It’s almost a blur now. The crisp Pacific air is just a memory that gave a cool kiss to my sun soaked skin. Oh California you make love to me every time I’m in you and god it’s good! You caress me with that sweet smell of eucalyptus as soon as I get far enough south to not be enveloped by the pine that I call home. Oh Oregon, you were good to me but alas, I have found someone else and she is oh so cool. Her friends are the wild ones your mother tells you to stay away from. They go by Lightning in a Bottle, Coachella, Symbiosis, and the one I fell in love with this past weekend, Lucidity. She was a wild one with a cool demeanor. Not too out there, tucked away in the cool breeze of the oaks, she took me in and loved me long time. Lucidity you certainly stole my heart and I’ll never forget what you did to me but how in the hell did I get stuck in your vortex? Let me sit here and think for a second while I sip on my whiskey….
Was it the way I came to find you? The beautiful drive down The 1, flowers bursting everywhere, weaving a beautiful blanket of crimson yellow that could have been the heart warming welcome that did it. Or was it the milky green rolling hills dotted with oaks twisted from time and the black and white cows speckling the country side like salt and pepper sprinkled on a California ripe avocado? It could have been the beautiful drive, the welcoming smiles greeting me as I entered the gates, or even the epic location nestled on top of a campground perched on the cliffside in a valley that made you feel hundreds of miles from Santa Barbara (I literally could have walked there…. after said amount of whiskey of course).
Location aside, Lucidity was the kind of lover you want to gently kiss and handcuff all at the same time. She’s a sweetheart on the outside but once you get her alone (all few thousand of her), you see whats hiding in the cool groves of the California oak. You find a group of individuals brought together to bring in the seasonal rush of festival gatherings. After a winter of working away at their craft, they come out emerging from the woodward to bring you straight magic. Releasing a rush of musical greats such as Mike Love, Keller Williams, Eprom, Mikhal, and a flurry of amazing musicians, Lucidity makes love to you and leaves you wanting more. In the midst of this 3-day sun kissed, rain soaked, blend of crazy, there was something, perhaps a void we all could not shake.
Through the beautiful blend of musicians, speakers, artists of all colors, I experienced a soul shaking moment when we all came together with one thing in our hearts. Showing love, loss, and gratitude for a soul that tragically was taken from us on his way to perform at Head for the Hills, Chris “Pumpkin” Alvarado’s tribute set was the most moving experience I’ve had at a festival since my 3rd year at The Burn saying goodbye to my grandmother at the Temple. Pumpkins set was where we ALL came together, packing the hillside to where there was no end of radiant, smiling faces. With the entire family of lucid dreamers throwing their hearts up in the air in honor of a soul that left this world that much brighter and way too soon, we all shared a moment that Pumpkin would be proud of and will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
I can go on about the sound, stages, workshops, and so on but it all tends to blend together if you go to more than one festival and read more than one article. Going in depth on any aspect of Lucidity will only scratch the surface of what the experience truly was. Lucidity was many things to many people. Just like a lady in the night, she can be anything you’d like for the right price. A party, a spiritual gathering, a place to get lost or a place to be found, we go to her to be loved in our own special way. I made love to Lucidity, leaving me with the good kind of take homes from such a night. I now have amazing new friends and a family that I will surely be seeing again next year. I’ll be making love to you again my Southern Californian fling, you can count on that. If you yourself want a taste of this wild one, Lucidity will most definitely love you long time.
Till the next time,
Andrew Lloyd
