Bluesfest Easter Sunday 2018: A Fool's Journey with Something to Crow About?

Normally I spend at least two or three days at Bluesfest, but this year it was only one day for me and this year that day was Easter Sunday ... or as luck would have it this year also, April Fools' Day.

April Fools' Day/Easter Sunday?

Which turns out to be appropriate for me in many ways, as you will soon see.
Love on the Rocks ... A Fool's Journey?

I picked Easter Sunday mainly for one reason, and that reason was Sheryl Crow was one of the headline acts on the day and I've always wanted to see Sheryl play live, and now here was my chance.
You can usually count on Crows turning up at Bluesfest, too;-)
I Read the News Today ... Oh, Boy! Sad, but Synchy News on So Many Levels to Me

Byron Bay Bluesfest Bird Syncs

Bird Brains?

I was even more surprised when I saw that Sheryl would be signing copies of her CDs later on in the day and was hoping that this wasn't some kind of cruel April Fools' Day prank.
But it was after midday when I saw the above sign in the record/CD tent and all pranks have to be over by midday on April Fools' Day, so I had the feeling this was a legitimate announcement.

My 5-day wristband from last year
 that pissed me off

Normally I buy a weekend pass, but only do about three days if I'm not staying down in Byron Bay that weekend, because it still works out cheaper to do that than buy individual day passes.
But after last year's "you have to wear this wristband all weekend, or you're not coming in" ultimatum from the nice friendly staff person on the gate, which I wrote about in this 2017 Easter Monday post - 
Easter MOONday at Bluesfest, 2017
I decided that I'm never wearing a band like that again for more than one day.
After I had cut that band from my wrist, it felt like it was still on my wrist for the next two weeks, like some kind of phantom wristband. 
So, until Bluefest work out some civil ticketing method other than wearing a torture device on your wrist for the weekend, they can stick their weekend pass where the sun don't shine, as far as I'm concerned. 

I decided to wear my 'Sympathy for the Devil' hemp t-shirt Easter Sunday, which I wrote about buying in that Easter Moonday post in the link above.
Not that I have any sympathy for some BS mythical Biblical figure myself, but the deity Pan is meant to be the musician's muse and being Easter it might keep the fundamentalist Christians off my back by having the devil on my back.
Easter SUNday at Bluesfest ... and a Plate of Shrimp
Then again it could have got me rock and rolled by the same crowd I guess, too.

At least this year they were accepting cash or card for beer and drinks instead of making you upload your cash into the chip in the f#cking wristband they made you wear all weekend.
Cheers Bluesfest, at least you learned one lesson from last year's Big Brother/1984 act.

Pity I never got to try a 'Byron Bay Hazy One' on the day ... and I tried, but they ran out of them early and that was that.
Maybe next year then? 

There was even an Illuminati run wine bar at Bluesfest this year and I bet that I would have been shouted free drinks all day in this bar with the shirt I was wearing on the day, but I stuck with the beer tents ... even if there was no Hazy Ones to be had.

The first act that I checked out on the day was 'Clayton Doley's Bayou Billabong'.
Which seemed appropriate when it came to the themes I've been writing about on this blog so far this year -
You'll Come a Waltzing Matilda with Me?

'Clayton Doley's Bayou Billabong' 
playing Crossroads tent

I kept running into this NSW Rural Fire Service guy standing outside the tents and watching bands play, and while I never talked to him on the day, the running gag in my mind was that the bands he was checking out must have been really hot bands:-)

William Crighton and band playing the Delta tent

He was checking out William Crighton and his band outside the Delta tent when I first spotted him.

The last tent I ran into the fireman was outside the Crossroads tent when Melissa Etheridge was playing.

Melissa Etheridge at the Crossroads tent

I've got to mention though that while the big tent acts are great and I love 'em, I really like to watch the talent that goes through the busking tents, too.

'The Fingerz' playing at the busking tent 
while I stand behind the lead singer's mum

I started off at the busking tent watching two talented young girls (whose names I forgot) playing and got into a conversation with two women who were telling me about the girls and the band that was to follow.
One of the ladies turned out to be the mum of the lead singer of that next band 'The Fingerz', who were from Coff's Harbour.
Rocking their way into the music world

I liked the band's t-shirts that all the band's roadies and fans were wearing, but I don't know where you can buy one from, as they don't seem to sell any merch on the band's websites.

And I had a hard time trying to find any news of 'The Fingerz' from Coffs Harbour when doing an internet search on the band.
The first thing to come up for me when I put "The Fingerz+Coffs Harbour" in the search engine was a news story on the ABC news website about a Coffs Harbour boy who lost parts of his fingers in an industrial accident, although I did spell fingers with an "S" instead of a "Z" when I did the search.

I found it rather synchy that the boys are kind of on a cliff edge in their 'Wet Weather' video and it was April Fools' Day that I saw 'The Fingerz' play at Bluesfest:-)

Giving the Middle Finger to the Fool's Ring

I would have liked to have hung around and hear 'The Fingerz' whole set, but they were clashing with Mia Dyson's gig, so I wished mum and her boy well on their future journeys and explained that Mia was one of the singers I came down to Byron Bay to see.

Mia Dyson playing the Crossroads tent

Mia played a great set of songs, and she even had her father playing with her on stage Easter Sunday, and from where I was in the Crossroads tent it looked like a beam of light was descending from heaven and striking him on the head.

Mia chatting to fans on
April Fools' Day at Bluesfest

I met Mia at the signing tent after her gig and asked her to sign her CD with "Happy April Fools' Day" and draw an arrow to her song 'Fool' on the CD back cover.

4Fool?-)

After that it was back to the busking tent to check out more new talent.

Then off to look for some food.
And this year I was on a vegetarian/no dairy diet, which meant no prawns or pizza for me this year.

It looks like there's plant food around here somewhere:-)

It was the 'Vego Burger' for me.

Then it was off to grab a beer and go back to the Crossroads tent sit down and listen to Seu Jorge sing David Bowie covers in some language I couldn't understand, so lucky I knew most of the lyrics in my head.

Seu Jorge playing the Crossroads tent
  Easter Sunday

Eric Gales playing the Jambalaya tent
at Bluesfest April 1st, 2018

Then I caught the last part of Eric Gales and his band playing the Jambalaya tent.

I got this shot of Eric while I was
 waiting for Sheryl Crow

And I caught the first part of 'Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real' play after Eric's band at the Jambalaya tent.

'Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real', April 1st, 2018

Lukas is a son of country music legend Willie Nelson.

The last record my father ever listened to in his life was Willie Nelson's 'City of New Orleans', which I wrote about in this post -

A Butterfly That I Felt Was Worth Crowing About

The Common Crow or Oleander Butterfly

So, I had a few thoughts running through my head while watching Willie's son playing in front of me and I can't say it wasn't a surreal feeling either.
To me from now on I will call them 'Lukas Nelson & The Promise of the Surreal';-) 

Standing in line at the signing tent for
  Sheryl Crow Easter Sunday 

I would have liked to have stayed and watched the whole 'Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real' gig, but I needed to get some coffee and then go stand in line for Sheryl Crow to sign my CD of hers.

And on the subject of surreal I hurried a shot off on my phone as I was stepping up to get my CD signed by Sheryl and the above picture was the result.

But once I uploaded the photo to my computer and cropped it, the result was quite mystical I thought.

You could say it was my favourite mistake of the whole day:-)

I'll never wash that CD ever again now;-)

It was weird to have an artist sign my CD before their gig, but Sheryl did signing first and then her gig.

Sheryl Crow playing the Crossroads stage Sunday the 1st

Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch all of Sheryl's gig, because I wanted to see some of John Butler's gig too.
I didn't get any photos of his gig that were worth posting unfortunately.

And I had no idea it was John's birthday on April Fools'Day either until now when I looked up his Wikipedia page.

It's a shame John's and Sheryl's gigs had to clash, as I would have liked to have seen both gigs right through.

And I even left John's gig before he finished so I wouldn't get caught in the Bluesfest carpark for an hour before driving back home to Brisbane.