nelsonville MF

got back late last night from the nelsonville music festival in scenic hocking hills, near athens, ohio.  awesome times, really tired.  here's my recount.  enjoy!

the crew:  cabiners were gregg [the best man] + fiancé emily, kevin + allee, me + mike.  also from cincinnati, we had dan + leah, chris + kristen, dan [who owns the fabulous park + vine, cincinnati's green general store], steve, alena, jenny, timmy, as well as a few others.  i will list them as soon as i can remember.  :)

the cabin:  we stayed at the settle down cabins.  it was a lovely place [at first, i'll get to that later, though] with an equipped kitchen, 4-6 person hot tub, a grill, a firepit, a picnic table, and at least 2-3 sleeping areas surrounded by woods.  very private.  pretty affordable.  the pros:  close proximity to the fest [about 6 mi], nothing like the campgrounds at the festival, indoor sleeping for up to 6, shower and a hot tub to soak your tired festival feet, clean, all towels/plates/cups/etc provided, cable tv [that we didn't even turn on], secluded, etc.  the cons:  the hornets nest on the porch [bee allergy - yikes!], the brown recluse that was found on the futon/sleeper [yikes again!], the long, hilly, windy road leading to the cabin and the tiny, not-quite-visible-from-the-road sign indicating you've arrived at the cabin, the shotty craftsmanship that left no mystery when other folks are peeing or brushing their teeth, and a queen bed that felt somewhat like you were sleeping on bags of trash covered with rubber sheets disguised as a mattress.  not the most comfortable.  and loud.  any movement will be heard by other guests, so keep that in mind if you stay with other folks.  onto the festival part.

the festival:  good turnout but not terribly crowded, which i loved.  parking was very close to the stages [great for an injured handi-girl], and if you're a camper, that was really close too.  good food options [my faves include o'bettys red hot weenies, the funnel cake, seriously a-mazing poutine, and cold-brew iced coffee. ahhh...], i was actually able to have a chair and close to bands/artists, and the line-up was terrific.  the beer was sort of terrible - the choices were marietta brewing company, jackie o's, crap domestics from anheuser busch and pbr.  apparently marietta and jackie o's are typically good breweries, according to our resident in-tow beer distributor/brewer/snob gregg, but those places musta sent their swill, because i was resigned to drinking the pbr due to it's superior flavor.  yes, it was that bad.  and the vendors.  tents full of hippie junk/clothing and really bad paintings, for the most part, but they had decent vinyl [according to my vinyl-loving fiancé] and the merch tent was solid, so if you go and hate hippie garbage, avoid the rest of it.  one more thing:  the weather was perfect.  i mean, perfect.  warm and sunny, but breezy, no rain, the sort of weather that makes you want to nap outside.  it could not have been better.  let's talk music now, shall we?

the music:  the new finds were moon high and samantha crain.  both were really great.  the bigs were big, however.  friday's closer was man man.  they were high energy, lots of fun.  everyone was dancing.  that was my third time seeing them, and they just keep getting better and better.  awesome show.  saturday's 1st highlight was seeing loretta lynn live.  yes, you read that right.  loretta lynn.  the coal miner's daughter.  country legend.  now that was pretty crazy.  her stuff was awesome, but i will say this:  she needs to leave her drunk, attention whore children at home and far, far away from her set.  i get it, she's old.  she can't do a whole set.  that's fine.  what she doesn't need, however, is the circus-y filler provided by her talentless, coattail-riding, drunk and fame-hungry adult children.  they.  were.  terrible.  not only that, but it sort of ruined the whole 'seeing loretta lynn live' thing for me.  it was a darn shame.  my grandpa would have been so sad about it.  the biggest surprise of saturday was ms. sharon jones and the dap kings.  my god.  i knew it would be good, i just didn't know it would be good like that.  it was fantastic, VERY high energy, lots of fun, tons of dancing, an encore that wasn't supposed to happen, they were a-mazing.  they are actually playing in the tri-state monday night, but from what i heard tonight, i think it's sold out, which is sad, because everyone should see them.  yes, everyone.  they were that good.  swell season played sunday, to close out the festival, which was perfect.  they are excellent live, and very engaged with their audience.  great show.  just so great.  i felt 'included' at this show, which is rare for indie-rock shows, as most musicians are somewhat aloof to the fact that you've just paid $xx to see them play.  it was refreshing.  you may be saying to yourself, "jill, where have i seen these two before?"  well, if you've seen the movie 'once', that's where.  and that part was quite apparent at the festival.  glen hansard [the dude, also from 'the frames'] was sitting in the grass less than 10 feet away from where mike + i were chilling for one of the shows.  we witnessed many a rabid fan swarm him, armed with cds, dvds and sharpies, when it was clear that all the poor guy wanted to do was see a show while he was there.  poor thing.  we were so disgusted by it that we relocated.  we wanted to catch drakkar sauna, but it was packed, so we didn't.  next time.

so that's the jam.  all in all, great time.  LOTS of cincy representation, so that was also very cool.  met some other cool people.  you should go next year, regardless of the lineup, as it was quite a pleasant festival experience.  be warned that there are quite a few hippies there, however, and that hula hoops seem to be the current 'glow stick'.  otherwise, it was a blast.

mad love to all of cincy who helped make the weekend fun for me.  you know who you are.  <3

stay tuned this week to see how jill will turn a basic anthropologie headband into an appropriate piece of head-garb for the big day!  it's DIY mayhem!