May Day 2012: Burgers and Bluegrass

Finally, after a cold and reclusive winter, May Day at the Great Blue Heron Music Festival arrived with perfect weather and lots of work to do.

Arriving Saturday night, Nathan and I drove through sunset that eventually dissolved in to an excellent view of the May supermoon that lit up the entire Heron property all night. We spent most of Saturday with our friends bringing each other up to speed on our lives at home and making plans for traditionally busy May Day Sunday morning.

I crashed on the Rockcastle’s floor, while Nathan followed his typical idiosyncrasy; sleeping in an uncomfortable position in an unlikely place – this time, the front seat of my car. This is not the weirdest place I’ve found him in the morning, oddly.

Nothing beats a Rockcastle breakfast – they gathered eggs from their chickens, pan fried some bacon, and laid out a smorgasbord of bagels and fresh cut fruit.

Shortly after breakfast, the work commenced as we prepared the Heron land for the hundreds of May Day attendees. Nathan and I spent some time moving picnic tables in to place, making burgers for the BBQ (from the Rockcastle farm), and taking measurements for a future project.

The turnout was amazing, and we have to credit the beautiful weather we had during the entire weekend. The Heron folks arranged for The Haybaylers to play some bluegrass tunes during the day, and everyone was in the highest of spirits. Everyone contributed to the potluck that stuffed probably around 200 people.

We finished the day by wrapping the May Pole. I took some video (posted below). I don’t think that in my time as a Heron volunteer I have ever seen so many people participate in weaving the pole. There were so many children that were part of May Day this year and I know that the festival will have many enthusiastic volunteers for years to come.

Nathan and I took a wrong turn on the way home and wound up about a mile from Lake Erie, so we took a few minutes out of the trip to grab a few pictures (it may be the only beach trip I get this year).

Thanks everyone for a great weekend!