River and Blues
The Corvallis festival season will kick off tonight with the Red, White and Blues Riverfront Festival. From 5 to 10:30 tonight and from 10 to 10:30 tomorrow, First Street will be cordoned off for the festivities.
The cost is a mere $5 per day (and free for kids under 12), unless you want to hang around outside the mesh wall, where you can hear some great blues music from bands like the Hammer Smith Band and Jimmy Thackery absolutely free, with no crowds sticking their elbows into whatever elephant ear/corn dog/tofu burrito fair food you might be munching. However, part of the reason you'll go ahead and shell out that $5 is so that you can shell out some more cash and sample Oregon microbrews and yummy wines without worrying about those pesky open container laws. There are also local crafts and activities for the kids, and hey, it's only $5.
Tomorrow night, the evening is capped by the usual Corvallis Jaycees fireworks display* over the river, which I think I'll skip this year. Last year, there was no actual enforcement of the ordinance that says "No shooting mortars and bottle rockets into the crowd" and dodging teen-tossed cherry bombs became old pretty quickly. For a town with a hefty police-to-citizen ratio, it seemed odd that we couldn't wrangle up a cop to handle the morons aiming for the pockets of people.
I think I'll watch from a hill north of town and bring my own wine. But only after I go shell out my 5 bucks to hear Thackery, who played with one of my faves, Muddy Waters. I am not familiar with Thackery, but maybe some Mud rubbed off.
*Ugly web page warning!
The cost is a mere $5 per day (and free for kids under 12), unless you want to hang around outside the mesh wall, where you can hear some great blues music from bands like the Hammer Smith Band and Jimmy Thackery absolutely free, with no crowds sticking their elbows into whatever elephant ear/corn dog/tofu burrito fair food you might be munching. However, part of the reason you'll go ahead and shell out that $5 is so that you can shell out some more cash and sample Oregon microbrews and yummy wines without worrying about those pesky open container laws. There are also local crafts and activities for the kids, and hey, it's only $5.
Tomorrow night, the evening is capped by the usual Corvallis Jaycees fireworks display* over the river, which I think I'll skip this year. Last year, there was no actual enforcement of the ordinance that says "No shooting mortars and bottle rockets into the crowd" and dodging teen-tossed cherry bombs became old pretty quickly. For a town with a hefty police-to-citizen ratio, it seemed odd that we couldn't wrangle up a cop to handle the morons aiming for the pockets of people.
I think I'll watch from a hill north of town and bring my own wine. But only after I go shell out my 5 bucks to hear Thackery, who played with one of my faves, Muddy Waters. I am not familiar with Thackery, but maybe some Mud rubbed off.
*Ugly web page warning!
posted by Corvallist at
1:23 AM
6 Comments:
If you are referring to the hill that is accessible through that homogenous condo area, I was thinking of heading up there... alas, we have plans to relax in the yard.
By
crallspace, at 5:44 PM
What's the ugly web page warning?
By
Unknown, at 5:56 PM
Ah, it's not *that* ugly, but the Jaycees website has lots of fireworks that make it tough to read, at least for a cranky middle-of-the-night blogger.
By
Corvallist, at 8:19 PM
Ah, I was a tad slow on the asterisk... duh.
By
Unknown, at 11:59 PM
I went down to the festival yesterday, and I was very disappointed. I have to say it's the only "Riverfront festival" where you can't see a riverfront! The green plastic fence might keep freeloaders from seeing the band, but it also keeps paying customers from seeing the beautiful scenery. Once inside the gate, I could have been anywhere. Thanks for the heads up on this--I hope Thackary was good--but I won't be plunking down $5 in the future.
By
Paul Bausch, at 10:58 AM
I have never actually paid for the Red, White and Blues festival precisely because of the ugly mesh. I'd rather park on the lawn with a cooler farther north along the river.
I ended up skipping Thackery entirely and watching the show from farther away. From our vantage point, we could see Albany's fireworks show as well. Much fun!
By
Corvallist, at 5:08 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home