Bella Luna...

Harmony Park is place of aesthetic tranquility beyond anything my imagination could have come up with. Most camping is under a huge canopy of trees, as the festival is a comparatively small. This allows for a unique chance at interaction and cooperation with nature when at its most beautiful. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to visit on three occasions (and I hope many more will follow). If you ever have a chance to visit, you need to go!

The festival officially began for us on Thursday night with a quick stop at the Iowa City Yacht Club to see Defined Perception, a band out of Illinois. I thought they started a little slow, but ended up rocking the place, for sure. After a short after-party and even shorter night's sleep, we packed up Grannie Blanch and set out to Harmony Park, MN. We arrived in the late afternoon and immediately started the party. I won't get to into the specifics of the festival, as if you've been to one, you know what it's like; similarly, if you've never been to one, you don't (but you should go to at least one). On Friday, Trampled by Turtles definitely instigated some grass trampling, as you have to dance when these guys play and MMW was MMW, 'nough said. Saturday saw Hunab waking those late sleepers up with a set from 1-2pm. I was so impressed with the draw they had. With all respect to the band that followed them, they lost at least 1/2 the crowd Hunab gathered. The nighttime brought on a surprise from me. I put on a tail and cute hat with cat ears, put on some make-up, and went on the prowl for good times. Down Lo definitely got down and lo while tearing up the place. I will say that I was slightly disappointed with Mike Doughty. He performed with a keyboardist, but most of the songs he played really needed either drums or bass or both. After the music died down, an awesome play involving fire-dancing took place. Wow, I would love to learn that skill some day, so that I may also entertain people with humanity's innate desire to control and simultaneous fear of fire. Sunday saw a tragedy, as the Hunab family had to pack up the festival early to make a show in Cedar Rapids. Stay tuned for more on that...