Sierra Nevada World Music Festival

Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. aka, lots and lots of reggae, dirty hippies and stoners, with a couple of good ska bands, and some good people watching.

We had fun, but the camping was incredibly overcrowded, the music was not very diverse at all, and the logistics left a bit to be desired. They had a main stage that was completely unsheltered and dusty, and a much nicer shaded grove for the second stage. We hung out at the second stage. Some stalls of interest, but mostly just lots of people selling rasta stuff and intricately blow glass pipes. Far and away the most open pot policy of any concert I've ever been too. This is where all those stoners go on the weekends. Festivals.

We lived the luxury life in Lisa's big tent and air bed, ate pancakes for breakfast, beer for dinner, and had a generally good time, hula hooping and blowing bubbles. Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra were particularly good, as was the Basque band added at the last minute. They're not actually Fermin Muguruza, but he was their lead singer, and they are definitely related. Both of these bands seemed rather out of place, being highly polished slick ska acts, very entertaining. They were before and after very very slow reggae acts. I'd pay money to see these bands again.

Hamsa Lila were playing again, we'd see them before, at the Fillmore a couple of months ago where they were awesome, but it was a slightly different playlist this time around, less techno, more tribal stuff. I didn't enjoy it as much. They were also having technical issues with their instruments for the first portion.

In summary, not the best festival I've been too. Too expensive, not enough bands of interest, and horrible camping. We made the most of it though :)

Jugglers	Men with birds on their shoulders	Cool sounding morrocan drumguitar (Hamsa Lila)	Old men with old instruments (Hamsa Lila)
Young Men with new instruments (Hamsa Lila)	Hippie Chicks (Hamsa Lila)	Singing with soul	The routine