4Peaks 2018 - Festival Report

We took our now seemingly annual trip to Central Oregon for the 11th 4Peaks Music Festival. This brief post covers the festival part. I'll post separately (as I'm wont to do) about the drive there and back. After you've done an event a few times, the retrospective is really a summary of what changed and what didn't. Rather than just list things that way (which is how I started this post), I'll group things a little bit topically instead.

Location, Location, Location
What is true in real estate, is also so true in music festivals. A big festival at the city dump would be an awful experience no matter how good the music was, just as a festival on the outskirts of Bend with a great view of the Cascade Mountains is going to be a great experience no matter how memorable the bands are. In addition, the new-last-year festival grounds are spacious, allowing everyone spread-out room with large swaths of grassy field between camper sections. For example, from under our canopy we watched kids flying kites in the grass field (easily 20 meters across) between us and the neighboring car-camping zone.

EDIT: 4peaks removed the image of the map from 2018, so rather than have a broken image link, I removed it. I usually do not reference from the source; I usually download it to prevent this, but shit happens. end edit.

New this year was a specialty camp zone designated for camper vans sponsored by GoWesty. It is the light-blue rectangle-ish area pointing at 7 o'clock on the map image to the right here. This scene was orchestrated by "Ziggy", who got the festival to designate the space, found a sponsor, etc. GoWesty just brought an older well-worn Vanagon with an awesome TrailStomper SportsRig trailer and a sign. I think the concept was received well, GoWesty had a good time and I hope, if they do it again, they figure out how to bring some wares to sell to the camper-van community. Anyway, we had RSVP'd for that zone and found ourselves at the gate early enough to get the second spot in from "the Junction". We had set up at the intersection of the Junction last year, and hadn't intended to be so deep in the mix this year, but it turned out to be a great spot: level, near everything (not that anything is too far from anything else) and lots of friendly neighbors. In retrospect, though, I don't think we'll do the Westy-only camp next year.

Why? Consider when you see a beautiful painting on the wall all by itself. You can enjoy that painting, examine it, sit with it. When it is moved into a show with 30 other paintings, you can't help but compare them. A painting that you really liked is now being compare/contrasted with others, and that's not the point of art. I don't want to put Hapy in a spot where he is being weighed against others like that, so we'll just car-camp next year. For those who were walking by, it could have been intimidating. At most festivals, we have walkers-by asking about Hapy, and we love walking folks through it. We had zero non-Vanagon folks stop by this year.

The main festival area was oriented differently this year. The main stage was placed where the side tent was last year, and it pointed towards the camping zone. The tent/side stage was past where the food was last year, and it, too, had the stage facing the camping area. As a result, you could hear both stages if the conditions were right (little wind and no competing music). This made for some really wonderful sun-set and star-gazing in the Junction while listening to the bands.

Music

Every other year, there was a particular band or two that we went 4Peaks to see. This year, I bought the tickets before the lineup was announced, and none of the names really jumped out as the reason to go. Still, the bands were good. We probably saw more of the bands than other years, and we definitely heard more because of how the stages were oriented. Boo and I designated Kimock as our favorite with Maxwell Friedman following in second. Yes, both were on the smaller stage; most of the bands we really enjoyed were. The larger staged bands were good, yes, but the smaller stage had the New Mastersounds, Mojo Green, Chiringa!, Scott Pemberton... On the main stage, Mother Hips wasn't as good as I'd expected, and Poor Man's Whisky had a power outage. Nahko was good and North Mississippi All Stars were too, but, again, not as good as I thought they'd be. Maybe I need to check my expectations. Last band callout: Joe Craven and the Sometimers played a bunch of Grateful Dead tunes and did a really fine job. Of the main-stagers, they alone exceeded expectations.

This year, 4Peaks expanded to a third stage. Sort of. They added a small stage inside the kids' area (called Kidlandia) where singer-songwriters, possibly duets, would play. Unfortunately, this schedule wasn't as well circulated, so if you didn't have kids, you may have missed it entirely. I knew that our Sunday morning favorite Makaila was playing the kid's stage and we were able to grab some of her set. Honestly, she deserved a better setting, and wouldn't be surprised if she bags 4Peaks next year if that's the stage she's offered. With this change, they also abandoned the child performers who used to grace the stage on Sunday morning. I have mixed feelings about that; the kids were great, but Maxwell Friedman and Chiringa! played on Sunday. You can't get everything.

The Junction

The Junction is an intersection of the 2 major car-paths through the festival. Last year, The Furthur bus was parked there. There are a handful of vendors, there is a late-night kids movie after dark and this year highlighted a large figure (it looked like a Jesus fish standing on its tail) that shifted colors. 4Peaks had announced a fourth stage in The Junction, but that didn't materialize. The location of the Junction had moved west from it's location last year, and in so doing moved away from a small wooden stage. That small stage was unmoved, so it was out of the mix and the kids used it like a playground. Maybe that was why live music didn't happen at The Junction. Instead, one of the vendors (Dump City Dumplings) insisted on sporadically playing genre-inconsistent music from their food cart. It was not good. Actually, it just interrupted the music flowing from the stage. Next to them was a coffee and beverage cart that wasn't selling coffee. In the end, the Junction was a step down from what it was last year. Great for star-gazing when the DumpCity folks were between their interruptions.

Overall, we met some great new people, like Chris the coffee-roaster, Rachel the always-working festival staffer (who owned the dark vanagon behind Hapy in the picture above) and Mike-and-Suzie with the overheating Vanagon (just barely in the frame of that same picture). The music was good, the weather was just about perfect and when Sunday afternoon arrived, we really didn't want to leave. I'll post the road report separately; it was an adventure.

So Starts Camping Season 2014

Hapy Memorial Day.  I just got back from a weekend of camping, music and relaxing.  Today's post covers that.

Starting Again

middle row seat = camp couch

It seems like every Spring-Summer, I troll back through this blog to see if I posted a list of stuff to bring camping.  Every year, I'm disappointed that I didn't create such a list.  I have one now... on paper, that I'll try to remember to post.  We knew that where we were going, once we were in, we couldn't leave, but our tickets and camping spot were paid for.  Also, we had almost no money and the only things we could buy while we were there would require cash.  So, with the added pressure, Boo and I set off to plan for a weekend with Hapy.  She's quite experienced with car-camping, so between us, we remembered just about everything.  In the end, we didn't want for anything, and we didn't spend a cent.  We did find that we were the only bay-window bus there, and we spotted 3 Vanagons, including one tin-top.  Hopefully, one of my fellow bus driver/readers will feel inspired to join us next year.

To and Fro

Horning's Hideout

The drive was incredibly easy.  I checked the fuel log and concluded that we didn't need fuel for our round trip.  So, we fired up Hapy and nosed West to Horning's Hideout (North Plains, OR).  He purred the whole way.  Between the spring dampeners, removing the window screens and all the equipment we were carrying, he made almost no noise.  The only racket came from the belly pan when we got near 60mph on the freeway.  The ride home was equally uneventful, enjoying the views out the window, and the music from an iPhone.  The driver's seat belt is becoming problematic.  I may have to break out the wallet and buy a new retractable set, replacing the recycled-from-a-Mercedes set I installed a few years ago.

Horning's Hideout
I hadn't been to Horning's Hideout in probably ten years.  The last time was for the McMenamin's company picnic where a band I was playing with had a spot on one of the smaller stages.  That stage wasn't even there anymore, and you couldn't really tell where it used to be.  I was able to find about where it was based on my memory of the view.  Horning's has had trouble keeping music because of neighbor complaints and unruly patrons.  We were especially grateful that they allowed this multi-band multi-day event take place.  The Hideout hosts a stocked fishing pond and multiple 18 hole disc golf courses.  Our focus was the main stage where 10 bands played over two days.  I'll review the bands in another post.  For now, I'll just focus on the event.

Hootenanny

view from main stage

The Horning's Hideout Hootenanny was the brain-child of Scott McKay over ten years ago.  It started as a birthday party for him, and it's gotten bigger every year.  As Boo and I were saying our "thank you" and "good-bye", he described this year's event as the fulfillment of that dream.  It has been so successful, he's not sure how to move forward.  To grow anymore will require infrastructure, and more staff, probably more rules, and greater restrictions.  Facing that future, he posed that if he didn't do it, 100 people would probably show up anyway.  With the highest turnout ever, I think it also resulted in Scott's least sleep ever and shortest amount of free time to see bands ever as well.  For such a giving guy, it's truly a shame that he wasn't really able to enjoy the beautiful scene he created.  There were craft vendors, multiple food options (including coffee/espresso and smoothies), and even a pot-luck supper on Saturday.  He had the 10 staged bands, but there were pick-up jams happening in the upper camp zone all the time.  There was a 2-day disc golf tournament with prizes down to 10th place in multiple divisions.

I hope Scottie chooses to host this again next year.  Boo and I suggested a few ways to make it work, and he already had a few ideas of his own.  I think we will start with volunteering to help out however we can.  If we can get each attendee to do just one hour of effort for the greater good over the course of the weekend, we can keep the load at a manageable level.  Maybe then, Scott can see some of the bands he booked and not have that 100-mile stare from no sleep and managing chaos all weekend.

Camping
This has already gotten long, but I wanted to touch on how the bus handled camping after a Winter of improvements.  The new deep-cycle battery and supporting electrical systems worked almost perfectly.  The dome light, kitchen lights, and the 12V outlet by the slider door were flawless.  We strung up a set of 12V lights around the awning/canopy for night-time lighting, creating a nice mellow vibe.  The awning hadn't been used in years, and I'd lost the old rain-gutter mounts.  Instead, I used 2 vice-grips to hold the bus-side edge to the top of the pop-top scissor supports.  It ended up higher, and better, than before.  At a stop at Goodwill last weekend, I got a 4' square indoor-outdoor rubber-backed rug for outside the bus door.  I also bought a bolt of 2-tone blue fabric at the same Goodwill stop.  Between bands, Boo cut the material into thirds, creating 3 rectangular strips that perfectly covered the jalousie windows, the front windows and the windscreen.  It was so dark, we slept until 10 on Sunday morning; unheard of in the bus.  Last, we nabbed a full-size bed memory-foam from home, and used that on top of the stock cushions on the rock-n-roll bed.  Sleep was amazing.

That's it for today.  As I mentioned above, I reviewed the bands separately; see these links for day One and Two.  It was a fantastic weekend. Hapy drove flawlessly, the company was spectacular and the energy of the whole event was deliciously mellow.  More next time-

Timing your Purchase

A friend of mine asked me about getting a VW bus this past week.  I thought I'd do a little post about what advice I gave.  T and I spent Saturday playing in the snow on Mt Hood, so I'll write a little about that too.

Spring in the Air, Snow on the Mountain
This has been one of the weirdest ski/snow seasons I can remember in the Pacific NorthWest.  We had virtually no ride-able snow until after the Winter Solstice.  SkiBowl wasn't officially open until well after New Years Eve (and they've been closed since the first weekend in April).  After a lame early and mid-season, the late season snow has really been coming on strong.  I'd seen that Timberline had been getting consistent snowfall last week, so after hosting a family friend from Australia and helicopter-parenting C to an 8:AM lacrosse game, T and I spent Saturday on the mountain.  The roads were wet from the steady rain, SkiBowl looked like late Spring and the Summit ski area looked like a spring meadow.  Our expectations for sliding were quite low.  As we ascended Timberline Highway, though, the rain slowly gave way to wintery-mix and then a steady snow.  The parking lots were nearly empty, but the falling snow wasn't sticking... to the asphalt.  It was definitely sticking to the slopes.

The smaller terrain parks on Thunder and Walt's Way had been taken down, leaving just the jumps.  So, while the high-fliers and hard-core terrain riders played on the big stuff fed by the Stormin' Norman lift, T and I had Thunder and Walt's Way to ourselves.  Neither of us had been on the snow much since his concussion, so it was really nice to just feel the snow under our feet and hang out together again.  As the day wore on, the snow got better, and the jumps less scary.  By the last run, we were both getting air (T doing tricks, me mid-air panicking) and sticking landings consistently.  It was a great day to play in the snow.

Pick One
As I mentioned at the start, I was asked about buying a VW camperbus.  I obviously love the idea.  There are 4 viable used models to choose from: splitty (T1), bay-window (T2-called "bays"), vanagon  (T3) and eurovan (T4, T5).  They all have their upsides and downsides.  Splitties look neat, but they are the most under-powered and probably the most rusty.  They can be very spendy as collector cars since they fell out of production in 1967.  Bays were sold from 1968-1979 in the US and were the most widely built/sold around the globe.  They were manufactured through 2013 in Brasil, making part availability unequaled.  Of the 4 styles, these are probably the least expensive.  The vanagon (1980-1990) is probably the most roomy, or at least it feels the most roomy, and is more powerful than most bays.  Called water-leakers by many, the early cooling systems are prone to rusting and failing.  Still, the Synchro (all-wheel-drive version) is really cool, and the camping portion of the vanagon is well done when compared to the bay (especially the early bays).  The Eurovan (T4 1990-2003, T5 2003-current) doesn't feel like you're driving a bus, but the interiors are very nice.  It could be the most reliable on the day of purchase, but also the most expensive to maintain, and it still feels like a standard mini-van behind the wheel.

When to Buy, When to Sell
Once you've chosen a target vehicle make/model, the next most important step is deciding when to buy it.  While this may not seem terribly important, it very much is.  You could considerably overpay if your timing is wrong.  I'm kind of a used-car market geek, trolling craigslist and eBay alot, and I've noticed distinct patterns.  We are entering the worst time of year to buy a car.  Car dealers hold "dad's and grad's" sales, so you'd think there would be excess inventory they are selling off.  In reality, there are lots of buyers in the market heading into Summer, and the car lots are trying to get those shoppers.  Who doesn't want a new-to-them car to play with all Summer?  Lesson to shopper: wait.  Wait until July when the price spike starts to pass.  As Summer wears on, prices drop until they bottom out in October.  By then, anyone who wants to get rid of a car before Winter is willing to take a loss rather than store it.  What remains after mid-October are cars held by sellers who think their car is worth more than it is, or very unusual cars which hold their value, but are only interesting to a niche market.  Over the Winter, the supply is thin so prices stay somewhat stable; not at late-Summer deal prices, but not as high as late-Spring either.  By March, prices start to climb again.  So, if you want to buy a bus, wait until the end of the Summer when the last guy who had that dream has decided he doesn't want to deal with it over the Winter.  Deal for you, and they found a new loyal owner.

That's it for today.  Sorry I didn't have any pictures of us playing in the snow.  We were too focused on enjoying the conditions to record how good it was.  Seriously, there's still snow in them thar hills.  Go play while you still can!