Canmore Folkfest and meeting Keith

03.08.2008

Elly had a 15 hour drive to Saskatoon ahead of her, so we tried to leave early. Our round of goodbyes lasted longer than planned, but we still left at about 10:30 a.m. That would put me in Canmore at about 5 p.m. Riad came along with us. Choosing to take the ride Elly was offering all the way to Saskatoon. We listened to pop punk all the way to Canmore, through amazing mountains once again. They dropped me off at the hostel Keith picked, over the nearby municipal campground he usually stays at. It's pretty new and nice. They wanted a $20 cash deposit on my linen, and I didn't have it on me. Instead of going to the ATM where I'm sure there would've been an exorbitant $2 convenience fee, I opted to explore the city. The hostel people stored my bags as I went out in search of the Bank of Montreal. I climbed over a couple of fences to cut across the railroad tracks (badly bruising myself in the process, I would find out about that later). I had the wrong directions from the hostel guys, so I had to ask for more. "Walk down Main St., it should be there." said the folky looking guy at the liquor store. Alright. So I kept walking, found the bank, and kept on going. Soon, I heard the music from the folk festival, and it sounded eerily familiar. Hmmm.... what could it be? Maybe I'll buy a ticket and see if I can find Keith. I asked the security guards if they could look him up, but he wasn't working until tonight. "By the way, what band is playing right now?" "Oh, uh, Kobotown I think." "What?! Are you KIDDING me?! They're like, my favourite band ever and I missed them!" Arg! Again! I saw them once at a CBC radio taping and instantly fell in love. Then I immediately proceeded to miss them at the Ottawa Folkfest as well. Scheise... So I walked around looking for a payphone to call Keith. Another nicer security guard let me use his cellphone and it turns out Keith wasn't very far away. He came to meet me and I got a big hug, bought a ticket and went to watch the rest of the show. The Duhks were headlining tonight, so I was pretty excited about that. The music at the time was lame and boring, so I began to think about what would happen if it got a little colder later. I asked Keith how cold it got and if I needed a sweater. "Yep." "Can I use yours later?" "Nope." "What? Really?!" So, I had to go all the way back to the hotel, fetch my pants and shirt and check in and stuff. I just threw my stuff down and ran back to the show. It was almost time for supper, so I headed off to get some wild salmon from BC. I missed that in Vernon, so good thing I had a chance to get some here. Yum. We sat down beside a crotchety old man who allowed us to share a spot at his picnic table, as long as we didn't make any noise and disturb him. I think we were a little more entitled to a picnic table than he was, since we actually had food. Anyway, we left and I enjoyed my dinner without him, at the table to the right, making immediately probably more noise than before. After dinner, it was almost time for the Duhks. When they came on, I wanted to go dance. Let me tell you a little bit about over-regulation of a music festival. You can find it in Canmore. At the right side of the stage, there was a small fenced off dance area where you could see the band, but hearing it was a different story. Nice dance area. Just because there are some people who are lazy and want to sit through a whole show. Those same people are also the most vocal complainers of the crowd, hence the over regulation of the festival. OK, so the Duhks were good. I danced in the specified area and then we went back to the hostel to change for the after-party. I decided to go along and try and crash it, instead of hanging out with the oh-so-inviting hostel folk. Yeah. I waited outside the party (which was held inside a seniors' centre) while Keith asked if I could come inside. He came back in a couple minutes and said yes I could. So, that was fun too. We had some wines, I danced and Keith mingled with his peeps. It was SO HOT in there, they weren't allowed to open the doors, so I quickly got tired. I went to go sit down in the lounge, and a tall skinny black guy sat down beside me. We were just chatting about random things and he mentions he plays in the band Kobotown. WELL! Wasn't that a shame! I gushed about missing the show by "this much" and loving the band, etc. etc. Typical me-type excitement. He had just joined the group and wasn't with themn when I saw them in Ottawa. BUT STILL, seriously, amazing band. SO, the night went on, we didn't end up back at the hostel until 5 a.m. I was only awoken once by the train just outside my window, but other than that, very nice place to stay in Canmore, if you don't want to spend a whole lot of money.

Me and "wallet"