Thursday morning we got up bright and early to start our duties. It dawned sunny so that meant hot and humid all day. A little sun burning, some tired muscles, but lots of fun ensued that day. Meanwhile the setup crew arrived to set up their own camps in anticipation of starting their duties on Friday. The annual ‘Carpenters Ball’ is always held on Thursday night to welcome everyone and initiate the newbies with foot rubs, back rubs, fruit etc… it’s really not a bad thing at all but sort of a bribe for the hard work that lays ahead of them!
Friday morning we got up bright an early again – but this time it was cloudy and overcast and slightly drizzly. This did not however, dampen our spirits or the work that needed to get done. So we finished up our sign work while the set up crew started setting up 10x20 shelters. We went into town that afternoon to restock our supplies and wash our muddy clothes.
Saturday morning was again rainy and it had rained all night so there was definitely some mud happening. Wood chips had been secured in town for the walkways in our camp. We had a few tweaks to signs (the directory always has something that needs to be moved!) Some of the vendors start arriving and setting up their booths and part of the layout crew’s job is to greet them and help them get settled. The coordinators for the event started arriving and setting up their camps as well. Later in the afternoon all of the coordinators (which included Bill and I as we coordinate the Labyrinth on Wednesday night) had a meeting. The safety plan was discussed as well as the disaster plan.
Sunday morning – this is when the gates officially open for festival participants. We all greeted them with “Welcome Home!” and any newbies (we call them virgins) rang the virgin bell. Since there were approximately 200 of us already on site, the remaining 700 for the event all came in that morning. As you can imagine it’s quite a bit of chaos! We had our first meeting as a tribe that evening where coordinators are introduced, roll call of where everyone is from, and general announcements are made. As the coordinators lined up to introduce themselves it started to rain. Later I found that someone who was recording from across the pond captured a funnel cloud above us. It never touched down but in hindsight – what a scary thought!
Monday we had our first Morning meeting of the tribe where we usually get announcements for the day and a bit of entertainment from the musicians that will be on stage that evening. It again started raining during the meeting so we cut it short. Workshops filled the day and as I was just getting into the final workshop at 4:30 we got the announcement that a major storm front was eminent and that the creek was flooding. The disaster plan was put into effect. When we got back to the campsite to tell everyone to move their cars out of the parking area, we found out that the large field where were have the labyrinth was already flooded and some of our group’s tents were in danger. So we headed to the field to help and OMG! There was already 3 feet of water! We managed to get our friends tents and belongings out before they got flooded but a lot of people were not so fortunate. Many cars were lost in the parking area and several tents were ruined. A tree fell on a camper that was not in the RV area but camped near the flood zone. No loss of life or injuries though so that we are thankful for that. We stood in horror watching the flood waters rise and breach the road between the field and the pond. Suddenly we had one big lake where there should have been grass and tents. The sense of community that day was amazing – everyone pitched in to help get as many camps and possessions to high ground – it lasted all night!
Tuesday morning a mandatory morning meeting was called where we were told that for safety reasons the festival had been canceled and that evacuation would begin immediately. There were three phases – those that were displaced or in danger of further flooding were to pack up and leave immediately. Next was the RV area which we were in and finally the setup crew would pack up all of the 10x20s’ and other equipment and leave.
We got out on Wednesday afternoon. We had to be pulled out as the mud had gotten very deep and the truck even with four wheel drive could not do it alone. Fortunately, someone had a winch. We packed up our muddy mess of a camp and headed home getting home around 10:00 that evening.
The rest of my vacation (which was to last until this morning) was a study in what to do. In 16 years I’ve never been home for the summer solstice! I am always at PSG. We of course first unloaded everything and took the camper back down to the property. We will be cleaning it up this coming weekend. We went to the Cahokia Mounds to watch the sunrise (which was obscured by clouds and an incoming storm), went to breakfast, took naps and watched movies on Sunday.
I still feel let down as my vacation never actually happened. I’m grateful for the lessons learned and the fact that no one was hurt but the tremendous loss that everyone felt was overwhelming to say the least.
