By Louie Ferrera
About and hour north of Santa Rosa, CA on the 101 freeway, the Welcome to Mendocino County sign promises: “Wilderness, Waves and Wine”. Perhaps another time for us, this weekend we’re here for the music.
Self proclaimed hippie icon and Woodstock legend Wavy Gravy is hosting a three day music festival on his land in southern Mendocino County. Known as the Hog Farm, this oak-studded slice of heaven is the perfect place to let it all go and to proudly let your freak flag fly. For over a quarter of a century the Hog Farm has been the site of many music festivals, most notably the annual Kate Wolf Festival which honors the late, great Sebastopol singer/songwriter.
This year it’s the Hog Farm Hideaway. Headlining all three nights is the reason Carol and I and our merry band of fellow travelers have made the trek north: The String Cheese Incident. We’ve been following The Cheese since discovering them at the 1996 High Sierra Music Festival. Over the years, this Colorado based bluegrass cum jam band has built a loyal following that’s Grateful Dead-like in it’s intensity and the envy of any touring band. Like The Dead, no two String Cheese shows are alike, they rarely play the same song the same way twice and a typical show lasts three hours or more. When The Cheese is firing on all cylinders, the crowd is transformed into a swirling cauldron of ecstatic dancers. Tie-dyes, long hair, sparkles and smiles all combine to form an intoxicating brew of bliss. This is what keeps us coming back for more.
The world of 2022 is fraught with seemingly insurmountable problems. The news media does its best to provide us with an endless stream of doom and gloom. It’s easy to fall into despair, to think that it’s all shit. If you were at the Hog Farm last weekend, you would quickly have seen that it is most definitely not all shit. Beauty and hope and love permeated every square inch of the place. The event was impeccably organized. If there were any fights or hassles or violence, I didn’t hear about it. For three days thousands of us treated each other with kindness and respect. It was about “us and we” not just “me”. There’s no cell service at the Hog Farm so instead of being slaves to our phones, we were present and fully in the moment. Our troubled world desperately needs a healthy dose of the kindness, love and straight up silliness that abounded at the Hog Farm Hideaway. I saw a guy with a shirt that read Unfuck The World. Taking some of the vibes from this past weekend and spreading them over the planet would be a good way to start.
For Carol and Me, our relationship had its genesis in the context of the summer festival scene. Our love blossomed while dancing to our favorite bands at High Sierra, Kate Wolf, Strawberry, Whole Earth and the Oregon Country Fair. Our twins came along in the spring of 2004 (they were conceived at the 2003 High Sierra Music Festival). We didn’t miss a beat and just brought them along for the ride. For the first eight years or so of their lives, Sam and Denali were our festival companions. Being exposed to so much love and freedom has definitely informed their lives in a positive way. However, as our kids grew older we gradually phased out of the festival scene, our month long trips to Hawaii becoming the focal point of our summers.
While driving up to the Hog Farm, I realized that it had been more than a decade since Carol and I last attended a multi-day music festival. I began to feel a bit apprehensive. After such a long absence from the scene, a few questions swirled through my brain. Would we still fit in? Would It still be as fun as I remember it to be? Did I still want to do this or was it best to leave this scene in the past? In short, could I “go home” again?
Well, all doubt quickly evaporated as we drove through the main entrance to the Hog Farm. In short order we showed our tickets, got our wrist bands and found our friends in the campground. All the while we were greeted by smiling and helpful people. The energy was so positive, so happy. Fond memories of festivals past came flooding back. Now I knew why we were here.
For three days this was a feast for the senses. Three stages ensured that music would be happening from early afternoon into the wee hours of the morning. Temperatures were in the low 90’s for the first two days but a cool off was just steps away. Ten Mile Creek bisects the property and was still flowing thanks to late spring rains. There were “clothed” and “clothing optional” sections. We chose the latter and happily floated naked with our festival brothers and sisters. The Hog Farm Hideaway was also part family reunion. We ran into so many people who we hadn’t seen in years. Just because we’d dropped out of the festival scene didn’t mean that they had.
There were art installations, a particularly trippy one featured an array of a dozen doors standing straight up from the ground and painted in outlandish psychedelic swirls. At night the doors were lit from below to create a truly otherworldly effect. There was a camp dedicated solely to unicorns complete with a Unicorn Advice Booth. I saw a huge day-glo ocean diorama complete with neon tropical fish and jellyfish (jellyfish being one of the many String Cheese icons, in honor of their zany song of the same name.) Someone had set up a giant sling shot along the road to the campground. Dozens of stuffed animals were provided for anyone who wanted to launch them into the air. There was a myriad of handcrafted wares for sale at the many vending booths. I had one of the tastiest slices of pizza ever from the food court on Saturday night. The carb load gave me the energy to keep dancing during The Cheese’s second set that night.
And String Cheese Incident? This sextet of virtuoso musicians never fails to deliver. They reached musical heights that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. You never know what you’re going to get with these guys. A straight up bluegrass tune can quickly devolve into a feverish techno-infused jam into a choice cover song back into the bluegrass. Like the Grateful Dead, so much of the String Cheese concert experience is about the symbiosis of audience and band. We are full participants in each show, The Cheese and their fans always pushing each other to new heights.
Speaking of the Grateful Dead, that beloved band’s presence, particularly that of Jerry Garcia, was felt heavily all throughout the weekend. Jerry’s image was everywhere, from t-shirts and banners to buttons and bumper stickers. My favorite Jerry “sighting” was the Trip Advisor logo altered to feature Garcia’s grinning face in each sunglass lens. There were two Dead cover bands. Every band we saw played at least one Grateful Dead song. The currently thriving jam band scene arose from the ashes of the Dead’s demise following Garcia’s untimely death in 1995. I could feel Jerry smiling down on this wonderfully freaky scene that he was so instrumental in helping to create.
With a nearly full moon shining above the main music meadow, String Cheese Incident sent us home on Sunday night with a spot-on cover of the Peter Rowan gem Midnight Moonlight. They had played over nine hours of music throughout the weekend and never repeated a song. We made our way back to camp sweaty, spent and sated. This was a weekend to remember for sure and an affirmation of all that’s still right with the world.