From: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com (edheads-digest) To: edheads-digest@smoe.org Subject: edheads-digest V2 #105 Reply-To: edheads@efohio.com Sender: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Errors-To: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Precedence: bulk edheads-digest Sunday, June 13 1999 Volume 02 : Number 105 Today's Subjects: ----------------- What to bring to Falcon Ridge (was PLEASE HELP A CAMPING NEOPHYTE!) [cos@] EFO: What to bring to Falcon Ridge (was PLEASE HELP A CAMPING NEOPHYTE!) [Nicole Carlson ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 17:02:34 -0400 (EDT) From: cos@efohio.com (Ofer Inbar) Subject: What to bring to Falcon Ridge (was PLEASE HELP A CAMPING NEOPHYTE!) This is something I first wrote in response to a question on the Nields mailing list. Then someone from the moxy fruvous newsgroup said I should post it there, so I did, and based on the responses, I think I should probably post it here on edheads too. Slightly edited from the original, mostly the same but hopefully a bit better. This will be the first year that EFO plays at Falcon Ridge, so perhaps some of you have never been. I very highly recommend it, it is consistently the best festival I go to and consistently one of the best weekends I have all year. -- Cos - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The original question on nields-nook I was responding to: > My roommate Karyn & I are in the process of planning for FRFF. We have > weekend tickets with onsite camping. We just realized that since we haven't > tented it since childhood, we have NO CLUE as to what to pack or bring for > our way-cool weekend camping experience! We don't even have a tent! > > If anyone can help (please please), We'd love some ideas about what > gear/food/etc. is a "must-bring" vs. "should be left at home." For bonus > cool-points you could even throw in some specific wisdom about Falcon > Ridge... Just think: YOU could be our camping guru! Think of the power! The > *prestige*! I'll go for the bonus, then! I go to Falcon Ridge every year, and it's not exactly the same as your average generic camping experience. So this is going to be a very Falcon Ridge oriented list of advice... Well, first of all, get a tent :-) Once you get a tent, set it up in your yard sometime, so you know that you know how to set it up and don't get confused when you're actually at the festival. If you've got an old tent, like one borrowed from a parent, it may be very difficult to set up in the dark, so keep that in mind when you make your travel plans! It would suck if you got to Falcon Ridge shortly before sundown and then spent two hours trying to figure out how to get your tent up in the dark. A lot of the newer tents are much much simpler to set up and can be done easily at night. Bring sleepstuff to put in your tent. Sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, whatever. Also make sure you've got tarps. Most tents come with one tarp to put underneath, and a rain-cover that goes over the top. It can be very useful to have an extra tarp, though. Also, you'll want some beach blanket type things to claim your space at the main stage, and to sit on when you're there. Some people bring lawn chairs and parasols, but you can do just fine without those. You could also bring those foamrubber pad "chair" things. Weather varies. Some years it's rainy and muddy, others it's hot and sunny the whole time, others you get a mix of both. Nights are cold and days are hot. Be prepared for all weather. Bring a raincoat / poncho, light clothes and warm clothes (layers are good), a good pair of workboots or similar in case of heavy mud, sandals or similar light footwear in case there's no mud. Long hot sunny days mean you'll probably want to bring several T-shirts (or equivalent) so you can have more than one per day, and also changes of socks in case of rain. Any clothes you wear at Falcon Ridge will get dirty. They'll get grass and dirt stains, at the very least, and probably also food stains. Don't bring anything that would upset you too much if it got dirty. Also, don't bring anything that isn't comfortable for movement. You'll want to dance, run around, whatever. Don't bring new shows you're just breaking in; instead bring those sneakers you've almost thrown out because they're starting to get tattered. If you don't have the right footwear for rainy muddy weather and are planning to buy some, buy it now so you'll have several weeks to break it in in case you need to wear it at the festival. Since there may be a lot of hot sun and you will likely be spending the entire day outdoors, bring good sunscreen! Also a hat. At night, you'll probably want bug repellent, and something to put on itchy insect bites which you'll probably get even if you have repellent. Bring the usual toiletries, toothbrush & toothpaste, any medicine you usually use, etc. Definitely bring some sort of aspirin or tylenol, even if you don't need it, you will encounter someone who does :-) Bring a hairbrush and random hair frobs, if you use such things. Also paper towels, or kleenex. A swiss army knife might be useful. Especially one with tweezers, for when you or one of your friends gets a splinter from something :) The festival has first aid people and stuff, but bringing a few band aids of your own is also a good idea. Flashlights! When it gets dark, it gets dark! On Friday and Saturday, festival stuff goes on well into the night, especially the dance tent and impromptu jam sessions and gatherings. I always bring at least two flashlights, because other people forget to bring them. Make sure their batteries are fresh, 'cause they may be getting a lot of use and you don't want your flashlight to die at 10pm on Saturday. Bring water! Falcon Ridge supplies water from big water trucks, but the lines can get long, and you'll often want to have water right at your campsite. You'll be really glad you don't have to wait in line and you don't have to lug back all the water you need. Get a few of those gallon things at a supermarket, or just fill up used bottles from your tap. Bring too much, not too little! It sucks if you run out, it doesn't suck if you still have water at the end of the weekend. For food, the best policy IMO is a mix of bringing your own and buying food there. You'll want some cash to buy food at the festival, they have a wide variety of vendors with all sorts of yummy stuff. However, you don't want to totally depend on the purchased food to keep from being hungry, or you'll spend too much money and too much time in food lines. Bring a cooler stocked with things like: - fruits, such as oranges, which are portable, resistant to accidental destruction, and very juicy. - dry nonperishable snacks such as granola bars, also portable - sandwich making materials, if you want to make sandwiches at your campsite for some of your "meals". I wouldn't recommend making them in advance 'cause they won't be very good once they've sat around for a day or two... - whatever else fits :) Don't forget to get a few of those icepack thingies for your cooler, and put them in your freezer at least a day before you head out to the festival! No open flames are allowed at Falcon Ridge, but camp stoves are OK. Some people do get ambitious and bring stuff to cook, but unless you're going to be doing it as a family or a large group of friends, I think you'd probably rather spend more time at the stages & booths than at your campsite preparing food. Bring a portable beverage carrying item (thermos, canteen). Ice is sold at several locations at the festival, and there usually aren't long lines for ice. You will learn to associate the cry of the ice man ("Aaaaaaaisss! Aaaaaaaaiss!") with mornings at Falcon Ridge. You can buy bags of ice to put in your cooler to keep it cold after your icepack things thaw - in typical Falcon Ridge weather, even those blue icepack things won't stay frozen through Saturday. When you buy an ice bag, you can also use it to fill up your thermos with ice, which will quickly turn to water as you wander around the festival with it. One thing I like to do is bring a few herb teas. I've found that if you fill a thermos with ice, stuff a few bags of, say, Red Zinger on top, and then pour in water to fill in all the spaces between the ice, close it up and by the time you've walked down the hill with it, it will be ice tea. You could also bring a few cans of frozen juice concentrate, and do the same thing with them. I've found that a typical sized thermos requires about 4 bags of ice tea, or about one half a can of frozen juice concentrate (so if you don't bring two thermoses, you'll need to use the concentrate half a can at a time, and might want to bring a tupperware container for temporary storage...) You can preserve your cooler ice longer if you keep the cooler in the shade. The best way to do this is to keep it inside your tent when you're not there, or to put your extra tarp over it. Trash bags also come in very useful. You'll want at least one for trash, and you'll probably find uses for a few others (say, for used clothes). Don't expect to get much sleep over the weekend that you're at the festival. As I said, activites go late into the night and you'll probably be really charged up in the evenings and won't want to go to sleep early. But you also can't "sleep in" in the morning, because once the sun comes up your tent will heat up rapidly and you'll want to get the heck out! This usually happens by 8am. Also don't expect to be in touch with the outside world. There is a payphone at the festival, but it really sucks, you can barely hear anything over the sound of music and conversation nearby, and there's always a long wait for it. You're better off pretending it doesn't exist unless you have an emergency. If you have a pager or a cell phone or anything like that, chances are the service does not cover the area Falcon Ridge is in, and it won't work. If Clinton dies over the weekend, you might hear about it while you're still at the festival. Anything short of that, probably not. Just tell anyone who might want to find you over the weekend that you'll be totally out of touch. I hope this is useful! -- Cos (Ofer Inbar) -- cos@polyamory.org cos@leftbank.com -- WBRS (100.1 FM) -- info@wbrs.org http://www.wbrs.org/ "I'm going down to the hollow, where the trees meet the soul" -- Trina Hamlin, Down to the Hollow ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 15:01:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Nicole Carlson Subject: EFO: What to bring to Falcon Ridge (was PLEASE HELP A CAMPING NEOPHYTE!) On Sat, 12 Jun 1999, Ofer Inbar wrote: > This is something I first wrote in response to a question on the > Nields mailing list. Then someone from the moxy fruvous newsgroup > said I should post it there, so I did, and based on the responses, > I think I should probably post it here on edheads too. Slightly > edited from the original, mostly the same but hopefully a bit better. > I hope this is useful! Massively so. I have printed it out and expect to refer to it continuously. Thanks bunches, Cos; you rock. :) So who else is going? - --nicole the "Falcon Ridge Or Bust!" wonder nerd *** "Some people say I'm neurotic and all, but I'm not; I just like to think about things over and over and over again."--Eddie From Ohio Visit Nicolopolis! http://wwwcsif.cs.ucdavis.edu/~carlsonn nmcarlson@ucdavis.edu ana.ng@tmbg.org ncarlson@mail.arc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 19:38:56 -0400 From: "Jason D. Triolo" Subject: EFO-- RE:Florida *** Question - Has EFO ever performed a show in Florida? Does anyone know if they get down to FL periodically? I've checked the schedule for a a few months now but haven't seen any booking dates for FL so I was curious. *** Marlene, NO! Not in 2 1/2 years!(Last was Gainesville, Nov '97) Doesn't look good for those of us in Florida, either. What part of the state are you in? Well, that makes two of us in Florida...anyone else on this mailing list from the Sunshine State?? Floridians Unite! Get EFO to the land of Mickey Mouse, oranges, and endless road construction! Jason jasonacg@citicom.com (Near Tampa) ------------------------------ End of edheads-digest V2 #105 *****************************