LutheranChik's "L" Word Diary: (More or Less) Happy Wheatland!

I played hooky from church today -- which was Rally Day, not my demographic anyway -- and went on my annual pilgrimmage to the Wheatland Festival outside Remus, Michigan, a little town between Mt. Pleasant and Big Rapids.

Wheatland started out in the 70's as a group of local back-to-the-land hippies grooving to bluegrass music out in a sympathetic farmer's hayfield, but over the years it has grown into a regional phenomenon -- well over 10,000 Wheaties descending upon Remus and creating a kind of three-day tie-dyed magic kingdom of music, art and neighborliness. There's now a main stage, a smaller stage for more intimate performances, a dance area and separate kids' and teenagers' activity programs. Wheatland boasts a juried art fair, a smorgasboard of meal options ranging from vegetarian fare cooked up by the Happy Farmers food coop (free if you volunteer in the kitchen) to various local civic groups' offerings like barbecued chicken dinners and elephant ears.

And there's just a lot of music all over the place -- music classes, and people just jamming in their camps. I love how people tote their instruments all over and just start playing them. I was standing in an extremely slow coffee line this morning when some guy in front of me groused, "This is getting really borrring..." -- then whipped out a mandolin and gave an impromptu concert for the rest of us.

Wheatland is also the kind of place where you can see things like a middle-class, Dockers-clad Ned Flanders kind of guy walking around nonchalantly wearing a clown nose, or a multiply-pierced college gal flowing past in a diaphanous ballet tutu accented by hiking boots, or adults skipping for no apparent reason, and think, "Well, alrighty then!" (I know for some of my bicoastal readers this is just another day on the sidewalk, but if you're from Outer Podunk and starved for diversity of any kind, it's wonderful. And, anyhow, I'm always relieved to not be the strangest person in a group.) Having to work in a milieu with other women desperate to turn back the hands of time by any means necessary, I was also happy to be in an environment with so many women evidently comfortable to be themselves -- salt-and-pepper hair, non-extended nails, womanly physiques. It was positively -- ahem -- friskifying.

I got there near the start of the traditional Sunday morning gospel sing. One of the singers, Rachel Davis, is a slight young woman with a huge set of lungs; she plays the folk circuit, so if you ever get a chance to hear her sing, do it. (I used to go to her parents' church when she was just a little kiddo, and remember her busking at Wheatland for violin-lesson money.) The singing and backup musicianship was excellent; the band performed everything from standards like "Amazing Grace" to a very moving and thoughtful rendition of Dylan's "With God on Our Side" to -- and I can't believe I'm typing this -- what I think was a contemporary Christian song that wasn't half bad. (Thanks to un-lame lyrics, a slower tempo, mellow acoustic instrumentation and a singer with a raw, bluesy, broken-hearted voice.)

The afternoon's Main Stage performances were great -- the Red Stick Ramblers, Robert Jones, Pierce Pettis and Maria Maldaur and Her Red Hot Bluesiana Band, who really got 'em dancing in the aisles. There were many musical references to the Gulf area; and the Wheatland Music Organization is donating a portion of its T-shirt sales this year to the Acadian Arts Council, on the recommendation of Wheatland artists with Louisiana ties because the council is currently trying to help its local musicians and other artists who've suffered displacement because of Hurricane Katrina.

It was a pretty fun day. My only disappointment was in not finding any of my old buddies from Cadillac who've usually made it to Wheatland. Only children may be good at making our own fun...but sometimes, frankly, it really sucks to go to a festive event like this alone. Not enough to stay home, mind you, but...still. I comforted myself by hanging out at the art fair and engaging in some necessarily modest retail therapy; bought some honey from my favorite honey purveyors at the Beedazzled booth, and interesting herbal soap. (This helped -- especially the amber-scented soap. Whoa.)

It was a quieter Wheatland this year, I think because of Hurricane Katrina and because of the 9/11 anniversary today. But I could still wish my hosts a "Happy Wheatland!" on my way out of the exit gate this evening.

The Spirit of Wheatland, enjoying the Main Stage from her her hilltop vantage point.