Bike Music Fest & Other Saturday Events

Trafton B.

May 7, 2011 - 8:04 PM

So, this post could very easily be put under the same title as Wednesday's post, "These Moments...these moments...," but then again that could probably be said for at least half of my blog entries. Today was just another one of those incredible days that makes me so grateful to be living in Eugene, Oregon. Good thing I have studying to do during the weekdays, or else I'd probably lose myself to bicycle music festivals, craft brewery, and Oregon sporting events. I should really clarify to all my readers, who I'm sure think of me as just another college kid from Animal House, that I do study from time to time. Actually, I just found out this past week that I will graduate with Cum Laude honors, so there!

 

Anyways, today was full of fun events from start to finish. Technically, there is still fun to be had this evening, but I'm sort of pooped so I might have to throw in the towel personally.

 

My day began by volunteering at the Bike Music Fest at noon. The Bike Music Fest is only a portion of the Willamette Valley Music Fest, which was going on all day in the EMU Amphitheater, with headliners like A-Trak and the Yeasayers.

  

The Bike Music Fest on the other hand, started at the Museum of Natural and Culture History on 15^th & Agate Street with an acoustic guitar performance by Brooks Robertson (pictured above). Brooks was great! He worked the crowd, played some great tunes on the guitar, and all in all was a great act to listen to in the early afternoon. He'd already pulled about fifty audience members by 12:30, which was more of a turnout that we'd expected for only thirty minutes into the day.

 

After Brooks came a local reggae band, Fire in the Rootz. The most surprising part of my day was when I realized that I knew the drummer, Sam, from a bunch of environmental studies classes. Definitely had no clue that he was in a band, so that caught me off guard. They were great, too. 

 

 

After Fire in the Rootz finished their set, the real magic happened. While the crowd was entertained by the Grey Matter Jugglers, we packed up the entire stage, tossed everything onto bicycles and moved the show to downtown Eugene. Not only did we move everything on bicycles, but we actually had a singer from the folk band, Stichcraft (pictured above), singing the entire way. Her microphone was being transmitted to radio receivers on three speakers that were also being lugged on the back of bicycles, so we could practically hear here all the way up and down the Willamette River bike path. How sweet is that?!?

 

They we set up shop at Broadway Plaza on the corner of Broadway & Willamette Street, where bicycle valet attendants were ready and waiting for us. Oh, and did I mention that all of the electronics for these events were being powered by bicycle? Yeah, that's the sweetest part about all of this. Absolutely nothing was plugged in. At any give time during the festival, on any stage, we had somewhere between three and ten bicycles hooked up to the sound system and generating electricity for the musicians. Check out (from left to right) Cortney, Brianna, and Baofeng as they're generating electricity in the photo below. Looks like fun, right?

 

 

 

Several more acts played at the Broadway Plaza, such as the Whiskey Chasers, Lara Kempt Trio, and the Ginger Ninjas, but my day of volunteering ended soon after arriving. Instead of sticking around, I met up with my roommate, Bob, and his girlfriend, Natalie, and headed over to the Sasquatch Brewfest at the Hilton.

 

The Sasquatch Brewfest was a part of the entire Eugene Beer Week, which I talked about in the last post. There's really not too much to say about it other than there were representatives from craft breweries all up and down the West Coast showing off their favorite brews and new seasonal creations. I couldn't pick a favorite if you asked me, but I guess I can tell you the memorable ones at least. Lagunitas' Old Gnarly Wine. Fort George's Coffee Girl Stout. Boneyard Beer's Armored Fist. All of those were pretty darn good.

 

After the brewfest, with what little energy I had left in me, I rode my bike over to the Duck's baseball game at PK Park. Unfortunately, I got there just in time to watch the last few innings of a Ducks' loss to the UCLA Bruins. It also pains me to say that it was my first game of the seasons, but, hey, I'm a fair weather fan, and there hasn't been much fair weather for Ducks baseball this year. I did get to see my other roommates and their family members for a little while, though, so I still had a good time.

 

That more or less brings us to the present. I rode my bike home about an hour ago, made some food, and now I'm sitting on my couch watching an episode of Party Down on Netflix, and I'm probably going to turn in for the night pretty soon here after another great Saturday in the Willamette Valley.