Vacation Part 3 - Northern Lights Festival

In the final chapter of our vacation, we drove from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury. We didn't have to stop at all once we left Sault Ste. Marie - not for a stop sign, not for a traffic light, not for an accident or for traffic, or refreshments or washroom. Just drove for three straight hours until we reached Sudbury.

We stayed in a dorm room at Laurentian University in Sudbury. J found out about these accomodations when she was researching things to do in Sudbury, and that's when she learned about the Northern Lights Festival. It turned out that the campus accomodation was supposed to be for festival volunteers and performers only, but they gave us a room anyways. "We're not going to turn you away," they said.

Our room was on the second floor. There was one washroom on the second floor, and it was for females only. The men's washroom was on the third floor. Did I mention that I drove for three straight hours without stopping?

In the morning we heard that there was a breakfast at the residence, but we weren't sure whether it was supposed to be just for the volunteers and performers, and we were reluctant to crash it. Then we ran into one of the organizers, who is on the Board of Directors for the festival, and she invited us to the breakfast. So we went.

We met a few performers there. One was a fellow named Yann from a Montreal band named Genticorum. There was also a man we passed by in the hallway and I said hi to him. We later found out he was also a performer.

A shuttle brought us right into the festival grounds so we didn't even have to pay admission. I guess it was a worthwhile tradeoff - trading off a waashroom in our room for admission to this festival.

We watched several performances. During one of them, J recognized that the band leader was the same man we had passed by in the hallway that morning. He introduced the band - I didn't know how to spell it at first, but it sounded like Shaggy Dog. I found out later that the band is called Chakidor.

Chakidor had a really good, lively performance. Their sound was good too - it was clear and you could distinctly hear each instrument, Hey - people don't usually pay attention to the sound guy.