It was so awesome, where do I begin ?
I think I'll begin with Tuesday, the day before SoulFest, the day that we left.......
Tuesday:
I had just gotten my hair done on Saturday. Pink & blonde streaks. We left at about 9:30 am. Casey's father gave us an outdated map from 1999, and therefore, we got LOST. We were looking for Hayes Corner, it seemed to exist only on the map. So, we took a wrong turn. We quickly got back on track. Then, while looking for our hotel (which we knew was on route 3), we went in the wrong direction on route 3, and we ended up in Tilton..... this is not where we wanted to be. I really needed to pee, so we stopped at Wendy's, and I ran in to pee. So, we turned around, went the other direction and finally got to the place where we were supposed to check in at the Lazy E Inn. Then, we went down the road to the condo, to drop off our stuff. We were in a hurry because we wanted to take a cruise on the m/s Mount Washington. We made it 5 minutes before the boat left. The cruise was 2 1/2 hours long. When we got off the boat, we got back to the car & found out that we had gotten a $10 parking ticket. After we got back to the condo, we decided to order a pizza, and we made the mistake of going with the first place that we found in the phone book. By the way, there were 2 phone books in the condo, but no phone. So, we ended up going with Constantly Pizza, in Tilton. 2 small pizzas, chicken fingers, jalapeno poppers, and mozzarella sticks....... came to $48. The pizza toppings were $1.25 each. We were thinking this pizza better be pretty damn good. It wasn't. It sucked. By far, the worst pizza that I have ever had. The cheese looked & tasted like wax. Then, we went to play mini golf. That was a mess. There was a stupid stream with waterfalls & crap that went through the whole course, we kept losing our golf balls in the water. Overall, it wasn't a very competitive game. So, when we finally got back to the condo, I took a bath, and then went to bed..... in anticipation of SoulFest.
Wednesday:
The day had finally arrived.... SoulFest! The day started out, we decided to put pink hair spray in Nathan's hair. We did that, then we left. When we arrived at SoulFest, they sent us over to the new 'free parking' area (since you now have to pay for a parking pass to get into the main parking lot. Needless to say, we bought a parking pass right away, because the free parking sucked). So, we got in line & the gates were supposed to open at 12:00, but there was a 1/2 hour delay, so they opened at 12:30. We could hear Skillet soundchecking while we were standing in line. After the gates opened, we walked around a bit. We stopped at the Stand True booth, and talked to Bryan Kemper (I think he's the founder of Stand True Ministry, not sure). I got 4 compliments for my black & white checkered neck-tie, so I guess it was a good choice. We talked to one of the volunteers for a while, we later found out that his name was Steve. He was actually kinda hot, but anyway..... where was I ? Oh yeah- SoulFest....... So, we got in the Skillet autograph line, and I told John Cooper that I named my Guinea Pig 'Skillet'. He said "That's cool, I've never heard that before". After that, we went back to the revival stage to see the rest of The Wrecking's show. They were awesome, as usual. We decided to stay there at the revival stage until Skillet performed (in order to keep our spot right up front). Through the day, it started to rain... harder, and harder. We finally sent Nathan to the car to get the umbrella (though we were already soaked). Finally, Family Force 5 began, .....and they were awesome! I think the rain actually might've made it better. They're great musicians, and they can dance. And then...... the moment we had been waiting for finally arrived...... the rain ceased, and they finally came out.... SKILLET!!! They were AWESOME! The pyrotechnics were the best I'd ever seen at a Skillet show. I can't even put it into words. I loved the pyrotechnics, I LOVED the worship, and I loved being right up front. After the concert was over, we began to trek through the mud to get to the vehicle. It started to rain again, but this time, there was lightning, and I almost had a panic attack. It was pouring so hard that I couldn't see, because the really huge raindrops were hitting me right in the eyes. I severely had to pee. I had needed to pee since before the Family Force 5 concert. I was in pain, and there was a long line of traffic coming out of the parking lot. when we finally arrived back at the condo, Casey gave me the key & I ran in. I felt much better after that. We were hungry & exhausted, so we had some popcorn, then went to bed.
Thursday:
Nothing extremely eventful on Thursday. Casey asked if anybody had even remembered to lock the door before we went to bed, and Nathan said he did. All morning, before we left for SoulFest, we couldn't find the key anywhere. I had the other key, so we weren't too worried about it. When we walked out the door to leave, we found the key. It was still in the door. When we got in the car, we noticed an exceptionally offensive odor...... Nathan's wet shoes had been left in the vehicle overnight. Before going to SoulFest, we went to a laundromat to dry our shoes from the night before.... it was necessary. When we arrived at SoulFest, we bought pit passes for Friday, then we went to a couple conferences. The first one was about modern-day slavery. David Batstone was the speaker, he is the founder of the Not For Sale campaign. It was very eye-opening. I will be writing more about that later. The next speaker was Bryan Kemper, the man we had met the day before, from Stand True. That was also very moving, he actually didn't talk much about abortion. It was not exactly what I was expecting, but it was good. We ran into Joe, from The Wrecking (he was at their merch booth). We actually saw him a lot through the week. We saw the Afters, later that day. We were gonna see Day of Fire, but they were performing at the Inside Out stage, and it was just too rowdy over there for us. They had an energy drink-chugging contest on stage (which is dangerous), and one kid threw up on the stage. So, we decided to leave that stage. We left a little while later.... and I had a little meltdown when we got back to the condo. It kinda started on the way home. I don't know why, I guess there were just a lot of things that reminded me of my brother all day, the music that he liked, and things like that. In an effort to make me feel better, Casey decided we should go to Wendy's. Nathan was too tired, so he stayed at the condo. We knew there was a Wendy's in Gilford, but we couldn't remember where, so we decided to go all the way to the one we stopped at on Tuesday, in Tilton. It was closed. We looked for a Dunkin' Donuts. I fell asleep. Casey found a Dunkin' Donuts. It was closed. We gave up & went back to the condo. We laughed hysterically about something. We went to bed.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://silentday.org/
Friday:
Things improved on Friday. We had pit passes to get right up to the stage, so we didn't have to worry about standing in the rain all day just to get up front for the TFK concert. We went to another Not For Sale conference. Then, we decided to get some lunch back at the hotel. We stopped at a place right down the road from SoulFest. I don't remember what the place was called, but I got a turkey club wrap, Casey & Nathan got pizza, and it was much better than the other pizza. We now know where we will be getting our pizza next year. After lunch, we went to Shaw's to get some baking soda for that terrible smell in the car. We got 4 boxes, and we even sprinkled some in the back, where the shoes had been. We also drove right by the Wendy's in Gilford, now we know where it is. We went back to SoulFest, and finally, for the first time in 4 years, I got to go into the pit. Casey had bought a pass for Tasha, so all 4 of us went in there, and waited for the concert. Thousand Foot Krutch was awesome (as I knew they would be), but Trevor McNevan had an emergency appendectomy the week before, and he was obviously in pain. The pain, however, did not stop him from jumping around in the puddles on stage. We were getting splashed in the face, and 4 times, he got water in my mouth! (yeah, we were that close to the stage) That was disgusting, I don't know what was on that stage. Gross. Anyway, when they were done, everybody started shouting "one more song". Why? Let the poor guy rest! They did one more song, "This is a call", and he sounded exhausted. I hope he took a pain killer & went to bed after the show. After the concert, we got back into the car to find that the baking soda didn't do a thing. We went back to the condo for a while. Nathan decided to stay at the condo for the rest of the night. Then, on the way back to SoulFest, we stopped at Shaw's again, this time to get some extra-strength febreeze. We sprayed it everywhere in the car. When we got back, we went into the pit again, to see Natalie Grant. She was good. Casting Crowns was next. They were amazing, I love worship, and I needed that. We went back to the hotel, packed up most of our stuff, and went to bed. note: The febreeze didn't work either!
Saturday:
The final day of SoulFest. We went to the last Not For Sale conference, which focused on slavery within our borders. Yeah, it happens. We went out to the car to have a snack, and did some people watching. We played a game of "who's bus is it?" as we watched buses pull into the VIP parking area. Then, we observed a parking attendant who was sleeping in his chair. That was hilarious. Somebody pulled up to him, beeped their horn & scared the crap out of him. Then we saw a guy just leaping & dancing around the parking lot, with headphones & no shirt on. That was interesting. After that, we went to see Fireflight. They were pretty good. We went to that place down the road again, to get some supper. We all got turkey club wraps, they were good. We ate in the car, then we walked around for a while. We saw Sanctus Real, and they were really good. Then we went to see The Wrecking's encore. I decided that I didn't want to see Third Day. It would've been too hard for me. They were Pete's favorite band. The Wrecking was amazing, as usual. I love the song "Prayer Language". Then, we left for home. We got pulled over on the way home. Casey got a warning, since there was no speed limit sign. WooHoo! We got out of that one.
In closing, SoulFest was AWESOME! Next year will be even better. I know it will. I'm absolutely sure. That's all for now.
- Nakita
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