Shambhala 2006

This year I got to return to Shambhala with Norm, which I was beyond excited about since I met him there 6 years ago, and he has not been back since.

Norm flew in from Toronto on Monday morning, and I picked him up from the airport. We had a really busy day, hanging out with Crystal, going on a shopping spree at Future Shop, and moving a ton of stuff in my new place around.

The next day after I got home from work, Norm's friend Elsbeth and her friend Galiya had just arrived from Yellowknife. They drove all the way down to come out to Shambhala. I was really excited to meet Elsbeth, after hearing about her from Norm so much. And of course I wasn't disappointed, she's awesome.

We spent some time doing some serious costume work, since most of my grande ideas had fallen apart. Elsbeth helped me out, and after turning my house into a fun fur tornado zone, we managed to get quite a lot done.

That night Norm's friend Erin (who I always seem to meet right before or after I am going to sleep) came in from Jasper to spend the night. It was a full house, but I just went to bed and they all went out to Morgans to see Broken Toyz, and 80s metal cover band.

The next day I worked in the morning, then Elsbeth and Galiya drove down in her car, and Norm in my car to pick me up, and we headed to Salmo. It was a good drive, with me and Norm getting more and more excited. As we turned in off the highway, we were so pumped, and then we hit the line. I realized that we were much further back than we had been last year, and it was going to be a few hours.

We hung out in line, Norm went wandering and me and Elsbeth chatted, and moved our cars 10 feet every half and hour. Finally after two hours in line, we decided that Elsbeth and I would walk the tents in, find our friends and set up, and Norm and Galiya would drive in.

We walked in and found Kelsi working away, and she told us where they were camped. Pk had blocked roped off and area behind the village, so we went and set up camp next to them. It took us almost two hours to walk in and set up, and right as we walked back to the gate, Norm and Galiya were just pulling in. That night we pretty much set up the rest of our stuff and passed out.

Wednesday we did some wandering, and met our neighbours, Hareesh and Zara. Hareesh was playing at the portal, and the were both super nice, we were glad to be camped next to them. I also saw an RV on the main road that I knew must be Motaboy (Michelle), someone of the Shambhala forum. We stopped by to say hello to him and he was great! He gave us stickers that said Shambhala or Bust, the same ones I got last year but I managed to lose. We hung out at his campsite for a bit, and then at 4:20 we headed to the potluck for the Shambhala forum people.

I was so impressed at the turn out, last year due to rain it didn't really work out. I met a ton of people for the first time, and saw other people that I had met before. Elesa had been stick in the line, but she managed to just make it. Bret and Laura had just arrived from Vancouver, and they came too. There was tons of great food, and we even had some entertainment when one of the forum members did an acrobat show for us. Then he showed Elesa how to do some moves, so we got dinner and a show.

That night me and Elsbeth hung out, and wandered with some people checking out the stages that were open. Eventually we wound up back at the camp site, where Pat and Jesse and some other people were playing records. That night I ended up losing my backpack, which was the worst. I had my wallet with my money, credit cards, id, and my cell phone, my keys, my ciggarettes, everything. I looked for it everywhere, but eventually realized that I wouldn't be able to find it that night. So instead I got wasted and wandered around a bit more. The stages closed really early, maybe around two, and me and Elsbeth found ourselves in Hareesh and Zara's RV to warm up before bed.

On Friday I started a full on search for my bag, without any luck. I was pretty upset, but decided that I was going to be out there for days, so there wasn't much I could do about it. And I am so blessed that I know some amazing people, who helped me out all weekend. I had so many things gifted to me, from cigarettes, to money to buy food; basically all my party supplies.

That afternoon I had a nap, and was woken up by Norm and Elsbeth. We went over to Brett and Laura's campsite for some tea, and then headed out. We stopped first at the Portal (the one and only time I went near the trance stage all weekend) to hear Hareesh play for a minute, then moved on to the Village.

On the way through the Village, Norm and I stopped to discuss a good meeting spot if we got separated, and of course lost Brett, Laura and Elsbeth. We looked around for them, but ended up spending the night with just the two of us, which was awesome.

We went and watched some of Vinyl Richie play, which was pretty awful. Then we went down to the beach to see the Elves, some people Norm knows from living in the Kooteny's. There was a sign saying 'How Far Down the Rabbit Hole Do You Want to Go?' and when we walked in I knew we had fell down the rabit hole. There was a tea party set up and a long table, croquet, and lots of comfy places to relax. Me and Norm cuddled up in a huge chair for about half an hour and had a little rest.

We went back outside, and hear Cypress Hill coming from the mainstage, so we ran in. It was the Freestylers, and although we had heard the first part of their set and weren't too impressed, the last half was great. And as we were running in, I saw Elesa up ahead, so we caught up with her and got to party with her for some of the night. We danced at the Main Stage, in the Fractal, we ran around yelling 'Fuck You Hippie' and 'Fuck You Raver' at the top of our lungs, and generally had a great night.

Right as the sun was coming up, Norm and I found this bench carved out of an old tree that we have a picture of us sitting on in 2000. We sat down there and chilled out, and met a guy named Stephen who came back to the campsite and hung out for a bit.

Spending the first party night of Sham with Norm was great, and I loved introducing him to Elesa. I just kept looking around and thinking 'I get to party with the coolest people!'.

Saturday I slept a lot of the day, and then went down to the river with Elsbeth to get clean. The water was pretty baltic, but it was really warm out and we hung out on the beach for a while.

I went back to the campsite intending to make my way down to the village, but there were a bunch of people hanging out there so i stayed around there for a while and drank some wine.

That night I wore my costume, which felt really weird because it was an outfit I would never normally wear. I was camped with people that have signs up that say 'Rave Camp Eats Babies' and 'Protect Yourself From Rave Camp'. So dressing up like a raver with fun fur felt a little weird, but the red fish nets and booty shorts made me feel hott, so i had a lot of fun in them.

I found Norm and Elsbeth, and we headed down to the village. I managed to lose them before Pat and Jer (Broken English) came on, which was to bad, because for me it was the best music I heard all weekend. I went up to the sound booth and found Kelsi, then ran around with her all night. I was really excited to see LTC (all girls dnb), SS and Hive, all playing at the Village. Unfortunately, SS was pretty boring, and even with all the things in me to keep me up, I ended up going to bed around 3am and missing Hive.

On Sunday Elsbeth and I went and looked at the vendors, and bought a few things (well, Elsbeth bought my broke ass somethings, since my bag never turned up).

That night was one of the best nights, because I got to hang out with Norm and three amazing women, Elsbeth, Elesa and Kelsi. First me and Norm found Kelsi, and then went to the Rock Pit to see some rock-a-billie band Kelsi wanted to check out, but we left there pretty quick and then went to the food vendors. We hung out there for a bit and chatted, then walked around until we found Elsbeth and Elesa.

We rocked out in the Village to Lorin, and I had such a good night. All my friends got along so well, and I just kept thinking about how lucky I am. This year for me was the best Shambhala, and Sunday night was the best night. That night we also ran into one of the other people off the forum, Jordan, who has been teaching English in Korea the past few years. It is so hard to explain to people that you can meet some great people off the internet. If you have never done it, I guess it just sounds weird. But that is how I met Elesa and Jordan, and they were so fun to party with.

I headed home Tuesday first thing, and got back to work on Wednesday. I had sold my Burning Man ticket to Daemond before I went to Sham, thinking there was no way I would have the time/money/ability to go. But when I got back from Sham I realized I wasnt ready to be back in the real world. So when Norm got back into Calgary on Friday from Nelson, I told him that I decided I am going!

This weekend we went to a calgary Burner party where they revieled the art car that they have been working on. Paula and Steph were there, and I realized that I knew some of the other people from different festivals. I even went to school with the guy who owned the house. You never know who you are sitting next to in class.

The art car looked great, and there was such a good vibe in the house. Of course there was, they were Burners! It made me even more excited to go. I don't know why I even thought of not going. And now we leave in 5 sleeps!