Fit to be tie-dyed

Well, Hillside was an absolute blast! Got to Guelph Friday afternoon and spent a fabulous three-day weekend listening to great music, eating yummy food and enjoying the great outdoors on a tiny island in a man-made lake. We camped at Elora Gorge, which is just about 15 minutes down the road. It rained on Saturday morning, but that didn't stop us. Came prepared with rainwear for the fest and an awning for the campsite. No prob. But it cleared up by early afternoon and the weather from then on was just about perfect.

I couldn't even begin to talk about highlights. Nathan Wiley. Sarah Harmer. Buck 65. Jim Bryson. The Fembots. The Brothers Cosmoline. Broken Social Scene. Chris Brown & Kate Fenner. Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart. They were all great.

Some of the finest moments were found in the side stages, under the canvas big-top tents where musical mixing and matching ruled the day. One session, titled "Close to You", featured a loose conglomeration of folks including Chris Brown, members of The Dears, Metric, Broken Social Scene (Leslie Feist and, I think, Jason Collett), who started out jamming on a loose theme, led by Chris Brown's clavinet-like keys, which turned out to be a very, um... freely defined version of the aforesaid Carpenters song. It would chug along and change direction and mutate, depending on which player felt like taking the reins. Then it would fall apart and almost disintegrateóplayers would leave and others would take their placeóbefore someone would pick up a shattered piece of the jam and toss it up in the air again, reviving the madness. This went on for at least 20 minutes. Same song. It was fun.

Then there was the Sunday session which threw together The Rheostatics and members of a group from Chad called H'Sao. I can't even begin to say what that was like, other than that it was wonderful and uplifting.

But the best part of Hillside is just the vibe. There's a certain amount of neo-hippy stuff, to be sure. Drum circles. Healing tents. Arts and crafts. But beyond that, or maybe stemming from that, there's just a real palpable sense of acceptance, and the awareness that you're enjoying a lovely time with a lot of other people who appreciate great, mostly independent music. Hillside has a spirit unto itself. There are people of all ages, families, little kids, aging hippies, folksters, neo-hippies, indie-music youngsters. Oh, and this year was the 20th anniversary and it was being filmed for a documentary. Maybe you'll see me there!

Major kudos to the organizers for pulling off another special Hillside weekend.