure.

As for Quiet Camp, it's a bit confusing (although I think if you read all the details, they do explain it at the link from the Faerieworlds site) It's called Quiet Camp because it's the quiet alternative to the partying campers who camp elsewhere for the Oregon Country Fair which is a huge hippy/music/fair/festival that I think took place just the week before FW this year. I've never been, but it's quite famous (or maybe that should be infamous) in the area. It was explained that it wouldn't be quiet for FW. There was a lot of music because a lot of the musicians were camping there. In fact we had a great time watching some of the fire dancers around our group's campsite on Sunday night. I actually liked the flute and drums, I could sleep quite easily. But the drunk people playing loud Euro-techno crap just a couple tents down from us were really annoying. Someone (not us) finally went and threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't turn it off. Apparently they'd fallen asleep. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Looks like you had an awesome time Karen!

April Solomon said...

i looove the faerie pictures! its looks like so much fun. a place of pure acceptance. the costumes are incredible. you look so happy in your faerie wings.
thanx for sharing with us.