Harvest Fest 2004

The summer has gone so fast. Harmony Park, near Geneva Minnesota had its annual Harvest Fest this past weekend. Twenty-three bands performed during the Fest’s three-day duration. I went out on Saturday night. It was tent city with three thousand campers on the grounds. The Southern Minnesota Drug Task Force was out in numbers on Friday night in and around the small haven of Geneva. I heard that around fifty vehicles with young adults that were heading to the park were stopped and had their vehicles searched before they even entered the park. I don’t know if anything was confiscated, but I know that when the Claim to Fame Biker Rally is held every June at Harmony Park that the authorities never harass the bikers. My husband, Tom said that the merchants in Ellendale, Geneva and Clarks Grove welcome the revelers that come to gather at these music fests as they bring in much needed revenue. I don’t know why the cops are bothering to harass these music lovers as I saw no violence. The young people were very well mannered and polite. All had money to spend and while the grounds are very primitive, everyone did their best to keep order in the park. There were people openly smoking pot during the music fest and some people’s eyes looked like little slits and their faces were flushed from something that they ingested, but these people did no one any harm. I found that the people who abused alcohol were louder and were more difficult to be around. I don’t care for drugs or overindulgence of any kind, but clearly the war on drugs is not working.

My husband, Tom runs the bar at Harmony Park. He is affectionately called the Mayor. I don’t spend much time at Harmony Park as I stay home to spend time with Timmy and tend to things on the farm. Tom didn’t come home for four days during Harvest Fest. A woman, who is a nurse, let him use her RV. He was staying out there in comfort and style. Often he sleeps in his truck when he spends the night at the park, and when he returns home after a couple nights of those nights in his truck, he looks pretty rough and worn out. He still looked worn out after four nights of tending the bar, but at least he had slept well. My oldest four children, Dan, Mary, Bridget and Molly came to help Tom at the bar. All four of them said that they didn’t care for the grungie hippie attire that many of the revelers wore. That is the big thing for the Harvest Fest, the attire of the people that show up.

Many of the young women wear fairy wings over their tops, along with flowing skirts. The guys dress like pirates. I don’t know if they intend to look like pirates, but that is what they looked like to me. There were many people sporting dreadlocks and different colored hair. My daughter Bridget said that she would rather dress hip-hop style. My daughter, Mary’s friend came to work at the bar with her on Friday night and she commented that most of the people looked like he or she had just crawled out of bed because of the baggy, patchwork clothes and sack dresses that they were wearing.

Anyway, that is the best part of being out at Harmony Park, watching the people walk by in the grunge hippie wear that each has worked so hard putting together. In their own circles of where they reside, I am sure that they are considered odd for the way that he or she dresses. At Harmony Park they are finally considered normal looking at this tribal gathering that has a feeling of ancient times past