plaid and tie-dye, together at last.

My siblings and I recently made the jaunt up the Santa Barbara area

for the annual KCBX fundraiser - Live Oak Music Festival.

As our dad is a performing musician, we've been attending this event since we were young,

which makes it doubly enjoyable to go back to the event and recall past years' shenanigans -

dancing carelessly in the dirt, running around barefooted, wielding bubble-wands or streamers,

and laughing ourselves senseless at the sights of some

of the classic festival-goers... and there ARE some classic ones.

It's actually pretty amazing - this event seems to hold the reputation

of removing any and all of the "accepted" sartorial standards

(hence the title of this post: the tie-dye and plaid combo seems to be a popular one),

as well as playing the role of a grounds exempt from social judgement,

which is pretty much how I remember it from my younger days.

Not much has changed since those days, but a few things that I noticed

that have are as follows:

1) The once-classic Birkenstock sandal has now been replaced

by the neo-water-walker, commonly known as the 'barefoot running shoe'...

(No comment.)

2) There is now free wine tasting and

cold beverages on tap in the musician's area.

(Awesome.)

3) Now that we're 'big-kids', we have the know-how and absolute stealth

to elude the ukulele-playing, straw-hat-wearing security guards,

defeat barricades of barbed wire and rot-oak, and evade thick forests of poison sumac,

all in the name of discovering the perfect swimmin' hole.

{Best thing I've done all year.}

Here are a few more snapshots from the day...

{I felt like I should have taken this guy to the Lost and Found...}

{We must have missed the crochet beanie memo}

{parents are...where?}

{communal snacks - the best kind}

{Eat then nap, then repeat, then nap.}

{A sixty-some year-old man made it his duty to jog the premises

wielding an electric bubble-gun...}

{My sister put it best - blackberries soaked in wine are better than blackberries not soaked in wine - IT'S SCIENCE.}

{My Wally. Happy Father's Day, Pop}

{My dad's band, the Cache Valley Drifters have been together for

nearly forty years now, and performing at Live Oak for almost as long.

I may be biased, but it's the truth when I say that they are, by far, my favorite band.}

{prime real estate}

{driving home, with dirt on our feet, and bluegrass in our hearts}

Overall, it's a great event, filled with excellent music and incredibly happy campers...

If you ever find yourself in the area around Father's Day weekend, stop on by -

you'll see what they mean by their ongoing tenet:

Peace. Love. Dirt.