People came and went listening to one then another and concentrated on the music.

The diversity of bands at the Wakarusa Music Festival was incendiary, giving fans an eclectic lineup on all stages.

The campground stages offered lesser-known bands, but not less talented. Bands such as Jervis Jort, Big Metal Rooster and Ten Mile Tide gave an uplifting start to the festival.

While the main stages were still being built, participants packed the stage tents, dancing and singing along with the bands.

June 17 began with much the same fervor at the campsite stages, but people were less stationary. People would pack the stages in waves, listening to many different bands.

The reason for this transiency came from the opening of the main stages, where fans and other listeners were given a taste of bands ranging from Carbon Leaf to North Mississippi Allstars and String Cheese Incident.

Thousands of people came for the latter two, filling the Sun Down stage for the hour-plus sets.

“This is crazy, there are a lot of people here,” Aaron Classi, Topeka senior said.

Even after the official music ended, guitars and sing-a-longs could be heard throughout the campsite, with people dancing in and around tents and along the streets.

Dancing was a pervasive theme, continuing from the beginning to the end.

Fans often took breaks from the nomadic tendency and sat or lay down to listen to one particular band.

June 18 about 15,000 people were listening, leaving and returning to a number of bands.

Matisyahu, Chubby Carrier and Jazz Mandolin Project played throughout the festival and the crowds for all three grew from word of mouth by the end of the weekend.

By June 19, fans were expecting their favorite songs and performances from Matisyahu, a reggae band, and Chubby Carrier, a self-proclaimed Northern Louisiana calypso band. Fans sang along with a Chubby Carrier version of the Todd Rundgren song, “Bang on the drum all day.”

The festival came to a close with perennial Lawrence players Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Split Lip Rayfield. The ‘70s band, Little Feat, even did a set on the final day to help close the concert.

Galactic, a New Orleans funk band, closed the main stage to a crowd of thousands.

Attendees were as likely to hear music ranging from reggae to bluegrass, as they were to see a BMW or a Volkswagen bus. And the music was as diverse as the people attending the concert.