I finally feel like a functional human being again.

It took about a week, but I am finally recovered from Oregon Country Fair and, in some ways, SOAK. While I’ve always needed some time to recover from Oregon Country Fair, this year in particular was an emotional, empowering yet ever challenging event.

I helped run a theme camp and a fire circle, constructed a whole prop——a veritable Pasta Stand——and act for said fire circle, and also stayed inside the fairgrounds well past sweeps each day. And I collected plenty of photos and videos and all other sorts of field recordings while doing it too.

It was gratifying, but exhausting.

By the time I returned home on Monday night, I was done. There was nothing left to spend. Returning texts was improbable. Being active was impossible. So I spent the whole week following the weekend doing nothing but unpacking and reorganizing. First came the rental car, then came the camping gear, then the luggage, and now comes the self.

I have a whole host of thoughts still yet to write down about the experience itself, but the most immediate thing that comes to mind is that festival season is over. For me that is. I am still sitting on the fence about Kindle. The largest flow arts workshop festival in the Pacific Northwest takes place the first weekend of September, which is far enough away that I can make an effort to attend.

Otherwise, glamping season is pretty much over. Another voyage of the flying papasan (I bring my papasan to every glamping expedition possible) would not just be inadvisable but reckless.

No, for now, the papasan and I need to rest, not to think, just to take a vacation after the vacation. To stay still, bind the wounds, bask in the afterglow and write whatever thoughts and memories come back to me in fragments.

Thinking back upon Oregon Country Fair, however, is to think back to all the people I want to thank for making it an excellent year, one of the best since my first OCF in 2015.

First off: Crash, Chachi and Jade for organizing the camp. We knocked it out of the park for the first time in a while. To all of the Salmon, new and old, thank you for coming to camp with us and helping set up and tear down the camp. This was by far one of the smoothest years at Salmon Camp and I’m excited to do it all again next year.

I also want to thank Memaw, Ariel, Brooklyn, Heather, David, Koa and Chachi and Crash again for running the Fire Circle. Shoutout to Pockets the Wizard, too, for his support creating a script for the Safety Meeting. I can’t wait to see him back at it again next year.

Most of all I want to thank my Dad, who helped me through the first steps of designing and constructing the Pasta Stand. Without him this whole act would not have even made it halfway from the blueprint, much less to Veneta. You’ll hear more about the full story of the Pasta Stand soon, but I’m going to toss in tidbits here and there.

Once again I have to thank Crash, Chachi and Memaw, as well as Koa, Sphynx, and Danny for their help setting up the stand in the Fire Circle. I also want to thank Zak, Amelia, Jenny, and Austin for their help setting up the LED lights. Finally, I want to give some love to Tango, Jeff and Zak again for their sous-chef skills.

Everything from moving it out to the Fire Circle to preparing the pasta to serve or even dousing the wicks made this feel like a community endeavor and not just the pipedream of a benign maniac.

Two special mentions also go to Chachi, for gassing me up on the idea of constructing a physical stand after an improvised Fire Circle performance last year, and Frankie for helping me paint the stand and signage. I am not an art major, but I am glad I have friends who would be.

In addition, I would be absolutely remiss not to give Danny from Wicked Stix his flowers for refurbishing my fire contact staff. His craftsmanship is incredible and he pairs it with being an impressively skilled fire dancer and an impeccably kind person.

Moreover, I want to thank my Cats in Space Captain Commander Squigglefloof and her trusty first mate, Nobody, for their inspiration, a shady spot on a Sunday stifling hot and because thanking Nobody in particular is just hilarious. Without them I don’t think I would have had a starting point for how to structure a theme camp.

I also want to thank Amelia and David, in particular, for being phenomenal Fairground adventure buddies. Without them, I don’t think I would have had as much fun in the Fairgrounds as I did out of it.

It would also not be an Oregon Country Fair if I did not see my Delta brothers, Cheshire, Koa, Sphynx, Crash, Serval, Puma, Bagheera, Floater and Swanny. The gratitude I have for them starts with being consistent presences in my life and continues through every interaction we have inside and outside Oregon Country Fair.

I also want to thank Crash, Carly and Puma (and anyone else) for recording my madness with the Pasta Stand, both personal and collective. Everything from writing poetry to serving pasta to starting a game of fire tag in the Fire Circle, this all seems normal to me—no bug but a featured function—so I never ask people to record what I do. Whether by intent or instinct, I let things live in the moment and yet I’m glad to know I have friends who dig what I do enough to record it.

Let me also shower appreciation on the artists I saw, including Glitterfox, LP Giobbi, Reggie Watts, the folks at Terrapin Station, the Super Sonic Shorties and Ramblxr. But a mega shoutout to Shady Rest for booking Garcia Birthday Band on Saturday and just the power of the Grateful Dead’s music in general.

Performing to “Uncle John’s Band” is now a core memory that will be hard to top.

Lastly, I just want to say that literally everyone I had the chance to meet and hang with at the Country Fair and Shady Rest contributed to this brilliant moment of silly splendor. I think magic is what we make it and this year Shady made the most of it.

Holy shit, that was a lot of people. For now, I hope you enjoy these pictures from Fair 2025.

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P.S. The Casual Camera and Poetry posts are coming. I needed more time to recuperate than anticipated. Expect a flurry of posts for August now that festival season is effectively over.