Last year I attended Soundwave festival with my brother Enrico. It was mad, wonderful and crazy. This year was not much different with three exceptions. Bears,Tutus... and my two best friends joined me.
We arrived a few days early as G and I happened to be up on the westcoast of Vancouver Island anyway. H was catching a ride with Keith and we would be joined by Mr. Blayne as well. We converged found what we thought a great place to set up Camp Honeymoon Suite far enough away from the main stages to keep most of the riff raff at bay and close enough you were not shattered from making another beer/ drink run. After setting up our fantastic camp, made a great dinner and had some lovely drinks before turning in for the night.
Thursday rolled around with some Yoga on the beach, and the day slowly took shape. Mr. Blayne was our arts and crafts director while we pimped the camp and the loos nearby.
Afterwards the 5 of us decided to do a little sightseeing back in Tofino and Ucleulet before the Brother unit was due to show. We shopped at totally great places in Ukee called Pina and hit the second hand shop as well, bought some junk and then walked through rain Forrest's, along long beaches, and had a last stop in the town of Tofino for last min supplies.
Getting back to camp we were told by the guards at the gate that they were having a little bear trouble at one of the camps and that we should be bear safe at all time, lock food away in coolers and containers etc etc... we just knew it had to be our camp.
Getting back to camp we were told by the guards at the gate that they were having a little bear trouble at one of the camps and that we should be bear safe at all time, lock food away in coolers and containers etc etc... we just knew it had to be our camp.
We came back to find Stella, Christoph and Noah quite excited as they were having a picnic at our place and waiting for us to return and low and behold a bear decided to show up and see what was cooking (so to speak). Now the interesting thing is my friends are from Germany and the only time you might see a bear is in a zoo or on a nature program, to see one in real life is quite another thing. They did well and alerted the proper authorities to come and take care of the little critter. Some other campers were not so fortunate, they had not heeded the warnings and had left only a few things (apples, bread and steaks) in their tent to return to find it torn to shreds.
Anyway once the excitement died down a bit the Sibling unit showed up with two buddies to round off the camp and their perimeter tenting, had some drinks and settled in for a last "quiet" evening before the party started.
We had fun and were only sad that there were not more people there for him, he did get the first bunch of girls on the stage in bikini's and cutoff's though that I saw.
The day turned to night and we kept on till late visiting several stages, meeting friends and enjoying the west coast outdoors. Below are photos from the Renegade stage probably my favourite stage EVER if for nothing more than the location alone.
Saturday morning Keith, H, G and I headed off down the beach for some swimming and relaxing. Then Helen and I decided to swim from the point back to the Renegade stage, it was a longer distance than you might have thought but glorious to be in the Pacific again.
The costumes and people were as wonderful as ever, nice to see some old faces (Beer for a Bear).
And the camps seem to get all the more out there, camp no nickers, camp virgin (who's occupants conceived a child and the previous years SW), Camp Dirt Dog, Camp Saloon, Camp Re-tox, Camp F!@K Off (later to be known as Camp Fame Off), Camp Hummer (cause they discovered a real humming bird next at the entrance), Camp Giggidy and many others not forgetting Camp Last Call. And of course Honeymoon Suite.
Fame Inc held the annual GM Meeting I knew the day would be long from there on out. I heard rumours there was a merger with some gorillas.
We spent some time up in the Meadow drinking yummy cocktails.
And spotted some unicorns as well.
