Waiting for a Star to Fall

Rock in the Park

Veronica, Chrissie and I had arrived fashionably to Rock in the Park at 6:47. Our late lunch may have turned in to a few post-lunch drinks. Veronica and I had Chrissie in a bit of a buzz and we were quite pleased with ourselves. "Brian told me, to tell you two that our passes were at the gate." Chrissie said as we waited in line at the barricade set up near the edge of the park.

"What do the passes do?" Veronica wanted to know.

"They're band passes so we drink for free." I told her.

"Oh god. We shouldn't have given Chrissie that last cocktail in that case." Veronica said, rather wide-eyed.

"It's early! She'll be fine." I promised her. The park was already well crowded with plenty other people in line at the gate. Technically, one could have arrived at the park by 5:00 and listened to bands until midnight. Chrissie, Veronica and I were the smart ones who didn't get here before 7:00. Freddie and the boys were scheduled to go on at 8:30 with their set wrapping up at 9:15. The air on this early evening was crisp and quite refreshing; the air moving slightly, rustling what was left of the leaves in the trees that dotted the park. The line was moving faster than we had anticipated much to our delight. Veronica couldn't keep her hands out of Chrissie's thick curls at the bottom of her hair. I had to snicker because it was so very affectionate.

"What are you doing?" Chrissie asked.

"I'm just gettin' you all warmed up. This is what it's like when John plays with my hair." Veronica explained, giving Chrissie's soft hair a shake.

"Are you serious?" Chrissie asked, looking over her shoulder at Veronica.

"Well, of course." Veronica said.

"Lucky." She mumbled at Veronica as the line moved forward. As we waited for the next attendant, we could hear the current bands' set list. It was hard to tell much of what was going on behind the entry gates except for the buzzing around the band associated vehicles that surrounded the south end of the park. Each band had a reserved parking spot in the grass and to all the boys, this was a big deal because it put the name of each individual band in everyone's faces. In fact, the general public could pass by each convoy, some parking areas much more elaborately arranged than others. It was rather obvious as to which bands were the most experienced just by looking at their arrangements in the parking spaces. The bands with the larger vans or flatbed trucks, with tarp tents to accompany their rigs were the most established. The bands that showed up in a truck or van and little else, had the least performance experience. As for Roger and the rest of the boys? They had arrived in the van, with little else aside from the sign in front of their space. RESERVED BAND 9: QUEEN. The fact that they had even managed to get the ninth spot had been nothing short of a miracle. The show was setup in that the most anticipated bands would be performing toward the end of the evening and there were twelve spots.

We were next to go through the gates after only waiting briefly. "Hi we have passes reserved?" Veronica stated, questioningly.

"Which band?" the woman asked, picking up her clipboard.

"Queen." Veronica said, watching the woman take the highlighter to the board.

"Ah! Here we go. Three passes?" she asked. Veronica nodded as she handed them over.

"Hospitality area is behind the stage. You'll see it immediately on your left. Have fun tonight." The woman said, as Veronica passed our wristbands back. We didn't take twelve steps behind the makeshift gates setup at the edge of the park when we immediately saw the stage setup the opposite end of where we were. The crowd was terrific, a lot of turnout tonight. As we walked into the scattered sea of people, the current band so obviously well into their set list, we took in the sights around us. Food, liquor, beer, hot cocoa and the festival's iconic spiked apple cider were being served to the right of the stage. Aside from what was being sold anything else you wanted could be bummed from someone nearby; everything from a cigarette to a toke of weed. The stage was blocked off on one side with the other side being controlled by security and a gate in the fence. The term security was used loosely.