Edward Sharpe’s Big Top Festival

I haven’t been to a circus since the tender age of 7.

While time has gone on, and I’ve grown older, this one and only experience will never leave me a stranger to the smells, sights, or sounds of such a place. The distinguished character that oozes out of such a magical land does not fall prey to forgetting. Walking through the entrance of a circus… you are instantly transported. Another dimension, another planet. The strange is celebrated while lights flash rainbow colors through the sky and painted faces ask you to come hither for a longer gander.

When I found out about Alexander’s quest to create a similar experience under a traditional Big Top… where his Band “Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros” would close out the night of burlesque shows, puppets, ventriloquists, fortune tellers, farmers markets, and a slew of opening bands (that changed nightly)… I simply could not resist. Heavily inspired and affected by “Dumbo” as a child, Alexander wanted to create a total experience for both performers and go see’ers, one that embodied an intimacy that often gets lost in the commercial venues throughout the country.

It makes sense, this band in this venue, and everything about it agreed with one another. Audience members were alive with happiness and bright eyes. All of us sitting under this Big Top tent as we celebrated love and sang out loud as our boots kicked up hay and sawdust.  ESMZ are known for the feel good music they produce (promoting love, positivity, beauty). Their fans have no shape or age… they come in every variety. Rockers, rollers, hipsters, flower children, grandparents, grateful dead groupies.

They delivered a performance one would hope, but this time round, dusted with a special filter of dreamy magic, of otherworldly expression.

Did anyone else go?

Photography: Galen Oakes

Photography: Galen Oakes

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