Stayin’ Sassy 2012 – Zina Boileau Morrison

On May 24th, 2012, Alyson Lahoda, Shayla Morton, and I, Zina Boileau Morrison, embarked upon the most radical weekend ever. Shayla and I, both being veterans of the ‘Squatch, had an idea of what lay in store for the following days, but poor Lahoda had no idea that she was about to get rocked by the most epic festival in central Washington, USA: Sasquatch 2012.

To start the trip down, Shayla executed the most skillful packing of an SUV I’ve ever seen in my life, and asked us probably thirteen times each if we had our tickets and passport (which we all did). We picked up her two friends Heather and Haley, and made the ceremonial pre-USA Tim Horton’s run (whaddup 40 pack of timbits & double double’s). Ten zillion hours, three Katy Perry albums, and a glitch in reality later, we arrived at the most beautiful place on earth in the nick of time to set up our tent before the sunset.

In all honesty, the weekend became a blur.

I have two favourite places to be in the world: YES Camp and Sasquatch Music Festival. I’ve always known that they were both amazing for certain reasons, but with Aly and Shayla with me this weekend, I realized how much Sasquatch is like YES camp! The only major difference between the two is that Sasquatch definitely does not follow all of the SADD rules.

Why Sasquatch Music Festival 2012 is like YES Camp:

-Cuddle puddles: According to Shayla Morton, the official count on cuddle puddles initiated and successfully executed by our group is 78423. So many cuddles!!!!!!!!!!! One of my favourite memories from the weekend was when a friendly stranger behind us asked us, “Hey, you guys aren’t by chance the band Grouplove?” while we were all bundled up together with ALL THE LOVE.

-Dance parties: Okay, YES camp needs to step up its game, because Sasquatch 2012 just trumped us for MOST DANCE PARTIES EVER. Seriously, guys. These people know how to dance. They dance when they wake up, they dance while walking to the grounds, they dance while waiting in line, and of course, they dance to all the incredible music that’s going on! A few bands even brought dance parties ON STAGE to rock out with them! Can you even imagine the moves I would have busted if I was on stage with Girl Talk!?!? It may have been for the best, cause those moves would have been so sick, I would have had to spend the rest of the weekend in the first aid tent. (ohhhhhh snapsicles)

-Ridiculous outfits: We should invite all of the costumed people at Sasquatch into our tickle trunk. I saw groups dressed as bananas, superheroes, watermelons, sailors, and teletubbies. I saw people with fish heads, octopus umbrellas, flags worn as capes, and too many ridiculous hats that obviously only come out once a year. Not only is this awesome to look at and totally fun, but it’s also a means of locating people. On a hill with 20,000 people, it’s way easier to find your blanket when it’s right beside the bananas or the rebel alliance flag.

-Strict schedules and multiple locations: At camp, we write up those awesome schedules each day with smelly felts and do a pretty good job of keeping to it. If we didn’t have a schedule, no one would know when to wake n’ shake, when to meet your crew, when to zap it up, or, most importantly, when to EAT! Like camp, the days at a music festival need some organization. I for instance, needed to know that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Cloud Cult overlap by almost an entire set on Monday! So, I made sure to leave Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the main stage during the final notes of their last song, RAN up the hill (no easy feat, let me tell you) to catch the last twenty minutes of Cloud Cult at the Bigfoot stage, and then had ample time to mosey back in time for Feist. Phewf. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted.
Where would we be without organization?
Missing Cloud Cult, that’s where!

-Sleep deprivation: Those who were at Pathways in 2011 know that I do not do well without sleep. And let this be a warning to those at Roots B and Pathways B this summer – I DO NOT DO WELL WITHOUT SLEEP. I get grumpy very quickly, and just like at camp, I had to make sure I was remotely well rested in order to perform at full capacity. This is not the easiest thing to do, when music is going until 1:30 AM, and the sun rises at around 5:30AM. I was prepared though! I made sure to bring earplugs and a fashionable eye cover that says “do not disturb” in order to maintain my sanity and stamina for the weekend.

-Kind strangers / new friends / the most amazing people on earth: If you haven’t picked it up yet, I absolutely live for music festivals. It’s not just the amazing music that draws me to them; it is also the atmosphere. Almost everyone who attends is there for the same reason: to have a heckuvalot of fun.
With this attitude, this is the #1 reason why Sasquatch is like camp.
-I see random acts of kindness everywhere.
-I see people making new friends every minute.
-I see neighbours sharing camping supplies with each other and forming mini-communities.
-I see story telling and the willingness to learn new things about ‘faraway’ places.
-And, I see so much laughing and excitement.

So thank you Sasquatch. Thank you to the girls who let us cut into the car line that would have taken HOURS to get through. Thank you to our neighbour Steele, who probably doesn’t sleep ever. Thank you to our other neighbours from Portland, who lent us tent pegs because Lahoda forgot them. Thank you to everyone who played with us at 2AM when we jumped out at them and surrounded them with a big blanket GRUG. Thank you to the bands, for absolutely blowing my mind. Thank you to Heather, for making us scrambled eggs everyday! Thank you to the staff at “the cleanest IHOP around”. And thank you to Shayla, who drove us all the way there and back!

Friday May 25th: Of Monsters and Men, Santigold, Girl Talk, and Explosions In The Sky
Saturday May 26th: Pete Holmes, Charles Bradley, Portlandia, Childish Gambino, Metric, The Shins, and Jack White
Sunday May 27th: Chiddy Bang, Hey Rosetta!, Tycho, The Head and The Heart, Beirut, and Bon Iver
Monday May 28th: Grouplove, Gary Clark Jr., Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cloud Cult, and Tenacious D

This is just a list of bands that I actively went and watched the set. The entire weekend was music. It was everywhere. I heard so much good music and I don’t even know what half of it was. There were around 35 bands playing each day. THAT IS SO MUCH MUSIC!!! I loved it. I loved every single second of it, and I cannot wait for next year.

stay sassy,
Zee