Arts and Crafts and Rainbows - Part 2
Sunday found me at the DC Pride Festival downtown. One of my favorite singers, Sarah Bettens, was there to perform a set on the main stage. I expected to catch a cool show with lots of food and fun and gayness. And that's exactly what I did.
The program listed Sarah Bettens as performing "12pm-2pm", but sadly that didn't mean a two hour set so much as they just listed a few people within that window in no particular order. I planned to get down there around 11:30 or so to have time to look around a bit before she started. I ended up getting there right at 12, but she didn't actually go on til about 1:30 anyway. I was originally going to be joined by that_shingo in this adventure, but he was forced to opt out after a grueling day of festivalness the previous day. Craig called me to let me know and I updated him on the goings on around the show.
The first act I saw as I made it to the stage was a dude that goes by, no lie, "OhMyJosh". He did his dance songs with lots of choreography and back-up dancers, even wearing a Britney Spears style headset. OhMyJosh's catalog includes such hits as "Up In This Place" and "Hell to the No". I know this because he gave me a free CD after the show. I wish OhMyJosh all the best in his future overtanned endeavors:
The second act was a local group called Honey Chuck. They were much better and put on a pretty solid set of roots rock.
After Honey Chuck came an all-girl band from CT called "Sister Funk". They were pretty decent, too.
I actually made a food run during their set and got a Pit Turkey Sandwich and some Orangeade. The food vendors all had some really cool stuff on Sunday. At one point I also tried a Brazilian item called Coxinha. Man was that ever good.
I made my way back to the stage as Sarah Bettens was tuning up. It was awesome to see that she didn't have any big band, not even a single back-up musician. It was just her sitting in a chair with an acoustic guitar. She did nice set of stuff covering both K's Choice and her solo work. She has a very powerful and beautiful singing voice and it was allowed to shine all on it's own with an acoustic performance like this.
After the set I got to talk to her and get a CD signed, which was super awesome. The CD is a special edition that she's only selling at shows on tour, so I was pretty happy to get that.
I ended up making one last loop of the festival and then headed on out. I was pretty worn out by the time I got back, but it was definitely a fun day out.