Loose Leaf Notes

1. I drink a beer every day. But only when I’m  at Floydfest. It’s a five-day festival, so do the math.

2. Floydfest Funhouse or too much IPA?

3. Every day at Floydfest is my favorite. Every picture, every scene and every connection with friends felt cherished and full of history this year because it was the last festival on the 20-year site (new location in Floyd County coming in 2023). Endings are bittersweet and I can’t find a path to the chicken coop for the garden pumpkins and weeds at home. I feel grateful for the past 20 years at Floydfest, a truly magical place, and I’m wishing all the best for all those who will be working hard over this year to create something awesome for 2023… More from The Floydfest Beat Goes On HERE.

4. “Our slogan has always been, ‘Music, Magic, Mountains.’ And this year we’re adding another ‘M’ — ‘Memories,’” says Sam Calhoun, COO of Across the Way Productions, the company behind FloydFest. “With the new location, we really feel like we can capture what we want to do, to ensure the whole community we’ve created together here has more space and amenities for an even better experience moving forward.” According to Calhoun, the current site is 80 acres, whereas the new property is over 200. Calhoun looks at the transition as an opportunity to hit the reset button on the festival following the shutdown of the live music industry during the pandemic. “We’re going to use all of the systems and knowledge we’ve gained over the last 20 years and apply it to this new property,” Calhoun says.” – Story on Floydfest in the Rolling Stone

5. I once had a friend who got divorced after her husband ordered her a coke in a restaurant. She never drank coke and felt it was a major insult that he cared so little about knowing her. The coke was the final straw.

6. Speaking of straws, the first time I got drunk I was a teenager and drank a rum and coke with a straw because it was supposed to make you drunk quicker. I got very sick and rarely drink liquor to this day. So that was a last straw too.

7. I once rode by a house with a series of red towels hanging on a clothesline and wondered if they would provoke the bulls in the neighboring field.

8. Floydfest clothesline

9. We picked Friday for our family day at Floydfest because it was Morgan Wade’s Floydfest homecoming and she was playing on the main stage Friday evening. Morgan is Floyd’s own rising star who made a connection with Sadler Vaden (Jason Isbell’s guitarist who produced her first album) while playing Floydfest in 2018. Of course, the whole county of Floyd is fans of Morgan’s including my daughter-in-law. What fun it was to sing-along and hang out next to a group of her old school friends who could barely contain themselves. There was some cross talk with the audience, including with her grandma of course, and some donuts delivered on stage after Morgan mentioned hearing about them. More HERE.

10. And from the Rolling Stone magazine: “Following her mainstage set at FloydFest last weekend, in front of a raucous crowd of thousands, singer-songwriter Morgan Wade takes a seat on a couch backstage. Between sips of coffee, a slight grin emerges on her face when asked what the performance meant to her. “I grew up about three miles from here,” the 27-year-old “Wilder Days” singer tells Rolling Stone, “so I was able to get my dad to drop me off today, which was really nice…” “The last time I played I didn’t have an agent or a manager. I didn’t have a label. I didn’t have any of that,” says Wade. “And I said, ‘The next time I play FloydFest, it’s going to be the main stage, and I’m going to have my bus and have a team.’ I rolled up here [today] and I did it.” – Garret K. Woodward, Rolling Stone.

11. “Dreams are the natural reaction of the self-regulating psychic system. When we dream, the ongoing effort of our psyche to balance itself takes over, and the dreams counteract what we have done to imbalance our psychological selves.” -Carl Jung

12. I’m still waiting for my vertigo to go.

13. “Human compassion is equal to human cruelty, and it is up to each of us to tip the balance.” -Alice Walker

_________Thirteen Thursday