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Monday 18 July 2011

Bluesfest Bows Out

We have a gigantic music festival for 12 days in July; it's loud and exciting and it's like a little village just the other side of the street and a bit to the left.  Except for last night.

Last night we had huge winds, hail, driving rain, whirling garbage, fallen trees, mobile but driverless bicycles and frantic music fans.  It was really quite scary.

Because it was so hot yesterday, we had closed the windows and patio doors and had the A/C going, which has the effect of shutting out the music from the 4 stages, so I was surprised to hear a whining noise outside followed by rumbles, abetted by the noise of the temporary fence along the bike path coming loose from the uprights and whipping around the neighbourhood.  Our plants and garden ornaments were whirling down the slight grade towards the path and people were streaming across the street, some fighting the high wind and staggering along in front of our place.

I motioned a few people up to the sheltered part of the patio and we stood in awe as branches and paper, umbrellas and unrecognizable flapping things went past us, and they told me how the walls of the main stage, where they had been, just shuddered and fell back onto the road, hanging in long enough for Cheap Trick to get somewhere safe.

Soon the sidewalks were full of scurrying people (apparently thousands had been taken into the museum) and the streets were full of cars, bikes, motorcycles and emergency vehicles, with the appropriate lights and honking and sirens.

It was all very exciting, which somehow guilted me.  There were a few minor injuries, but people kept going by drenched and shaken for another hour and a half, at least.

I managed to find all our paraphenalia, including a footlong cast-iron dragonfly which could certainly have wreaked havoc, but instead lay, one wing embedded, in the grass next door. 

For some reason, I had stayed in my wet clothes, unable to feel comfortable about being safe in my house, peering through the patio doors to see if anyone needed help.  Except for the few who joined me right at the beginning, no one did.

This morning, it's still raining but it's the soft kind of rain, the sun is streaking weakly through the gray sky and coffee seems like a good idea.




 

7 comments:

  1. Due to the miracles of Flickr I found out about the stage shortly after it happened but none of the details of course. Our wind came a bit later, I think, and we also had to rescue runaway planters.

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  2. That sounds crazy!! Glad your OK :D

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  3. OH, my goodness! I'm glad you guys are okay. I saw the headline about Cheap Trick's stage collapsing, but didn't read the article. Crazy!

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  4. So glad no one was hurt, and thanks for the virtual "front row seat."

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  5. Wow!!!!! How it rain on such an excellent event!!!! I'm glad you weren't hurt!

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  6. ahh Lorna, you are such a good soul!

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  7. I saw this on CNN never dreaming this was right by your house. Very scary. So, you are getting that God-awfull midwestern heat, too. I hate to tell you, but it's so gorgeous in So Cal today.

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