Doe Bay Fest ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth
Before I go any further, I just want to ask for your forgiveness. Gentle reader, everything (and I do mean everything) I am about to describe or attempt to recall about Doe Bay Festival, will not have proper justice done to it. Over the next couple hundred words I promise you I’ll rely heavily on an online thesaurus, but will still fail (read: “run aground”) in my attempts. Don’t hold it against me. I’m only human and the retinas in my eyes are incapable of recording all that they’ve seen. I would offer this human experience to you if I could. Instead all I can do is write about it…
I feel like Doe Bay is all that’s right with humanity. I would make a more grandiose statement than that, but I say these words as someone whose time spent there was all too brief. I was at Doe Bay from Thursday night until early Saturday afternoon. I left Orcas Island not because I wanted to, because I had to. There was an engagement that I had to attend that was scheduled months prior. My absence was not an option, nor did I necessarily want it to be. Other than playing music, the only way you could have removed me from Doe Bay was in a body bag of some sort. Even in the midst of that macabre scenario, my spiritless body would be disappointed that it was leaving a place that may or may not resemble the general concept of heaven.
How do I even begin to tell you how great those 40 hours were? As someone who is relatively new to the Pacific Northwest, I had never been to the San Juan Islands before. Needless to say, I took plenty of pictures during my stay. When I removed the sleep from my eyes on Friday morning, it was like I was waking up at the end of the world. I’m not a city slicker or sheltered soul by any extent of the imagination, I have seen some things in my time. Orcas Island and Doe Bay can match-up toe-to-toe with some of the most picturesque scenes that I’ve had the good fortune of seeing.
Doe Bay ::: Photo by Abbey Simmons
Oh, and did I mention people were playing music? I don’t even want to talk about all the good performances that I missed, that in itself is a tragedy. Let’s focus on all the magical things I saw that were not wildlife related. Luckily for you some of what I’m talking about will be available on Sound of the Sound in video format shortly…
Curtains for You have been featured on Sound on the Sound a couple of times in recent months. Besides what was written about them, I knew next to nothing about the band. My first exposure to Curtains for You was quite the memorable one if I do say so myself. They played a handful of songs for Sound on the Sound in the middle of the woods next to the yurt where Josh, Abbey, Chris Proff and I were staying. I watched Curtains for You members Matt and Mike, perform adventurous, well-written pop songs from an elevated mossy landing. You can’t really get more intimate than that. What a fantastic way to be introduced to a band. From now on, every time I hear a band for the first time, I want it to be in an outdoorsy-VIP setting. Don’t scoff at my outrageous greenhouse diva demands. You’d make the same requests if you were me.
Curtains For You Doe Bay Session ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, they did.
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