Has anyone ever noticed that diehard bluegrass fans can be some of the most pretentious people in the universe. Last weekend a bunch of my friends and I went to a bluegrass festival in Buda texas. With a name like that, you'd think that people in the town would be pretty chilled out. Think again, so it was like 20 bucks for a two night festival (no discount for one night, even though we only went saturday), plus 10 bucks for camping and it was held at pretty much a city park. SO we're hanging there and are watching some bands, which were pretty good, and we got hungry, so we think to ourselves lets set up the grill in front of the stage so we can cook while we watch. As the venue is outside in a city park, with abundant grills, we think to ourselves, "Shit we're in texas, home of BBQ, nobody will give a F*&$, if we set up shop here." So we start the grill, the fire burns down and we throw meat on. Then the band we're watching stops playing, and like four sets of people come up to us and are like, "what the fuck do you think you're doing?", "Are you using lighter fluid", "that is the most offensive, acrid, toxic etc. you fill in the blank smell I've ever smelled".

So this is the most nuisance I've ever caused in my life at a public event, (next to the time I mooned like 40 bussloads of kids at a fine arts festival in highschool, and the only people who didn't think it was funny was the professors). So we proceed to blow off all these people who are acting like they are about to die, and this drunk 40+ year old woman comes up and is like, "Damn, that smells awesome". And we're like, "No shit, we just had like 15 people come up to us and tell us to move it or put it out and shit". About this time "concert staff" (old women 40+) comes up and is like we've had several complaints, and you can't grill here, you should have checked the wind etc. before you set up your grill. You're going to move that etc. And we're finally like damn I guess we'll have to move it. So Whitney and I grab the legs of the grill (the only part that won't burn us), and the bitch is like, "Oh is there anything that we can do to help you" and I'm like, "yea, next time don't make us move our grill!" which I guess she pretty much ignored. And we moved the grill in the fucking dark, to a picnic table that had 0 fucking light after being at one where we could see everything. And as we're walking away, i overhear some people say "we're not going to let them come in and RUIN our community" after we paid 30 bucks+ to get yelled at all night.

Which brings me to a question, is there a large contingency of fans of bluegrass music that just plain suck (or is it somewhat derived from the quality of the music)? And is there somewhat of a paradox with these people in the sense that the songs (and community built around them) seem to be universal in the sense that they deal with a large spectrum of topics, and "encourage community" both of musicians and fans of bluegrass music. AKA there are varietys of bluegrass that deal with dark subjects and those that deal with "sunny themes" like babies and Jesus and what not. But when it comes down to differences in the community the people who pride themselves the most on the "sunny disposition stuff" exhibit more hate towards other elements, aka people chastizing us for "RUINING their community etc." I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.