Blues Festival

I went to a Blues Festival at the Peavy Plaza in Minneapolis today. What was so amazing was that this was free blues music for the entire day. It has everything I am looking for, a sense of innocence yet an edge. I had heard the blues before but today I swear I fell head over heels in love with it. It was a pretty amazing experience too. I had a wonderful time.

I saw people chill out with a beer with their friends, a great way to relax. I saw people bring young kids to the event, a great way to expose their kids to live music and have some fun themselves. I saw people who were there obviously on dates, which seemed like a romantic experience. People were there with their dogs, a demonstration that the enjoyment of music is not limited to human beings.

I had asked around about going with a friend, I wound up enjoying the music by myself and felt pretty safe as a single woman there. While it would have been an amazing experience to share with someone, I am so glad I did not skip out just because I could not find anyone to go with me. I have noticed that sometimes this makes me seem more unattached and attractive when I go somewhere alone. However today the only thing that I had attracted was a bad sunburn. It is really bad because I was wearing a low cut shirt to detract attention away from an unexpectedly swollen eye.

However I must admit that I really hardly even noticed these factors because the music just sucked me in. This is because it truly was really good music. It was a really nice day out in Minneapolis, unlike the rain I drove from in Rochester. This is one of the ways in which corporate america CAN do some good as it was sponsered by Famous Daves. Of course they advertized and they had their wonderful ribs ready to purchase. Yet this is one of the ways I embrace my Lutheran tradition: the living in the paradox between saint and sinner by enjoying things that corporate america produces. (They really were good ribs) Yet it was through this sponsership that people were able to experience this music for absolutely no cost so I can not write them off as completely evil either. Again, the Lutheran paradox.

The diversity of people there and the varied reasons that they used as excuses to come gave me goosebumps. Because it was an event that was experienced in the context of community. It was the way the arts are meant to be: a communal, affordable experience.