By Barry Bluth
Soulshine is a song that has always meant something very special to me. I’m not really sure when it began, but it’s been one of those songs with meaning that struck a chord with me. Maybe it came at Lockn Festival, when my wife, Jen, and I stood about 10 feet from Warren Haynes as he serenaded us with Soulshine into Tupelo Honey back into Soulshine. That show was the most expensive ticket I’d ever laid my hands on, but it was her birthday, after all. It was a memorable moment that could not have been sweeter.
As veteran festival attendees, Jeff and I have been attending Lockn festival since its inception. So fast forward a few years, as Jeff and I are planning our annual pilgrimage north to The Farm, a close festie friend, Jackie, mentions a small fest up in the Carolina mountains called SoulShine Farm Music Festival.
I was sold.
Just like Soulshine itself, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the mountains. Soulshine and Lockn’ being two weeks apart, our plan was to get Bertha, our camper, three-quarters of the way up to Lockn, visit family, and catch a festival on the top of Green Mountain, North Carolina.
As is often the case when RoadtripMojo sets out, the excursion quickly became an adventure. Perhaps a three hour tour might be a better description. Hoping to have my two boys join Jeff and I on this “guys” trip, good intentions quickly fell by the wayside after a nasty blow out sidelined us 60 miles into the trip. Read the details here.
By 10am Thursday, the rig was repaired, but the boys bailed, and Jeff and I bee-lined it up to NC, stopping only to catch a few winks outside of Asheville.
By Friday morning, we arrived at the festival grounds. Unfortunately, we missed the first night and South Florida’s own Big Medizen led by Jerry Leeman. 😒
As it turned out, arriving Friday morning was the right move; maneuvering and parking Bertha at midnight on the mountain would have been better fodder than the boat-ramp follies.
Joining a fest already a day in with a 38-foot of camper towed by a pickup truck is not typically a good idea unless a specific site has been procured and carefully protected from camping sprawl. We had no such lock on a space.
We were directed to a spot on a red clay plateau called the KC Ridge. The damp and soft ground seemed to have bogged down another large RV, and parking was tight up there. Needing to depart early Sunday AM to catch a flight home, we knew that could be a muddy trap for us as well.
We opted to make a space for ourselves, something I always have fun with in our large pickup truck. So what’s an extra 38 feet of camper?
We settled in nicely on the top of the hill, with the ticket booth on one side and overlooking main stage on the other. Fest owner/director Randi Glover was as accommodating as could be. We then got Bertha chocked and levelled (kinda).
Fest on!
Read the next blog to discover what makes Soulshine sweet as Tupelo honey.
I remember checking you guys in! Sorry that you had such a hard time with the blowout, but you made it! So glad you had a good time. Love and light! Hope to see you again, next year!