Jazz Fest 09

Jazz Fest was quite an event this past weekend. Five of us drove down, received our volunteer passes for parking, and enjoyed some of the festival before we began our volunteer shift at 3pm. Our main objective was to work at the T-shirt booth and retrieve many a jazz fest collector's shirts as they were requested from fest-goers. It was interesting to notice that some folks who stopped by bought one of each kind, spending up to $200 in all. Personally, I'm all about the food, but to each their own.

To give you an idea of how it works, there are several stages set up with different bands at each throughout the day. Tents, crafts, food stands, store tents and more are all around throughout the festival, and you could easily spend the entire day enjoying everything there. Many folks would set up blankets or lawn chairs and stake out their area for the day. Others roamed around from stage to stage depending on what band was playing, and others seemed to be there simply for the t-shirts. In any case, it's a big event for everyone who visits.

Anyway, after a bit, four of us were pulled to help in the record tent/store where we made ourselves available to answer questions about where to find artists in the shelves. The CD tent sells the music of all of the artists that are scheduled to perform at Jazz Fest this year. Off the top of my head, some of the bands that are performing are Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, and Earth, Wind, and Fire. During our shift in the CD tent, we were able to take a quick break to run over to one of the main stages to watch the Dave Matthews Band perform. It was packed, of course, so we weren't very close, but you could hear the music loud and clear.

We also saw actor Taye Diggs stroll by our T-shirt tent. One of the jazz fest volunteer staff made sure to run over and get a closer look to identify our suspicions, and we were right. The magnitude and popularity of Jazz Fest was obvious on Sunday, and it was great to be able to see it for the first time. We volunteer again on Saturday for the final weekend of the festival, and this time it will be in the morning, so we're looking forward to enjoying some more of the festival, listening to more bands, and also going out in the city that evening. If there's more to say, you know I'll write it here. :)