8:00 p.m. Sunday

Just got done with the final day of Wakarusa. I left before the storm clouds moved in. As I boldly predicted in my last post I did sleep through the hula-hoop training class and yoga. After finishing up my last blog post I didn’t end up going to sleep until 6:30 am, so the possibility of me waking up at 10 am to hoop just wasn’t there. Maybe next year.

Condoms here, get your condoms right here: I walked over to the condom tent today to see how they did during the festival. They said they ended up giving away close to 1,500 condoms. That is a lot of latex. Also, I played this sex trivia game and they asked me what percent of Americans under the age of 25 had an STD. I tried to think of my friends and guess how many of them might have a STD to help my answer. They gave me three options and I chose 25 percent, which was right. I should also note that I was wearing my lucky headband that I got yesterday. So for my prize they gave me a backpack that has Trojan Condoms written down the side. I think I just figured out what I am giving grandma for her birthday.

Where am I: I stuck around and heard the band Fourth of July. I am guessing they were named that because they really liked the movie Independence Day. Anyway, I really liked their first few songs and you should go to their myspace page – and listen to Bad Dreams Are Only Dreams. Their turnout wasn’t great and I think a big reason is because of their time. For the most part on Sunday afternoon I think the drugs were starting to wear off for most people so they spent the afternoon trying to figure out where they were and how to get home. It was a confusing time for a lot of people.

Good times had by all: I talked to a lot of people today and got their thoughts on the festival. For the most part everybody really enjoyed it. You had a couple complaints here and there about the police being too strict or lack of certain bands playing but everyone said they would come back next year if Wakarusa is still around, which I heard that it probably will be. I also found out today that you could get free sunscreen and bug spray at the First Aid station. I could have used that information four days ago. My skin officially hates me.

Burn Baby Burn: As I was driving out of Clinton Lake I saw a van engulfed in flames as the fire department tried to put it out. I was told nobody was in the van when it caught on fire. Anyway seeing the van on fire was a perfect last image of Wakarusa. Also for the next hour after seeing the burning van all I could think about was making s’mores. Even without taking drugs, I think being at Wakarusa for four days is starting to melt my brain.

Finally, if you were thinking about going to Wakarusa next year I would strongly recommend it. I went and I had never even heard of a lot of these bands before this weekend, but listening to them live for the first time was an awesome experience. Also like I have said before the people are really cool. Going into the weekend I thought I would be talking to a lot of hippies with long hair that smelled like wet trash. Now granted a lot of them did have long hair…..and I guess some of them didn’t really smell all that great, but they still knew how to have a good time. I am not really sure where I am going with this so I think it is time to wrap things up. Special thanks to Mindy Ricketts, Rebekah Scaperlanda and Chris Hickerson, they did a great job helping out with the blog. I am now off to cover a cat show next week, so yeah, the crazy times will roll on.

5:00 a.m. Sunday

Day 3 of Wakarusa is officially over. I am not going to lie, it is usually tough for me to write anything coherent at 5 am after being up all night, but it being this late plus spending 16 hours at Wakarusa today is going to make this a difficult task. So if I go into a rant about how Coolio is going to make a comeback just do us both a favor and skip past it.

My first headband: I was walking around at about 1 am thinking about what I was going to put in this blog and I was pretty low on ideas. I mean it was a good day and I heard a lot of good bands but nothing really memorable stood out. So being lost and confused I did what any young man in my situation would do – I went and bought a headband for $5. As I put it on for the first time it was then I think I knew my fortune was about to change. A few minutes later I met up with fellow Kansan reporter Rebecka and who do we see …..Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips! Wayne was just by himself chilling outside a tent. We went up and talked to him for about twenty minutes and discussed the current state of Wakarusa, philosophy and religion. The guy couldn’t have been cooler. I mean I didn’t have my press pass showing and didn’t have my microphone out so to him I was just some guy wearing a headband(albeit it was a lucky one) and muddy shoes. While we were talking to him people would come up and ask for photos and he really seemed to enjoy interacting with his fans. Anyway, here is a little what we talked about.

On Wakarusa: Before talking to Wayne I was a little down on the future of Wakarusa. Everybody from the lady who drove the bus to the guy who sold me my headband told me the festival was down and it wasn’t what it used to be. Wayne had the opposite view. He really loved how the people who ran the event and security were really laid back and let people have fun. He said a lot of festivals are a lot more strict and thinks Wakarusa is as good as it ever was.

On philosophy and religion: He said people should believe in themselves and once a person completely accepts that they will die, then a person truly doesn’t have any fear. I probably didn’t do justice to what he said but the guy has some pretty interesting ideas. Finally, I hate to end this part on a bad note but he also said The Flaming Lips probably won’t be back to Wakarusa next year because they want to mix things up. Yeah I am bummed too.

Please don’t drink that: I talked to a lady at First Aid and asked what the weirdest injury/ailment they had today. She said somebody came in because he drank too much lighter fluid. We don’t really do public service announcements on this blog but here it goes……….ready…….DON’T DRINK LIGHTER FLUID! If you do end up drinking lighter fluid, I guess just be responsible? I don’t really know what to tell you.

The White Owls take over: I saw White Owls car (you can tell because he has his name on it and is covered in his catch phrases) parked while I was walking in. It is easy to spot While Owl at a basketball game or on campus but not so much at Wakarusa. Every old person there looks and pretty much acts just like him. So be warned Lawrence, a mob of White Owl’s have invaded your quiet, wholesome city. If it wasn’t 5 am I would photoshop a picture of this happening but for now you will just have to use your imagination.

Rockarusa: I saw State Radio for the first time live today and they were really good. If they come back I would recommend checking them out.

Lips: One more Flaming Lips story. When I was at their show on Friday night I noticed a couple probably ten feet in front of me next to the stage, they also had a baby…..who was sleeping! Now I haven’t been around a lot of babies in my life but I was really perplexed how a baby could sleep soundly in the front of a freakin' concert. I thought about this all day and came up with two solutions. His parents either gave him enough NyQuil to kill a horse or the baby has been through so many concerts that he is probably legally deaf and little things like music or noise doesn’t bother him anymore. Either way it’s not good.

On a side note next week I have to cover a cat show and I am pretty sure the atmosphere will be just like Wakarusa, except maybe the exact opposite. Also in case you might be wondering I don’t think we will have a live running blog from the cat show. Even I have standards.

I have to get up in four hours if I want to make it to the drum circle, and then after that is yoga. I think there is a pretty good chance I will probably sleep through it so sorry loyal blog reader. Tomorrow we will have one final post and I will get the stuff up from Arrested Development. Also my Kansan email isn’t working so if there is something you want me to check out at Wakarusa email me at bcisler@ku.edu.

Point of interest: Lawrence residents who bring in the Wakarusa ad from tomorrow's Lawrence Journal World and Lawrence area ID get in to Wakarusa for free.

12:52 p.m.

I think it is safe to say the best part of last night was The Flaming Lips concert. People had kept telling me that their live shows are amazing, and truth be told, it pretty much was. They started off with their lead singer Wayne Coyne coming out on the stage in a giant bubble. I think running around on stage in a giant bubble is something I just added to my list of things I am going to do before I die. Also there were a bunch of people dressed as Teletubbies on stage and one of the people was…..wait for it…..yeah Kansan reporter Rebekah Scaperalanda. A lesser man than me might be kind of jealous that she got to be on stage for one of the greatest bands of all time and got to talk/get pictures with Wayne Coyne afterwards, but I am over it, seriously. They also had a song where they encouraged everybody to take their clothes off. I don’t know if I have said this yet, but I like the people at Wakarusa. They are all pretty nice, easy to talk to, know how to have a good time, but in no way do I want to see most of these people without their clothes on. Sorry, but that is just how I feel. To quote Bill Simmons “ I will now light myself on fire.”

Also during the show I somehow befriended quite possibly one of the bigger Lips fans there. It was kind of a weird situation because she kept telling me in depth things about the band, and I will be honest, I have listened to the Lips before but I am not a huge fan like a lot of the people there. So I just kind of nodded and pretended I knew what I was talking about. I am pretty sure this is how people feel when I talk to them about sports. Anyway, I enjoyed the information and I knew she had credibility right off the bat because one of the first things she told me was she “did” a member of the band Phish last year. I love Wakarusa.

I left for an hour after the Lips concert and when I came back the mood was a little bit more…mellow. I am pretty sure in one of the tents I was one of the only people who wasn’t on some serious drugs. You know what though, they all looked like they were having a good time so more power to them.

Also my final tip before I leave for Day 3 – buy sunscreen. People told me this before the festival but I didn’t listen. I paid the price. Now, I am going to Hy-Vee to buy a gallon of that stuff. I will be back later today with a Q & A I got from the band Arrested Development.

Photo Gallery

Wakarusa, day 2

A photo gallery of Friday, June 6, at the Wakarusa Festival.

6:30 p.m. Friday

As you probably know by now they canceled the music last night because of the storm. I did talk to a couple of people who braved the weather and apparently people who brought their own instruments had their own jam session out in the rain to keep the spirit of Wakarusa alive. Those are true fans.

Also Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips had a press conference today and here are some tidbits from what he said.

Coyne on the weather from last night…

“I really do feel that people like when adversity pulls them together. Watching bands, taking drugs and drinking is fun but when you have to rebuild your tent or find your underwear because it blew off, I think it makes it more of an adventure for you. I don’t want it to rain a lot while we play, but I like it that there is stuff going on. We are from Oklahoma and frankly that wasn’t that big of a storm last night. By our standards it was a little wimpy.” “

On playing music festivals like Wakarusa: "We do these types of things and you hope it goes on for five or six years and works. When it goes good, we go ‘that was cool, lets do it again’ We just hope people believe in it because it is a lot to organize and a lot of risk the promoters take and all that. When it goes good I try to acknowledge that ya know, the crowd was cool, the people that put on the show were cool.”

On trying to politically active on the music scene: “To me it is too fucking easy. You go to a rock show and I will go up there and say ‘lets hope Obama wins, fuck George Bush’ and everybody will say ‘YEAH’ and we will smoke a joint and that is all we do. That is not saying anything, that is just partying. That is not being political or socially active, that is just going to a concert and saying ‘YEAH’. Since the days of Woodstock people associate sitting in a field and smoking pot with changing the world. It just doesn’t work that way. My view is this is a rock festival, we are going to take drugs, have sex and have fun, but politics and social, that is a serious thing and we don’t need to go out and tell somebody who is 15, the troubles of the world when they are trying to smoke pot for the first time.

What I do in my hometown is get involved in my neighborhood. I hope the local senator beats the old, racist, pot-hating motherfucker that is in there now. I don’t know if he will but I am going to try. I care who becomes the president, but not as much as who is in charge of my own neighborhood. If we did that, and somebody asked me who the president was, I would say ‘I don’t care,’ because in my spot right here we are being taken care of.”

That is all for now. I will be back around 4 am for another update.

10:29 p.m. Thursday

Just got back from my first visit to Wakarusa and my first question when I walked in….where are all the people? I wasn’t exactly expecting Woodstock, but man, the crowd was sparse. I talked to several Wakarusa veterans and they said this is the lowest turnout they have seen. Granted it is only the first day and I think the festival is still hurting a little bit from two years ago when the cops really cracked down on the drugs. Also in case you haven’t heard there is a tornado watch in Lawrence until midnight. Last time I checked twisters and outdoor music festivals don’t really go together. I talked to an official who is working the festival and if you are planning on going to Wakarusa tonight and a tornado hits down, you are suppose to find a ditch or a low level ground. In other words, good luck.

I didn’t get to see too many bands today because I spent a lot of my time working on a story about Uncle Monk that will run in the Kansan on Wednesday. His set was pretty good except that he didn’t play Emotional Needs, which I would think he would play because it is HIS BEST SONG. Why didn’t he play it you ask? I don’t know, you would think the journalist in me would have asked him afterward, but I think I was so distraught that I was in a daze afterwards so it slipped my mind.

Trojan cares: Apparently Trojan sent a man out to Wakarusa to give out free condoms. Either they did this because they really care about safe sex, or they really don’t want the people at Wakarusa to reproduce.

Just talked to fellow Kansan reporter Rebekah Scaperlanda and she said the Douglass County Sheriff department is warning people to stay in their campgrounds because of the threat of a tornado. I will be back out there in a few hours and if I do meet my fate and get sucked into the heavens by a twister(which is how I want to go out anyway) I want to dedicate this blog to Snot Rocket, the greatest roller derby girl to ever skate in the sacred grounds of Hale Arena. I will be back(if I am alive) for another update around 2 or 3 am.