Green River Festival 2015: Sharing A Tradition with Newbie

Festival girls.
Festival girls.
A newbie at the fest.
Reading and enjoying the music–a fest newbie!
The Straybirds
The Straybirds.

It’s July again in the Valley and the best punctuation mark in this glorious vacation month is the annual Green River Festival at GCC.  The weather yesterday was perfect–not too hot, but still worth bringing an umbrella to sit under, and the legions of old friends and acquaintances who I get to run into and see every year.

One highlight for me this year was that my son Sam came to his first GRF since the 1990s when I brought him along as a young’in.  He joined us in our first-umbrella row site and stuck around until 8:30 pm. That means he liked it!

Rubblebucket, after their roaring, raving introduction by WRSI’s Monte Belmonte, proved as good as he said they were, with their rollicking soulful beats that got everyone dancing and pumping their fists.  Another stand-out was at the far end of the fest at the Four Rivers stage, where Red Baraat, featuring a full horn section and some wild drumming on a two-sided drum, enthralled a whole flock of fans who had never heard of this Brooklyn based band. Kudos to Jim, once again, who knew about these guys who play northern Indian pop? ReadUpOnIt