Adventures at Spirit West Coast - Day 2 & 3

Friday and Saturday was all a blure. Troy and I are trying to recover today in Santa Cruz before going home.
Friday, we had most of the day free, and worked the late shift at the K-LOVE/Air 1 booth. I worked on homework for school most of the day, and took periodic breaks to walk around. Eventhough some of our favorite acts are at these festivals, we find ourselves not actually watching the shows. We're either eating, working or hanging out at the booth, or walking around the other merchadise booths. Friday, the only one I really wanted to see was Todd Agnew. He has such a great message and shares how important it is to not just have a religion - but have a deep, passionate relationship with Christ. Todd's music is so incredibly moving and really inspires me (and most) to be better stewards of our time in being truly Christ-like. We're suppose to stand out from the crowd and be a a light in this dark world.

Saturday was a different day. In spite of having not gotten home until after midnight, we had the morning shift on Saturday. This is due mostly because of the fact that we were originally suppose to have the afternoon shift, which conflicted with the time that BarlowGirl was playing. The ONLY group that we had asked that we not have to work during. I also brought my bass guitar to get signed by BarlowGirl, which after some doing (and a lot of patience) finally did.

We have built a friendship with the sisters of BarlowGirl and their parents, who happen to be their managers. I as able to sneak backstage for a brief second before sound check to say a quick hi and watched the full concert. They were awesome, as usual, and Lauren Barlow (the drummer) spoke from her heart and presented an a moving talk that was evidently inspiring to many people.

After the concert, the girls signed autographs before being taken away for a Q & A session. We were amazing and excited to see the the long for autographs was halfway around the huge merchandise tent! It was a huge accomplishment since the band has only been around for 3 years and this year was just their 2nd year at the festival. Their booth was packed full of excited teens wanting their merchandise so I jumped in a helped. I took off for the Q & A but returned when I saw that they were still very busy. Little did I know that I would end up there for hours.... five hours to be exact. The girls were whisked away constantly throughout the day to do appearances and interviews so I didn't get to see them too much.

About 9ish, I realized that I still had one more assignment to submit for my Psych class. Yikes! I had to have it in by 10 pm my time or it would be late. Troy luckily was with me at the merch table so he watched it briefly while I ran back to the K-LOVE/Air 1 booth to get online to submit it. Luckily, it was mainly done and I sent it as-is. During that time, mom & dad Barlow returned to the booth so Troy called me to come back. They were packing up and getting ready to leave so I finished submitting my assignment and literally ran back to their booth.

I was able to get there in time before they left and Rebecca Barlow (my coffee buddy) was there as well, although a bit in-cognito. I don't think anyone realized that it was her standing there at the booth. No one person asked for an autograph. :-) We packed the rest of the bags and we drove with them back stage to say our goodbyes. Lauren and Allysa was packing their stuff in their dressing room so I was able to see all of them one last time before they left. We chatted briefly, hugged forever before they piled into a suburban to head to their hotel.
I miss them already!! :-( It may not be til next SWC before I see them again. They don't plan any tour stops in CA. They left around 10ish, Troy and watched the rest of the Newsboys concert and was so glad we didn't miss the 'Breakfast' song. That's always such a great, entertaining performance. (Imagine lots kids jumping up & down with cereal boxes of Captain Crunch flying in the air, and throwing it onstage!) Quite an amusing event.

So, the 10th annual Spirit West Coast festival has come and gone for another year. It was a great year, and a very busy one. It also usually means the end of the usually busy summer music concert schedule. I'm probably out of vacation time now at work, so I must focus yet again on piling that back up for next year.

Keep music in your life & keepin lovin' God with all your heart!