- Got to catch the following artists at VFMF: Weakerthans, Iron & Wine, Arrested Development, The Breakmen, Basia Bulat, Dan Mangan, Rock Central Plaza, and Great Lake Swimmers among others
- Caught Joel Plaskett Emergency (+ Peter Elkas) for free
- Chatted with Basia, offered pie to Dan, and Tony Dekker drew me a guitar
- Grabbed set lists from JPE and GLS shows
- Had my interview questions for Basia used although I couldn't make it personally due to a close friend's bridal shower
- Dancing and praising God in a flowy skirt during Arrested Development's twilight (and night time) performance. (Now how to distill that magnetic, spiritual energy into Sunday mornings?)
- The Lantern Committee's light show at night time during AD's set, and then lining the pathways to lead the crowd out of the park
- "Banjo Wars 2009" between Rock Central Plaza, The Breakmen and Great Lake Swimmers during their session. Lying down right up front feeling like I could float, I could fly, like branches and boats and birds in the sky. (Joel Plaskett)
- Basia Bulat's stomping heels, rich voice and warm attitude
- Hanging out with Alex(OfAnders), Justin, Mel and Lauren. Singing along with Dan Mangan to Robots with Alex and a thousand other people at the main stage.
- Great Lake Swimmers were plucked from the ear of God themselves. Tony Dekker has a voice that not only makes memories, yet takes previous ones and puts a sepia tone to them. Dreamy yet grounded, and singularly spectacular. Read these words:
After that, it's hard to go over the ughs. I'm extremely sleep deprived and have skipped most normal meals for the past three days, but that's not because of the set up of the festival but how entranced I was with the music. And how long it took to upload pictures and videos onto my computer.I'm still a note that's unplayed, ink on a page, I'm still, I'm still
I'm still a cry in the night, lonesome and high, I'm still, I'm still
I'm still tuned to an instrument of greater and unknown design
I'm still looking for direction, some kind of sign
I'm still tuning myself to the great key, I'm still, I'm still
(Great Lake Swimmers, "Still")
I'll upload some pictures onto Flickr and write a proper write-up on NxEW when I get home. There are a lot of photos, and a couple of videos... depending how the bass turned out in them, I might upload them onto Youtube as well. Don't forget to check back :)