I Survived Rock-n-Romp 6-19

On Saturday we had a Rock-n-Romp at Mud Island. My day started out at 8:45am, when Warren and I went over to the Junkyard Camp to help The Junkman load up one of his sound sculptures. Mud Island needed us to load everything in before 10am!


Our early morning efforts were well worth it though as The Junkman led the crowd in three separate thirty minute "Junk Jams." Basically he kept the beat and whoever wanted to come bang around was welcome to.


Jiro sat next to me for a bit and taught me how to do the "Abraham Lincoln" beat he learned at camp. (Satchel did "George Washington.)


I think the sound sculpture was equally popular with the parents and kids!


About 45 minutes into the show, I noticed Scott Banbury "freeing up" some cardboard from our extra trash cans so that adults and kids could take to the giant bluff. Check out Scott and Aaron "Air" Shafer riding the grass! (Not surprisingly, many children were rumored to go home with strawberries on their knees and booties.)


I was concerned about keeping kids safe, although the previous picture may prove otherwise, so we had a handful of volunteers scanning the perimeter and watching the fountains. Rock-n-Romp board members were also given whistles should we need to get kids' attention. I only had to use mine once. Satchel, Jiro, and their two buddies escaped to check out the Wolf River harbor. The whistle worked like a charm!


Next up we had Al Kapone! He brought along Muck Sticky and Young AJ for an added bonus.


Here Scott shows Naomi the moves he's been honing at Wild Bill's. Al definitely had the crowd moving!


We also had a small army of volunteers to help us with check in, merch, serving beer and bbq. We totally couldn't have made it without them! Here Mary shows she can serve Q and drink a beer at the same time.


Mmmm...BBQ! Seriously, Central BBQ rocks for giving us the hook up this season!


I couldn't resist going over to chat with Muck Sticky. He is such a friendly, positive guy. Yes, he's a little over the top, but he won me over Saturday.


He even got Satchel to loosen up. (I was calling him "The Weird Kid" for most of the day b/c he refused to wear his swimsuit and play in the water like 99% of the other kids. He was wearing jeans! He did eventually slide down the bluffs and have a good time.)


Between activities, he kept going back for more BBQ. He's definitely going through a growth spurt!


Kids and parents continued to enjoy the "junk" throughout the day. I liked seeing everyone come and go, beat on this and bat on that. It was fun. What I always dreamed the banging wall could be.


The Magic Kids played next and entertained everyone--especially these two cute kids who danced and danced and danced. I got pulled away to chat with some folks who are thinking of starting a Rock-n-Romp in Nashville and missed most of their set, which was a bummer. Bennett, the lead singer, took the time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Shiloh, one of our OG board members, which was especially awesome.


When the show was over, I wasn't sure that we'd be able to get people to leave! Jiro was very busy filling up cups, running back and forth, and generally having a blast. I changed him into dry clothes and he was asleep before we ever got off of the island!


All in all it was a great afternoon. This show probably required more work than any other Rock-n-Romp we've had, so we were all pretty exhausted when it was over. The extreme heat didn't help!

A big thank you to everyone who helped us pull it off, everyone who came out to enjoy the show, and especially to everyone who took the time to say, "Thanks!" or "Good job!"

Chip's fancy pics are linked over at the Rock-n-Romp blog!