ONE WITH COMFEST

This retirement thing is working out real well. I was just a volunteer at Comfest this year. No organizing, no endless meetings, no stressing about getting things ready or worrying about how they are going, no suffering from the obsessive/compulsive disorder known as Comfest-on-the-brain for six months. Just show up on the last full weekend of June and do my shifts as MC, legal observer and late night garbage man, get my tee-shirts and tokens, drink all the beer I want and cruise around the park, stopping at a stage just long enough to get a taste or staying longer if I hear something really good, hardly losing any forward momentum while exchanging “Happy Comfest” greetings, handshakes and hugs and gliding away when the show is over. Just how I always imagined it could be all those years when I was working or on-call. I always knew that Comfest was the most beautiful coming together of people in the most laid-back, peaceful, comfortable, happy, respectful, friendly atmosphere imaginable, that it was Heaven on Earth. But this year, I felt like I was part of the crowd who came there to enjoy it instead of someone serving the crowd and observing them from the outside. And that felt really good to be a part of that group. I am now one of the people for whom I used to work so hard. I am now one of the people who is so thankful to the organizers who make it all happen.

As I meandered about, I was definitely aware I was missing that feeling of pride I used to get surveying the wonder we had wrought, the magnificent Village of Joy we had built, the ephemeral Brigadoon we had magically conjured. I kept correcting people who were thanking me, only grudgingly conceding that l might have had some lasting influence on the proceedings. What I found surprising was that even though I wasn’t proud of myself, it didn’t keep me from being totally blissed out about how beautiful it all was. I felt the same pride about my community, my people, my local music and my beautiful Goodale Park that I always had. It didn’t seem like I was missing that much. I was content to just be a part of it and to sing its praises. I lost myself in that sea of humanity, my Comfest identity dissolved and I was one with Comfest.



Observations and photos for Comfest 2011:
 Best performance: Tim Easton, Aaron Tasjen, J. P. Olsen and The Madison Square Gardeners

Most Improved Bands:
                                                                         Wing & Tusk

Way Yes

Most Amazing New Musician: Professor Spira (N. Michael Goecke)


Best Dressed: Michelle Ishida with Mary Adam 12




Best way to begin the day at Comfest: The Spikedrivers



Best View of a Costume Change: Rachel of Openheart Art (not usually dressed this conservatively)




Best New Act: The Ferals




Best Veteran Act: Tony Monaco (pictured with Derek DiCenzo)

 
                      
Handsomest Baby at Comfest: Raad Page



Happy Comfest!