Thanks Dan! The combo at 0:57 was Atomsmasher (atomic far mirage) b2b. Not new for me but a fun combo nonetheless.
April!! You are such a sweetheart! Thank you for the kind offer, it is really appreciated! I really like your bags so I was pretty crushed to lose two of them. Maybe I will see you at artsfest or something
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This appeared in my feed this morning:
It’s just too perfect considering I was going to do my Movement writeup today. Thankfully not all of these things were true about the festival. Enough were, however, that it is doubtful that I will return.
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Movement!!
So I got home super late Tuesday evening from California. Spent the next three days recovering, doing hot yoga (how I missed that!), laundry etc. The week flew by and in no time it was Friday! Anton invited me to stay Friday evening at his place in Pontiac MI. At the last minute I decided to take him up on that offer so that I wouldn’t have to do super lots of driving before partying hard on Saturday.
The drive to Michigan is the easiest of the local footbag scenes, it’s so nice! A straight shot for about 3.5 hours on really nice Canadian highways. A border crossing that’s never busy. Detroit area has speed limits of 70mph so you can just rip the whole way.
I arrived at Antons late Friday evening. Jordan was already sleeping. It was great to see Anton! We spent time catching up and met with the coach before crashing.
Saturday morning was pretty chill. I got up fairly early, had a light breakfast, did some yoga. Time wasn’t moving fast enough! Jordan and I were just itching for it to be time to go do the fun things!
In the early afternoon we took separate cars to Detroit for the festival. Jordan joined me for the ride. It was nice to have company. I parked my car in a garage super near Hart Plaza to be left there for the weekend. There is so much parking in Detroit! I thought it would be more of a challenge due to the festival.
Waiting in the ‘will call’ line to get our wristbands was torture. The sun was hot and the lines were crowded. People were smoking butts within 2 feet in every direction. It’s not the worst line I’ve been in but it definitely wasn’t pleasant. About 45 minutes later we had our wristbands. I made the mistake of tightening mine too much and had to live with it for the whole weekend.
In order to enter the festival we had to go through a separate line [that was much faster thankfully] to get searched. No food or liquids allowed. Kinda ridiculous. The searches were really inconsistent. I managed to get an orange in one time. Drew lost his sunscreen at one point which was absolutely stupid.
This was my first music festival. I guess it was pretty much what I expected. So many people! If I have a type of people that isn’t footbaggers or yogi’s it’s definitely ravers. They are so unique and interesting and cool. The people watching was great.
Hart Plaza is this really neat old place in Detroit that is basically an old abandoned transportation hub. The festival had six different stages. There was so much going on all the time! There was a central spot with a fountain. Tons of interesting vendors that I avoided for financial reasons. The food situation was somewhat unfortunate - greasy greasy food trucks. I did manage to find a smoothie place that sold bananas which I lived on for most of the event. The first day bananas were $1. On subsequent days they were $2. Go figure.
Once inside the event we met up with Mikie, Alyssa, and Drew!! Yayyyy. We met at the Beatport stage which seemed to be one of the better places to be in general. There was a cool pyramid thing with different levels that people could hang out and dance on. Behind there was this cement area kind of underground that was great for chilling and hacking and stuff. There was also a washroom that not that many people were aware of. I was most stoked about this because the lineups to go pee were actually quite reasonable and the facilities weren’t absolutely disgusting.
We geared up for some kickybag! Drew didn’t have his gear so he only kicked casually. I kicked a bit with Anton and Mikie but we were chilling in a spot with way too much traffic. I kind of just wanted to bust but too many people were joining the circle trying to circle kick. I had four or five really decent runs that I was happy with and then called it quits for the day.
The music was so perfect for footbag! When I wasn’t distracted by people walking through the circle and stuff I got into a really good groove a few times. Love those house beats.
View from the side of the Beatport stage. Canada in the background.
I made the mistake of not eating enough before the festival on Saturday and ate greasy pizza and festival shawarma for lunch. That did not agree with me and I resolved to make better choices for the remainder of the weekend.
At some point in the afternoon I headed to the hotel where I would be staying with Mikie, Alyssa, and Drew. It was a 10 minute walk which wasn’t to bad at all. The hotel was actually really nice! We scored an accessible room somehow which meant we had lots of extra space. We showered, geared up to party and headed back to the festival.
Aside from the Beatport stage, the Redbull stage seemed like the place to be a lot of the time. Surprisingly, my favourite act all weekend turned out to be Method Man! He’s not even a DJ but he totally killed it! He did some old school Wu Tang shit that was just unreal.
I didn’t spend time worrying about who was playing on which stage. I just went with the flow all weekend which was cool. I had never heard of the vast majority of DJ’s anyways.
I was lucky that Drew brought that scarf. It totally kept me warm that day!
Never in my life have I seen so many hack circles in one place as I did at Movement! They appeared organically. What a beautiful thing! I had a lot of fun joining some of them and just kicking the bag around. I know some freestylers that like to join circles and show off. That’s not really my style. I much prefer to join and play their game. It’s fun to fly under the radar and try and impress people with my kicks and flyers rather than stalls and dexes.
Massive hack circle with Mikie in the middle
Festival people are so chill. I didn’t get sexually assaulted a single time all weekend. This pleases me greatly. I can’t even spent 2 hours at a bar without getting touched inappropriately.
The vibes definitely change as the sun goes down. I’m not sure how to explain it but things seem to get a little freakier. There was so much dancing to be done!
The festival closed at midnight. I said goodbye to Anton and Jordan and headed back to the room with Mikie, Alyssa, and Drew. We were pretty beat already but we had purchased tickets to an afterparty and were determined to go. After some chill time in the room we walked to the establishment nearby to keep partyin.
The after party didn’t end up being that great. The venue was kinda lame, it was packed and the music was sub-par. I ate a hot dog and a bag of chips for dinner while we were there. I apologised to my body and promised to treat it better tomorrow.
We lost Drew for a while. When we found him he seemed rather disconcerted. “Girls keep asking me if I’m okay and I’m just like ‘where are my people?’” Soon after that we headed back to crash.
Sunday was the day!
I went for a nice walk with Drew first thing in the morning. I wanted to buy some grocery-type things but unfortunately the store we went to was not open. We did stop by a nice little shop to grab a coffee. We sat for a while on the steps of the building and enjoyed a peaceful moment
I thought this was a nice view of the city.
The four of us hit up the all you can eat hotel breakfast. I resolved to eat as much as possible with the knowledge that this would be my only meal today. Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and soo much fruit! Om nom nom.
Back at the room I put on some chill music for yoga and it put Mikie and Alyssa to sleep. When I was done stretching I joined Drew for a bit of a nap as well, cause why not. Those hotel beds are hella cushy. Drew got a message from his friend Julie that she was already there. I was pretty much ready to go so I geared up and we headed to the festival to meet her.
Julie is super cool and the three of us chilled until we met up with the others, including Anton and his posse.
We chose a better shred location on Saturday next to a different stage that had some nice flat cement with a huge circular statue. There wasn’t any foot traffic here which was really nice. There were some other people doing cool hobby things including hooping, poi and roller skating. It was also a neat spot because people waiting in line to get into the festival could watch us shred [without getting in the way].
Sunday shred! Note the roller blading kid in the purple morph suit. He had some skillz.
This was definitely the best shred of the weekend. It was Anton, Mikie, Drew, and myself. So fun! Drew played really well which I was super stoked to see! I haven’t seen him kick like that in quite a while. Everyone had some great runs and encouragement from spectators totally got us pumped. I got applause and cheers for a few of my runs which felt awesome. My game was really feeling on point. Good vibes and great music.
I didn’t freestyle for too long in order to save some energy for the partying! We walked back to the hotel with Julie to shower, rest, and pregame for the evening. I really enjoyed talking with Julie about various things. She’s cool.
I hadn’t talked with the coach all day. At one point Drew and I were chilling in the middle part near the fountain waiting to meet up with people and this Jamaican guy near us was rolling up a fatty. I think he saw me eying it and was nice enough to smoke me out. What a sweetheart! That got me so amped! I was ready to dance now.
The sculpture above the fountain in the middle part
I had the most fun partying Saturday evening! Some of Anton and Jordan’s friends had a hammock that they set up in a dope location above the right side of the main stage. It was such a good spot because it wasn’t too crowded and there was grass to dance on! Grass is so wonderfully forgiving on the body after so much shredding/dancing on pavement. Being able to take time to rest in the hammock was so nice. One of my favourite moments of the weekend was just chillin in that hammock with Mikie with so many amazing people around.
View at the back of the main stage
I love dancing!
Thank heavens for $2 bananas. Watching Anton demolish food is so great.
I made sure to say goodbye to Julie since she was only around for one day. She told me that I was her favourite person that she met at the festival. This is one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever gotten. I hope to hang out with her again some day. It’s great to make cool new lady friends.
I ended up at Anton’s place again Sunday night. It was a rough night after such a good day. I ended up getting kind of ill (probably should have eaten more) and then my allergies prevented me from sleeping. I got maybe two hours.
Anton made an awesome breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. So yummy.
I decided not to freestyle on Monday. I didn’t have the energy to carry my gear around or the patience to deal with festival people in my way. Instead I brought only my party necessities and did some circle kicking.
I was kinda hurtin’ on Monday and made a super clutch investment in ibuprofen and earplugs. Should have got earplugs sooner. It made the world so much less offensive.
I obtained some chalk and made up a foursquare court. Drew and I had a pretty fun game of squares with a barefoot guy and a guy with some solid kicks bs. The guy wearing shoes almost won. He had game point but Drew faked him out like 9 times in a row and beat him. The guy just didn’t learn.
The guy who almost won was determined to start a new religion that would allow use of the Freedom of Religion Act to skirt drug laws. He was totally serious about it. I wished him luck. Interesting individual.
There was a lot of good circle kicking action on Monday. Anton shredded it up most of the day. I couldn’t believe how much he kicked. It was nutty.
Hack circles in the cement pit!
Griz and Snoop dogg closed out the main stage on Monday. I wasn’t really feeling Griz and then Snoop dogg ended up being absolutely brutal. Drew wanted to check out Squarepusher instead so I went with him to that for a while. It’s some really crazy intense IDM (intelligent dance music). The visual graphics were insane. My brain just couldn’t handle that.
At the end of the final evening I said one last goodbye to Anton and Jordan and trecked back to the hotel. Mikie and Alyssa crashed pretty soon. I stayed up until around 4 with Drew just chilling and talking about random things. I don’t even know what. I was really grateful Drew made it to this event. Otherwise I would’ve been third/fifth wheeling couples all weekend. Don’t get me wrong, they are freakin awesome couples, but it’s definitely not ideal.
Tuesday morning I got up early enough to get some yoga practice in. I managed to do a lot of yoga throughout this weekend which made a big difference in my overall wellbeing. Gotta take care of yourself in order to party to the max.
We were all pretty dead. What a nutty weekend. There was one last adventure I was hoping to embark on before returning to Canadia.
I said my goodbyes to Drew, Mikie and Alyssa and hung around the hotel lobby for a while. I didn’t have any phone service [as usual] and I needed wifi cause I was waiting to hear back from Zach Jahner.
I had a really nice chat with this 70 year old lady who was super awesome! She asked me about why all the young people were around and I told her about the festival. I learned she is a photographer and was invited to check out and photograph the festival but she ended up getting a paid job instead. We talked about lots of different things including hooping, footbag and travel. I want to be as cool as her when I’m that age. She has two master’s degrees and has travelled all over the place. For the past six months she’s been living out of her car staying at hotels and couch surfing and stuff. It’s amazing the people you can meet if you are open to engaging with them. I wish I had bothered to get her contact information.
The rad old lady said something that really struck me as true and awesome about the rave community. She noted that the people visiting town were really polite and cultured. She said something to the effect of “I’m old so people tend to want to help me but they don’t normally look me in the eye. A lot of these young people will actually look at me and smile!” The truth and beauty of this really struck me.
It warms my heart to be a part of such connected communities of people. Be it raving, footbagging, or doing yoga it’s really special to be a part of a community where you can smile at or strike up a conversation with somebody that you don’t know without fear of being shut down or labelled a weirdo.
Eventually Zach got back to me with his home address so I shook the brilliant woman’s hand and wished her well.
Zach couldn’t make it out to movement so I was really pleased that he was available to kick Tuesday afternoon. I drove to his house in Troy and we caught up a bit and chatted with the coach. Soon it was shred time! It was a nice sunny day, so much great weather!
I was stoked to have a serious kick after trying to kick at a festival all weekend. Maybe I got a little too serious haha. At first it was really intense. No talking, no props. Just hardcore shred back and fourth. I was nearly dead within like 20 or 30 minutes and we decided to chill out a bit and have some fun haha. Anton dropped by about halfway through our shred. That was a nice surprise since I wasn’t expecting to see him again. He was looking real dapper having just returned from a lifeguard job interview.
Anton hit us with some fun requests. He asked me to hit Frankenstein which I got third try. Not bad.
When Zach and Anton play they like to try to finish the shred with 30 guiltless sealed with a 5 ADD. Seemed like fun! Zach had a really nice run sealed in a five and I was like "Well, I guess I better step up!" and immediately did over 30 guiltless. I just couldn't quite get set up for that last trick. Nonetheless, it was cool that we both got the 30 back to back.
Zach is so fun to kick with. What a treat! He has such cool style and he also like Swirly tricks which is neat. He does more symple ones whereas I like muted ones. It’s a nice contrast.
That was such a fun session that simply did not last long enough. I don’t even know how I still had energy. We chilled out a bit after the shred and I finally tried my first dab! It wasn’t what I expected at all. I liked it.
Eventually I hit the road back home. I mobbed the whole way making record time. I was home in under four hours.
The few recovery days after movement were rough. May was such a crazy month!! It was really weird trying to settle back into home life not having a job or anything.
Overall, Movement was a killer time! It was also an exhausting, brain-melting money-suck. As a result I probably will not go back.
I went out with some friends this past Friday night to party in Toronto. I had an incredible time! It reminded me how freakin’ amazing Toronto’s rave culture is. There is one after hours club in particular that just has the best music, people etc. I can have such a good time raving there for so much less money. I love that city.
In conclusion, Movement was fun but partying in Toronto is much more economical. In the future my travel resources will continue to be allocated to footbag events [and possibly yoga retreats].
Whoa this blog turned out to be way longer than anticipated. Thanks for reading if you got through it all!
<3
It’s alright because would be doomed even if we were on the same continent..
