I heard the organizers wanted volunteers, so I went on-line and filled out my volunteer application. I told my son (Nick) and his girlfriend (Jen) about it. Nick said he had to work, but Jen said it sounded like fun. She filled out an application, too.
A couple weeks later, Jen got a reply and she was accepted for all three days. I was going to be her ride, and I hadn't heard a thing. I e-mailed and asked about my volunteer status. A day or so later, I got a call at work. The volunteer organizer, AJ, said they'd had some computer difficulties, and that they'd like to have me on night security if I could. I accepted, then called Jen to let her know times, and how to pack.
We arrived Thursday night (10 July, '05) after having listened to lots of reports of severe thunderstorms which had delayed or cancelled some of the earlier artists. Jen thought she was going to be on security, and needed to talk to "Mike." Mike said he was all set up for security, so AJ took us both and gave us a short speech on what we were to do. He said, "Enjoy the rest of the concert tonight, and report back here afterward."
We heard New Song, which impressed me more than I thought they would. They do some powerful praise and worship music, and with a very wide range of instruments --trumpet, accordion, cello, violin and more.
The concert ended and we went backstage to find AJ, and got into loading New Song's trailer. Wow! What a tight and precise packing job! It was like one of those block puzzles which fit together only one way. The guys in the band, or their crew, really knew what they were doing. They called out which piece they wanted and we grabbed it and handed it to them.
Things died down and AJ gave us a tour of the site and told us what to check on throughout the night. It ended up that Jen worked backstage all weekend, and I "officially" worked night security. I say "officially" because I only caught extremely short naps throughout the day, and to occupy my time, I played stage-hand and odd-job guy. Nights consisted of doing my rounds, setting the alarm for an hour, and doing the rounds again, and so on. So I did get some sleep, but, it was choppy.
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