The Gathering...I don't know what to say about the Gathering. It was fantastic, but honestly I feel sort of geeky talking about it. It WAS like a Trekkie convention for Alarm fans. There were trivia quizzes about the Alarm about things as crazy as what song started the set three years ago or who joined Mike onstage in 1994 at this club in this town -- things I didn't have a clue about. Should I have known these things? Am I a bad Alarm fan? Nah, I didn't feel that way at all.
I was HAPPY to be there! On the first night, Mike Peters played solo on a small round stage. Since the Gathering is limited to 1000 people from all over the world this night, it is easy to crowd in and join the party. Everyone gathers in a circle around the stage and Mike blazes through acoustic versions of the hits and fan favorites. I know every word and am singing at the top of my lungs, but that is what we all do. He lets us sing a lot of it for him.
I think this is the part that makes me happiest. I watched a youtube video from this acoustic singalong at Gathering 17 and I'm going to come clean--it made me cry. It was then that I knew I had to go to the Gathering. It took until Gathering 19 to get me here but we had been planning and saving all along.
So... of course, I bought a hat.
From 1989-2002 we went to nearly every Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois. It gave us a way to mark our year and see our Cornerstone friends and gave me a real sense of belonging. It has been 6 years since we decided to stop going and while I don't regret that, I miss having that yearly marker, good musical kindred spirits, and a sense of belonging to something. The Gathering felt like it could be my grown-up Cornerstone.
In addition to the goofy quizzes, the pub next door was a great place to meet up with friends, the time with our good Glaswegian friends Doug & Kerstin was food for the soul. Doug really helped to motivate me to go to the Gathering in the first place, and has to be Mr. Popularity at the Gathering. He has gone to a few and knows absolutely everyone. Doug made sure we got apartments next door to each other in the upgraded section too. ;)
It also woke me up to a great cause staring me in the face:
Mike Peters of the Alarm is a leukemia survivor living with it now after beating cancer twice, and looking for a bone marrow donor to essentially save his life. I knew he had done some charity work for the cause but was completely unaware that Love Hope Strength, the foundation he co-founded to provide cancer care and treatment facilities in places of need as well as organizing bone marrow drives to build the registries internationally, is based in DENVER! Duh. I learned about how easy it is to become a bone marrow donor and really felt kind of sad that I had been asleep at the switch all this time. I determined to come home and volunteer for LHS as well as become a donor. I have since signed up to be a volunteer and am anxiously awaiting my first assignment at the Mile High Music Festival (unless something else comes up earlier).
Here are some of the people we met that I mentioned in the blog entry prior to this one:
Warren & Lisa
Kelly & brother Mitch
Mitch & Jeannette
Doug & Kerstin
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