06.15.22 – Wed. – 10:16AM – Frankfurt Airport

It’s not that I had necessarily forgotten for distaste for commercial air travel, but reaffirmation is, not exactly welcome, but I guess affirming. At home it’s a little after four in the morning, which means here I’m running late. Delay taking off, delay parking at the gate after landing. An announcement came over the P.A. while I was in the men’s room just now to day there would be a delay in the bags coming off. I’m here. I’m here. After two and a half years of doing not-this, somehow even the baggage claim has charm.

I’ve been to this airport before but don’t ask me what year it was. I walked past a ticketing counter where I once had to beg to be let on a plane after not making some connecting flight or other. There’s a Lego store in the airport. Somehow I expected there would be. Makes gift buying that much easier.

Between now and then is my reason for being here: Freak Valley Festival 2022.

Noon-ish – At festival site

Alex is the driver who picks me up at the airport. There’s water in the van and I’m carpooling with none other than Bill Bowman of Bushfire, about whom I’ve written for at least three last decade — intermittently, obviously — and who is kind enough to grab coffee for the trip from Frankfurt to Siegen. The topics range from guns in the US to religion to aliens to silly conspiracies — Bill also saw the flat earth documentary on Netflix — and since he was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, I noted a telltale “…things like this” where other regions might place “that.” Tones of him.

Jens Heide is by the backstage entrance where the van is parked and where my luggage stays. It’s gonna be hot enough to melt protein bars in there but I’m not about to raise a fuss over fake chocolate. I hug Jens, find out that My Sleeping Karma aren’t playing as had been announced as a replacement for Witchcraft, and get a quick look at the festival grounds. It is small enough to be intimate, with shade in corners where one might retreat from the sun, and a big, high stage that really, really makes me wish I’d bought that 70-200mm camera lens I’d had my eye on. Alas, some weeks you just don’t have that spare two grand on the credit card.

The grounds belong to AWO International, and the building is a facility for adults with disabilities; it seems like a weekday program, in the US it might be like an adult daycare kind of thing? I’m not really sure, but given the context of where I am, I’m just going to assume that the services provided are manifold and not nearly as expensive as at home. Other people do shit better sometimes. Often.

I get interviewed by a guy named Marcus as “the expert in the scene” which is very silly, but fine. I’m no good on camera, never have been, but hopefully Marcus got something he could use. I think he knew the score pretty early on with my awkward ass grin and stammering about how happy I am to be here. They can’t all be gold, but I also meet Ellen, who along with Nadine is in charge of the backstage area and she’s as kind as she is pregnant, which is plenty. She says she’s due in September and tells me if I need a room to write or whatever — can you fucking imagine? I made myself laugh just now thinking about going up to her and asking for a private spot at a festival with 3,000 people attending. But she’s very nice and I get my wristband that when the fest is over I’ll add to the little collection on my backpack and that’ll be that. I need to get a photo pass still, but somehow given my experience thus far and how hospitable everyone has been I don’t think it will be a problem.

About two and a half hours of sleep on the plane. I watched the Matrix reboot, enjoyed the self-awareness, was surprised at the level of violence. I guess I don’t watch much gritty tv anymore, and when someone gets disintegrated on Star Trek it’s a big deal. This shit had guns blazing like an infinite ammo cheat code. I know the original did as well, it’s just been a while. Between that and the elbow of the sleeping dude sitting next to me digging into my side for a substantial portion of the voyage, it was the proverbial long, strange trip.

He was headed to Tel Aviv. I was headed here. Nice to fly over German forests and hills though and then come be among them. I’ve not seen the camping area yet, and I may or may not get there today, but it’s clear that part of the vibe that will shortly ensue here is drawn from the natural beauty that surrounds.

I am fortunate to be here, and humbled by how welcome I have been made to feel so far. To wit, Jens just brought me the photo pass. God damn I’m lucky.

Tags: Freak Valley 2022, Germany, Siegen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2022 at 7:36 am and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.