Previous Episodes:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 

When I was little, my parents bought some property in Powhatan County right on the James River.  To me it’s a magical place full of memories, secrets and secret memories.  It’s really just natual forest land, with some trails that we’ve cut to get to certain key spots, like the “top of the hill”, the “old home sight”, “Daffy Duck’s Fantasy Island” (which was just a tiny waterfall in a creek).  As a family we would go out there every couple of months and camp.  It was real camping, too.  No running water, no electricity, pooping in the woods, wiping with poison ivy, cooking over open fires, etc.  Sometimes, my stepdad and I would just go out there and build dangerously big fires for no reason at all.  We had an old ATV 3-wheeler that we’d ride around way too fast, crash into trees and flip over.  My brother and I built a tree fort, and a deck/dock over the river for my mom one Mother’s Day so she could get in and out of the water more easily, although I’m pretty sure she never used it.  I could go on and on about the nostalgia I have for this place, but I’ll go ahead and tell the story now.  I think it’s an appropriate story for the start of festival season.

Once I had moved back to Richmond after college, and Newman was in full force, I finally gave in to everyone’s demands to throw a big party out there with bands and kegs and camping…. a private festival of sorts.  The place was perfect for it.  There’s a big football field sized piece of land right next to the river, that’s almost completed shaded by the surrounding trees except for one thirty foot radius in the middle.  Having this party had always presented a lot of obstacles, the biggest one being that my stepdad would never allow it for legitimate liability reasons.  So, we decided that he should know nothing about it.  Fortunately, but this time in his life, he had stopped going out there as much as he used to, so a surprise visit from him was really unlikely. 

So, I committed to the idea and the planning began.  We picked a weekend in June when nothing else was going on, and started asking local bands to play.  Surprisingly, getting bands to agree to play in the middle of the woods to a small crowd for free, really isn’t that hard.  We had decided that we wouldn’t charge anyone to go to the event, as that presented more, bigger legal issues, like providing porta potties and ambulatory services.  We weren’t gonna do that.  So, we convinced the bands that it would just be fun for everyone, and some how we got four bands to commit, Javaquarium, Newman, Beaver Traffic Jam, and Man Mountain Jr..  Each band would be responsible for bringing thier own crowd out there, providing maps and directions to whoever needed it. 

The directions were simple.  Head West on Rt. 6 (Patterson Ave) and follow the blue circles.  We made signs have two symbols, a big blue circle and an arrow.  We set up the signs along the way to direct people to the show.  Basically, if you knew to follow the blue circles, you’d find your way to the the “Blue Circle Festival”. 

Finally, the day came, and we had everything ready.  People started rolling in and setting up tents.  The first band, Javaquarium started playing around 4 pm.  People were dancing around, throwing frisbees, swimming in the river, and just having a good time.  More people started to show up.  Beaver Traffic Jam started to play around 7.  People were cooking out, laying on blankets, throwing frisbees, and swimming in the river, and just having a good time (the picture is from the actual event, click for a bigger view).

By the time BTJ had finished, the sun had gone down.  It was time for Newman to play, and we lit the bonfire, which almost killed the guy who did, but that’s another story.  We finished around midnight, and cleared the way for Man Mountain Jr.  Thier bass player, BJ, did most of their booking.  He was a guy that I used to run into around town fairly frequently.  Eventually, I convinced him that MMJr should play.  He was pretty excited about it, except his one reservation was that they didn’t want to be the band that played last when everyone was passing out.  They were arguably the best band of the four, and definitely had the widest fan base, so we scheduled for them to play last and to start around 11.  But things had run long, each band wanted to “play one more”, and it just hadn’t worked out that way.  Besides, their keyboard player had just showed up at 11:45. 

After Newman’s set, I was exhausted from a long day of drinking, working in the sun to keep everything running smoothly, and the 2 hour show I had just played.  I sat down on a blanket to watch MMJr tear it up.  I woke up an hour later.  Thankfully, they were still playing.  I looked around, and everyone around me was lying down or asleep, no one could be seen walking around the field.  A few people could be heard swimming in the river, but that was it.  At 1 am, everyone at the Blue Circle Festival had gone to bed. 

They finished playing and I went up to say good show and help break stuff down.  They were pissed.  Understandably, too.  It was 1:30 and they’d just hauled all thier gear 50 miles to set up in the woods to play for sleeping people…. for free.  I struggled to do what I could to help break everything down and pack it in thier van.  Finally, they drove off around 2:30 am, and I climbed in my tent an passed the F out.

The next few times I saw BJ again after that, he snubbed me.  I didn’t really feel like I owed him an apologie.  After all, he did know what he was getting into, his band hadn’t brought anyone to see the play, and the keyboard player was an hour later than he should’ve been.  I never wanted to say it was thier own fault that they played for no one that night, but they certainly didn’t do anything to make it otherwise. 

The bottom line is that everyone who went to the Blue Circle Festival had a great time.  I know I did.  About 200 people had found thier way back to see the bands.  There was a lot of turnover throughout the day, as people came to see thier favorite band and then left.  About 50 people actually camped out.  But ther crowd was good.  No one got hurt, and everyone got to see some great free music in my favorite place in the world.  And 10 years later, my stepdad still is none the wiser.

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