Shakori Hills!

From Friday April 17th to Sunday the 19th, NORSA members Alan, Adam, Taylor, and Jana, along with friends Matt, Brian, Cindi, Britt, and Andrew, were joined by fellow hashers Sponge, Gypsy, Slippery, Rover, Scrub, and Elickser for the Spring 2009 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in central Chatham County, North Carolina. The event takes place on a farm designed specifically for the purpose of hosting the festival where participants camp out all weekend long. This was the second and third Shakori Hills for much of the NORSA crowd.

Featuring multiple stages, activity tents, a dance tent, local vendors, artisans, and thousands of North Carolina's finest hippies, the festival is a weekend-long celebration of bluegrass, zydeco, country-western, folk, and reggae music. Over fifty bands participate, including past staples Donna the Buffalo, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Del Mccoury, Scythian, Boulder Acoustic Society, Eileen Jewel, The Horse Flies, the Red Hots, Old Crow Medicine Show, and many more. This year's headliner was Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, who won a Grammy award in 2002 for their work on the soundtrack for the motion picture "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

Three days of the festival can get somewhat expensive, but fortunately there are opportunities to volunteer for free passes. A three hour shift gets you one free day pass. The NORSA crew (along with many others) worked parking shifts. Alan, Adam, Taylor also showed their appreciation for nature by working compost shifts both Saturday and Sunday. The festival seeks to minimize their impact on the environment by composting and recycling as much refuse as possible. All vendors use bio-degradable utensils, plates and cups. Compost volunteers get to drive a sweet Datsun truck around the festival and, besides collecting compost, educate festival goers about the benefits of composting.

The spring festival was a success. Special thanks to Jana for organizing and picking out a sweet and central campsite.