Sunshine in the Clouds - Fri/Sat of Ichthus

Hey! This is Maria. I'm here to tell you about the rest of Mo and I's amazing weekend in Wilmore, KY. If you don't know where that is, it's ok. Neither do we.

I was all excited about Friday because it was THE DAY for bands. It was like all one awesome amazing goodness was packed into the day of the week that is always looked forward to -- Friday. The bands that were planned to grace us with their presence were Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, As I Lay Dying, TobyMac, The Showdown, Becoming the Archetype, Inhale Exhale, Flatfoot 56, Blaze Entertainment stage, and the band we all know and love, This Beautiful Republic. Maybe those aren't your type of bands....but for me, it was a little slice of heaven mixed with hardcore. We took our time getting out our "bed", aka the back of Mo's car, and I even got a shower in that day. I stood in line for an hour and half to take a 5 minute shower. No lie. I was that quick. :) Mo and I met this super cool southern guy named Perry Stokes (that is an AWESOME name!) who took more time getting ready than we did. He dragged me all around the festival grounds to find a plug so he could use his straightener on his hair. Seriously. After he found one, he proceeded to take out multiple bottles and hair products so that his hair would stay straight and smell wonderful all day long! After we got laughed at by a few teeny boppers, we went to go see some bands play, because after all, that's why were there right?!

After wandering around, we camped out at the Deep End stage and was about to watch a band named after Spiderman's first girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. They just started to play a few tunes and down came the RAIN and washed spiderman's girlfriend out. We all took cover under the tents and then the army men and a really butch woman made us go back to our cars (bc that's a real safe place when there's 50-60mph winds and a tornado watch). During the downpour, Mo and I were inspired by Bear Grylls of Man vs. Wild and collected the rain water off of our manmade tarp-tent. I know this is a lame story, but it's all we got. Everything was canceled for the rest of the day. Eff that crap. Because of the sudden lack of events, I curled up in the car and slept for the next 5 hours. What Mo did during that time, I will never know. But I do wonder where all the food went and why my shirt was cut into pieces...just kidding.

I woke up just in time to see a shaggy haired man walking in front of our car trying to get in the back gate. Seeing that it was dark outside and I have horrible night vision, I had no idea who it was. Turns out, Mo can see fairly well and realized that it was none other than Mr. Andy Smith of TBR trying to get inside the festival grounds because the rest of his band left him! With our expertise, we got him back to his beloved Brandon and TBR clan and were able to chill with the guys while they were there. It's a bummer they didn't get to play :(

Saturday was chaos. Ichthus was doing a lot of major rehaul trying to fit in bands that stayed around hoping that they would be able to play for the kiddos. Bits and pieces would best describe Saturday. I think the highlight for me was seeing The Glorious Unseen and creating relationships with Perry and this other awesome guy we volunteered with, Travis, who happens to know Isaac Dietz. I was fortunate enough to run into them and get to know both guys a little more. Amidst the packed Saturday, Mo and I got to hang out with our friends that played (11ty7, The Glorious Unseen, Through a Glass, Gwen Stacy, Special D, and Josh Brown from Day of Fire), make new friends (After Edmund, Ilia, The Switch, Amy, Travis, and Perry and my new friend from Nashville - Cory! --->) There's too many to keep naming!

We left during MxPx (don't judge us) and drove an hour out of the way to get on a bump, bump, bumpity road and got back in Nashville around the same time we arrived in Kentucky: 4:30am.

The trip was awesome. We barely slept. There was only 1 shower taken. We were able to actually cook mac and cheese to sustain our life. We made around 5-ish new friends. Haste the Day puts on an amazing show...and has a mean cookout. I actually saw a hardcore band who had a chick as their lead singer. It was awkward and I don't think people are ready for that quite yet. We can officially say we survived the wilderness of Kentucky thanks to the expertise of Bear Grylls...and our own improvisation. I got a killer tan. I screamed every time a cicada thought about flying by me. It was entertaining to see the bands react to the cicadas on stage. They screamed and danced around awkwardly as well. We didn't take many pictures but these are a few of my faves. :)

Mo and I are hitting up different festivals every year.
Last year was Creation East.
This year was Ichthus.
Both were beyond what I had hoped for or expected.
I can't even imagine what next year will be like!
Where should we go next??

FESTIVAL SEASON!!!

Hey peeps!

Gonna try this out. Kelsey told me to write a blog about the festivals a few of us went to the past few weeks. Maria and I (Mo) went to Ichthus in good ole Wilmore, Kentucky then we snagged Ashley from Nashville after 2.6 days of being home and working our tails of to head up to Pro-Life in Warsaw, Indiana.

For starters: Ichthus (which I can never spell correctly) was epic for a few different reasons. An Epic lack of sleep. The night before we left I had to prepare for a presentation for my summer class which kept me awake until 4 am. I'm a perfectionalistic person when it comes to stuff like that which I learned is called Analysis Paralysis. Project was about my strengths ( which based on strengthsquest.com tells me are: Postivity, Developer, Adaptability, Belief and Includer). > I must say that I LOVE the auto save feature on Blogspot!> That night (Wednesday) Maria and I went to Cobra Starship and The Secret Handshake @ RCKTWN, then Maria skated with some dudes afterwards and we left Nashville around 1am.

After a Rockstar and a bit of driver switchy action later we get to the grounds around 5:30 am. Awkward in the car sleep till a little after 7am until we had to get check in to volunteer at the Deep End Stage. We walked over, met our fellow helpers as well as got aquainted with the local plaque: Cicadas. I kinda wanna puke a little whenever I see them. Just imagine a gabilion of these suckers flying around making noise and landing on you. The boys scream when you flick them off. These dinosour bugs are fearless and as our friend Perry told us: "If you pull their front right leg, their WHOLE HEAD COMES OFF!" Cool.

Mr. Josh Brown (Day of Fire) was the host for the Deep End Stage so he was chillin and whenever I went off next to a tree to sleep (cuz 3hrs of sleep and 3 days don't match up), I was awoken by a crazed cook. He told me that the sun was going to burn me, but if it the sun didn't... he would. He then proceeded to squirt lighter fluid on his mini grill and laugh very evil-y along with his bandmates who were awaiting his cooked food. (Later I find out said band was Haste the Day, ha)

We then preceeded to open and close the gate for van/trailer combos, help bands with their gear and roast in the sun. Snuck away to see Through A Glass play on the Blaze Entertainment stage. Let me tell you, Mr. and Mrs. Blaze are AMAZING people and they have the raddest family!!! If you happen to be reading this: THE DIEHARDS HEART YOU! So, the TAG guys were amazing and gave us their leftover meal vouchers which was super nice of them. Battle of the Bands had some sweet bands in it like Farebridge. Ok, well, maybe they were the only band I liked, but, boy oh boy, are they GOOD! haha.

Thursday night: Maria and I actually took a nap after the battle of the bands and were pleasently awoken by Skillet. It was delightful!

Well, I think I've gone into too much detail for now, mostly cuz I've only covered Thursday, buuut I'll be back soon with the rest of our adventures!!

So long!

-Mo