A Parachute roadtrip

I've just returned from a parachute road trip. It’s been about three years since my last parachute road trip and there was a new selection of bands and artists to see. A reported 25,000 made the pilgrimage to Mystery Creek, though it seemed slightly less than previous years.

The first act I caught on the Friday night was House of Shem, a reggae/dub group, before drifting over to see alt country singer songwriter Lauren Thomson. I then caught the tail end of funk/jazz group Late Eighties Mercedes before catching all of punk/hardcore group Mums Dollar. So the eclectic mix that is parachute had not changed.

The mainline speaker was Brian Houston returning after ten years. Now Brian is an energetic and entertaining speaker. He talked a bit about some off the stress and anxiety he has experienced recently, and how one Sunday morning while still processing some bad news about his father asked his wife Bobby whether she wanted to go to church or Fiji. Ah if only I could do that - feeling stressed from work deciding to play hookie and head off to Fiji for a few days. But then I don't run a 20,000 member church with a staff of 400 including senior pastors to whom I can delegate the running of the church (Am I jealous, or cynical - I think maybe a bit of both).

My favourite NZ new band was House of Shem followed closely by Sons of Zion (both were reggae/dub bands). Of the overseas bands my favourite was the David Crowder band lead by the bespeckled, and goatied David Crowder who played Texan country/rock/gospel. Their set was one big Ho down party that got the moshpit jumping. Casting Crowns were the mainline worship act, but I would have prefered the David Crowder band - they were a lot more fun.


And the near miss of the weekend; losing my glasses in the moshpit. It was while the game Pirates of the Caribbean was being played. This game required that two rubber dinghes with an occupant in each be transported across the moshpit to a golfing buggy where a second occupant was picked up. The dinghy was then returned to the stage, hopefully with the occupants still inside. The first one back to the stage won (just think of crowd surfing with a rubber dinghy and you'll get the picture). One of the dinghys headed over my part of the moshpit and while supporting the dinghy the glasses went flying to who knows where. I expected that if I found them at all they would be mashed into near nonexistence. However they turned up a day later in lost and found, a bit bent, and dusty but wearable.






















On my way back I stopped off in Tauranga for the night for a break. Then continued on stopping off in rotorua for a soak in the hot pools. Alas all good things come to an end so its back to work tomorrow (sigh!)