Words to describe Folklife: Pot, dogs and pirate punk.
Storified by Jake Nicholls · Fri, May 31 2013 17:43:59
By Christian Zerbel and Jake Nicholls for The Clipper.
Here's our experience in six seconds.
Before we even reach Seattle Center, we see people coming from the festival and way more traffic than usual for a Friday afternoon. We reach the center and are greeted by "House of the Rising Sun."
Soon after, we come to the proper start to the festival near Chihuly Garden and Glass. Swarthy, empty-pocketed passers-by continue through the gates and into the festival. We collect a map and a guide and go inside.
After immediately seeing Seattle Center's famous mural stage and experiencing a group of young drummers in a drum circle, we walk along the main pathway and see a guy who looks like Dog the Bounty Hunter, a happy looking busker performing. In front of the band, a few coins and crumpled bills sparely line the bottom of an empty instrument case.
After that, we wander into the vendor area, where we meet Dr. Vortex. His mind medicine -- for "those moments" -- is made from a highly oxygenated artesian water. He tells us that it's used for focus and relaxation.
Dr. Vortex's real name is Mark Schrager, but that's a lot less cool. According to him, "What it won't cure, it will certainly take your mind off of."
He tells us he lives on a mountain, so he must know what he's talking about. He tells us that he comes down with his medicine to work with children who have ADD.
The medicine is very simple. To administer it, shake the bottle and stare at the swirling concoction.
He tells us he lives on a mountain, so he must know what he's talking about. He tells us that he comes down with his medicine to work with children who have ADD.
The medicine is very simple. To administer it, shake the bottle and stare at the swirling concoction.
"It's kind of like 1968 in a bottle...at least, what I remember of it," says Schrager with a Spicoli-esque voice. We wave goodbye to our hazy-eyed friend and set out to explore our surroundings more thoroughly.
Back onto the path and after a few conversations with more vendors, we find this sign displayed along one of the busiest pedestrian trails at FolkLife. This is near the center of Seattle Center.
Directly behind this sign, in a semi-secluded, wooded lounging area we find these guys. Upon hearing there was a no smoking sign just feet away from where some hairy guy in a pink shirt-- who called himself"P!nk" --and his buddies were toking it up, P!nk took the sign as a challenge.
They decided a picture was in order. According to P!nk, he and his friends smoked weed in previous years without incident.
In order to prevent a contact high, we said farewell to P!nk and his friends and found a rag-tag collaboration of homeless-looking anarcho-punks. They played an impressive impromptu set where musicians would join and leave between songs.
One guitar player said "we don't even know all of each other's names yet." But they played like they'd known each other for years.
