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Phoenix Festival (US Pacific NW)



Re: Phoenix Festival  July 3-7  near Portland OR

This talk about BurningMan reminded me I should mention an event of
potential interest to those in the Pacific NW that appreciate BM.  Phoenix
Festival is a regional festival partly inspired by BM. This is the 3rd and
last of a 3 year run for the organizers. I went last year and had a great
time, and will be there this year as well. It happens on July 3-7 about an
hour east of Portland, in Southern Washington State not far from the
Columbia River.

Although the intent of the festival is open ended and encouraging of
'make-your-own-fun' theme camps, most of the people show up with just
camping gear and dance and party at one of the several DJ sound stages.  As
a result its a lot more sedate than BM. Last year had attendance of at 
least
1000.

Some folks do make a nice theme camp out of it though. We had a 30' 
diameter
dome in which I hosted a lot of music jams last year.  We had a generator,
small PA, electric looping gear as well as acoustic instruments including
lots of hand drums.  It was a ball, partly because by happen-stance some
other musicians were there and we jammed a lot.  That's the catch. The
number of people attending is a bit below critical mass, and like I say 
most
people are going to party, not to create an art happening. But enough do
create some artistic mayhem of one sort or another to make it a worthwhile
experience.

This year I have been planning on not even taking electric looping gear,
focusing rather on trying to make some drum circles happen. That has been
well received and I expect some good drum jams to happen. I also do plan to
bring acoustic instruments in the event other musicians are floating 
around.

I would love to see somebody create an electric looping theme camp of some
kind. I would bring gear to participate in that if it happened, but am not
planning on organizing such. The environment is much saner than BM, very
dry, fairly warm, but no dust storms or anything :). An electric looping
village would require some kind of shelter, generators, and such. (That's
why I'm expecting to just go acoustic this time)

Anyway, if you live in the Pacific NW and would like to attend a mellow
regional festival with a 'wee bit' of the Burning Man vibe, this is well
worth considering.

Here are some links :
main:             http://www.phoenixfest.com/
description:    http://www.phoenixfest.com/about.html
FAQ:            http://www.phoenixfest.com/faq.html

anybody wants to know more or hook up around this, drop me a line off list.

Bob Campbell
Seattle area
rcc@nwlink.com