The whole time I’ve been here at Wakarusa, I’ve been trying to find a good balance between writing, documenting and photographing for nodepression.com, and releasing my party wrath. It wasn’t until last night, one night before the festival ended that I found that balance.
I started out the day by the river with some people Ive met, and when one of them passed out of drinking a box of Franzia we stacked stones on his body. I’m actually surprised he didn’t die, those stones weighed a lot, and we were not gentle. The stone structure collapsed on top of him numerous times, until eventually he woke up with a look of wonder and horror to about 80 pounds of rocks on his pelvic bones. It was fun though. The perfect revitalizing escape we all needed from the immense crowds and heat, but I still hadn’t found a balance. 
The crowd at Mumford and Sons went wild, kicking up a thick cloud of dust that froze in the air for about an hour. I watched as people around me cried, danced and sang to the beautiful lyrics of Mumford, and as I was in the photo pit I even found myself tearing up a little bit. Being that close to a band like Mumford allows you to see the strain their face while they sing, the beads of sweat on their forehead but more than anything you see the heart of this band, which is profound. 
This is Sharon Jones just milliseconds before thrusting her hips to the side. That woman, aside from being hysterically funny, has the energy of a thousand Chihuahuas. There was not an inch of that stage that Sharon’s toes didn’t dance on. She was really fun to see.
I met up with my friend Kayla for Thievery Co. after putting everything tied to responsibility in my car; camera, computer, backpack and my shirt. We danced for the bulk of the show, retiring to the grass and lost ourselves in the stars. People were releasing flaming balloons into the air by the dozens. The balloons are made of thin paper, with an oil lantern in the bottom that heats the balloon upwards. As a result, new constellations were born in the sky, making it hard to differentiate stars and flying lanterns.
We checked out Big Gigantic, Kayla pushed her way through thousands of people, pulling me behind her. The crowd was insane, chaotic, frantic, happy. Everyone was dancing, but not normal dancing. It was the kind of hard dancing that people do when their is no one there to watch. I was still for a few minutes. Kayla was droppin it like it was hot. I was wrestling with the idea of getting my camera, to document what I was seeing. But then something happened. I said fuck it, “this is for me,” and I danced. I had finally found the balance.
