Flaps Off The Side Of The Moon

[bradm]

The sun had come up about half an hour ago...I was moseying (almost shuffling) back to the tent...as I crested the hill, I turned and looked over a vast expanse of tree-covered hills, the rising sun off to my left, the full moon still up (like me, awake all night) to the right...I thought that if I could spread my arms out far enough, I could grasp both of them at the same time, and juggle them like a cosmic busker. It was magical, gorgeous (literally: I wanted to gorge myself on the beauty), peaceful, and serene.

The Flaps festival takes place in a seriously great venue. It's out Hwy. 60, about 30km past Eganville, and set in a hilly area. The JamBand stage is almost an amphitheatre, with a dance area right in front of it (which also serves as a thoroughfare to the kitchen/vending area), and then a hill that rises at about 45 degrees, with a few rows of seats carved out of it. The Drum & Bass stage is off the side, in an open field, and the Psy-Trance (sp?) stage is tucked away in the forest, down a winding narrow path. doubleB and I got there about 9:30pm, and took a walk around before setting up our tents. We went down the path in pitch-blackness, just as Christmas lights were being added to the path, which transformed the walk from a perilous experience of bumping into people into a magical stroll through flickerland.

There were three main stages (Drum & Bass, Psy-Trance, and Jam Band) at Flaps, with a part-time coffee house (open) stage, and a part-time Ambient stage. (Low Roller [and his friend Pete {?}], who left Saturday to see Tool, came back Sunday morning, and after walking around, got a couple of ground sheets/pads, and headed for the Ambient stage to get some sleep.) The stages were fairly close together, so you could easily go back and forth between them for a little variety; if you stood in the right place, you could almost hear all three of them, and juggle your attention like some cosmic DJ, mixing the sound from the stages in your head.

I spent most of my stage time at the Jam Band stage. The first act I remember was Chris Colepaugh & The Cosmic Crew who, as usual, put on a blistering show. If you've seen Colepaugh before, you know what I'm talking about. Outdoors, the fun is amped up even more than usual, and they kicked some serious ass (and, IIRC, did a whole bunch of teases near the end, including "Stairway To Heaven").

Ferriswheeler came on about 3:30am, to do the run til dawn. I was wondering how a band could follow Colepaugh, and Ferris stepped up and did it. This was full Ferris, with Al, and my respect for them as performers has grown to epic proportions. Forget how well they were playing at dawn, the fact that they were standing at all is amazing. I'd seen the new Ferris a few times before, but this was the best yet. Highlights for me would be the "We're a band..." song (what's the name of this?) and the Drum & Bass survivors walking by as Ferris broke into the "We're A Country Band" / "That's All Right Mama" part, us giving them the "Make Shit Up!" chant around 6am, Al bustin' out the Cypress Hill (who knew?), the didgeridoo (sp?) guest during "Hey Julie", and, of course, that Beatles tune they played about 6:30am. dave-O gave hugs all around to those who had managed to stay through the end.

That's about all I can remember to type right now. There's loads more to mention, including the Psy-Trance stage, the seriously chill vibe, the food, and more about the venue. doubleB & Low Roller, please add whatever you're capable of remembering.

Aloha,

Brad

[arcane]

My kid is turning into a DancingFool.

[bradm]

Well, he's added "Dancing" to the list of "Foolishnesses"...

Arcane points out something else cool about this fest: it's incredibly kid-friendly. Young'uns were everywhere, there were special kid activities, people herding them around, and such a cool and friendly vibe that you felt they were safe and not being exposed to any nasty stuff that may have been going on. They had an area of "quiet" tenting, out of the range of sound of the stages, so kids (and adults) could get some sleep at night whilst all the partying was going on.

Aloha,

Brad

[Guest Low Roller]

Wow, what a week-end! I went to work this morning just so I can get some rest (relateively speaking).

The Flaps festival was off the page. Firstly the venue is one of the greatest layouts you could ask for.

- There was a huge even field that served its purpose as a parking lot.

- The camp ground had tons of little nooks and crannies to hide your tent in to avoid turning your tent into a sauna during the day.

- The stages, oh my God, the stages... The smallest stage was the Ambient/Experimental stage that was tucked away in the far corner of the venue. I did not venture that far, and only hung around that area on Sunday morning, like Bradm described it, to take a nap. The "Bass-is For Change" stage was probably the most diverse, as DJs spun Drum and Bass, Jungle, Hyper Reggae, and in the mornings some James Brown driven funk. Some free-styling broke out on Friday night when I was passing by. The Psytrance stage was the big money-maker for this festival as the rave was going non-stop from the time I got there, to the time I left. A surreal stage set-up for this area, that is for sure. For starters, the stage is in a clearing, and you need to follow a narrow path, guided only with tiny glistening christmas lights, to get there. Once you arrive you know you have entered a different world, as black lights and psychadelic visuals circle the clearing, with an obelisk protruding from the ground in the centre of the area. DJs were spinning seamless sets of some of the most intense Goa and Psytrance I have ever heard. Bradm did a fairly accurate description of the Jamband stage, but I would just like to add that watching the stage from the top of the hill added an element to a live show, that I don't think I have ever experienced.

That's JUST the venue. Later on, I'll go into detail about the bands, the workshops, and the people that attended the festival. Did all the various party-goers co-exist? Did the OPP presence thwart people from doing drugs? Did Dave-O NEARLY fall over on stage at 5 in the morning? Stay tuned for my next post!

[bouche]

Cool guys. Nice report.

How many people were there?

[bradm]

I heard somewhere around 800 (possibly inflated; YMMV). It could have accommodated a lot more.

Aloha,

Brad

[h]

ya, it looked like it was going to be really great - i was checking out their website, and discussion board etc. last week, they looked like they were working REALLY hard to think of all the little details (i.e. the christmas lights etc.) there was a discussion going on at that time about cool activities for the kids.

So i knew that with that much enthusiasm, it should be good.

I think next year might be a good year for me to check that one out for sure. kid will be just that little bit older then...

[bradm]

They did have a lot of the details right. For example, in both the kitchen area and at the PsyTrance stage, they had "electrolyte water" available (for free!). (In the kitchen area, it had a sign on it that read "If you're thirsty, drink this. It may not taste yummy, but you'll feel better.")

Aloha,

Brad

[arcane]

The tag-teaming was a communal effort in our corner of the tent area at all times, except maybe first thing in the morning when everyone seemed to be asleep.

[arcane]

And then there was the little girl that brought her pet snapping turtle ... I thought she'd found the thing on site, until she brought out the plastic box it lived in.

The kids weren't the only beings that were free-ranging. The four-legged vacuum cleaners must have been emitting some colourful gasses after hanging around the (vegan) kitchen tent.

Dog. Broccoli. You do the math.

[h]

oh, i thought it was no pets allowed.

[arcane]

Uh, yeah, sure :> Like it was "no alcohol allowed," but the organizers put out big recycling bins clearly labelled "Beer Cans."

It's hard to say no to a very friendly golden retriever that's big enough to eat your face (or at least lick it off).

[arcane]

I'm not sure why one of the nubile, young hardbodies referred to my son as "Little Buddha." Mind you, by the end of the weekend, these folks were probably deeply suspicious of me for not letting my ADD son become one of the free-range rugrats. After seeing Tank Girl--with her prominent set of toy guns--co-oped into searching for a misplaced rugrat, I figured, ehhhhhh, no, I'm not willing to let my distractable kid run THAT loose. I did give him a fair bit of latitude, and ended up having to track him down several times, just between the tent and the car. More than that, and I'd have been calling in the North Bay police.

The ambulatory scenery was interesting, to say the least. I, in my boots and bush pants, must have come across as being more than a little right-wing

[h]

ha ha, ya, that's a little what i was afraid of, i cant control him in the cereal isle half the time, i didnt know what would happen in that type of scenerio!

do you guys have any pics at all?

nubile young hardbodies though eh? maybe a babysitter might be the better idea...

[bradm]

I think one concern with bringing kids is that, since a lot of the action happens at night, if you can't do a tag-team on watching them during sleepytime, you're going to miss a lot.

During the day, it looked like the kids were being taken care of pretty well. I was at the bubble-making thing with Arcane, and we saw one of the fest staff walking off with about four rugrats trooping behind him, like baby ducks or goslings trailing their mother. (One of the other staff commented about this being a good test of potential parenthood...since he only came back with two [the other two came back on their own, no fear], he only passed the first part of the test. :-)

Aloha,

Brad