Cornerstone Festival Thoughts

When I think about Cornerstone Festival there are certain sounds that come to mind.  

Crowds cheering.

Guitar feedback.

Certain songs that take me back to a certain late night show at the Gallery Stage. 

Then there are certain smells that come to mind.

Certain foods.

The smell of the crowd after a midnight show.

(Or is that a certain stench.  Hmm.  Never mind.)

Note:  the pictures in the post were not taken by me.  Sorry to disappoint all of you.  

These are available with many more Cornerstone pictures at the following websiteL 

http://cornerstoneguide.tumblr.com/  

Go and see a lot more than what I have here.  Enjoy!

From the first time that I ever heard of Cornerstone Festival I wanted to go.  

That would have been back in 1984 when the fest began.  

I did not get to the festival until 1994.  My ex wife had absolutely no desire to go.  

(In fact she struggled with my love for music!  She just didn’t “get it.” But that is another discussion for another day.)

My wife, son, and I made the trek for the first time in 1994, and what a trip it was.  With a visit to a hospital in Eureka Springs, AR, we almost did not make it to the festival.  My wife got hit hard with a kidney infection which made our stay in Eureka Springs a little longer than expected.  

When we left Eureka Springs we were sitting at an intersection.  I looked at my dear wife and asked if we head north to Cornerstone or do we head west back home to Dallas.  She gritted her teeth and against her better judgement we headed north.  

I know that she regretted it but deep inside I was jumping up and down. 

We got to the festival grounds, set up our tents and got a lay of the land.  

We made friends with the campers around us and had the time of our life.

We headed to the exhibit hall and I began a tradition that I kept up at every visit to the festival that I ever made.  My first purchase was at the GRR Records booth.  Glenn Kaiser always had a new release and then there were new Resurrection Band albums to pick up and then there would be that release that fell in the cracks and somehow I did not get a chance to buy.  The festival was always the place to do that.

And then there were those amazing gems that you can only find at Cornerstone Festival.  And of course there is the amazing Rad Rockers booth.  Are you not fimilar with Rad Rocker?  Great place to buy music.  Check out their website at radrockers.com.  These guys have those hard to find and out of print cds that you have been looking for.  Go and enjoy!

The two things that made Cornerstone a special place was of course amazing live concerts.  You would see bands and artists there that you would not normally get a chance to see live.  

But most of all you would get to be with people that you only saw once a year.  You would camp with them, live next to them for a week, and it would be true community.  

Leaving at the end of the week was always a mixed blessing of regret and relief.  You would not want to leave because you have made new friends, renewed friendships with special friends you only see once a year.  You are basking in the afterglow of a week where God has done an amazing work in your life with an incredible soundtrack playing none stop in the background.  

On the other hand the idea of sleeping in a real bed and washing off Cornerstone dirt, mud, grime (and who knows what else) sounds really good!  Remember, you can only live like this for so long!  

During the first year my concern was that my wife would not enjoy it.  Remember she had been really ill.  As we left the festival grounds and began to head home my wife began to make a list of what we would need the next year.  We actually attended the festival in 1994, 95, 96, 98, 2000, 2002, and 2003.  It has been a long stretch without getting to the festival.

And now it is coming to an end.  

Goodbye Cornerstone.  Thanks for all the great memories.