A Return to the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest
It's been three years since I set up camp in the grassy field at LaVern Johnson Park --my home during the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest . In 2019, I attended, unaware that my yearly August ritual would be interrupted by a virus that would intercept so much of my life. 2020 the festival cancelled. 2021 the festival emerged with limited numbers of attendance and an abbreviated schedule, and I had tickets, intention, and a last minute discomfort of attending being amidst many people while the virus surged. I did not attend. But this year, I had friends who'd traveled from Vancouver to hang out at the festival with me, I had my Folks Fest music buddy excited to discover new music together, and I felt ready to be in a mass of people, outdoors, knowing that I would have opportunity for space and the expanse of the sky above to breathe in. Rituals returned easily--bargaining for a number or better numbers in line in order to get a space we wanted, usually along or close to a path near the
