LISTEN HERE!

A Wild Time Had By All

Music meets nature, nature wins at Wakarusa

For as big as it was, I was most surprised by how quietly the bear approached. The size of it struck me too, but not as much as the stealthiness.

We'd signaled this creature by one of the most universal attractants in all of nature -- bacon. Cooking a late breakfast, my friends Brian, Antoinette and I inadvertently wafted the smell through the tree-lined edge of the campsite where we were set up for several days and nights during the Wakarusa music festival, which concluded June 7 on Mulberry Mountain, a naturally gorgeous hillside spot north of Ozark.

Just how natural is something we'd all learn again and again over the course of the weekend.

I've camped many times, including a dozen times on Mulberry Mountain alone, once not more than 100 yards from where I set up this year. I've heard warnings of the bears around the site. My girlfriend and I even saw one about six months ago while running about 10 miles south of the mountain. That was at a distance, and that bear was small. I'd certainly never been close to one. I didn't plan to be, either. I always thought a little prudence, such as keeping food out of camp and not having any food waste in the tent, would protect me.

But this guy or gal -- I wasn't quite close enough to know which, thank goodness -- was apparently just as hungry as we were, and at 20 yards from our breakfast table, it meant the bear was 30 yards from us. I'd read that if you're up against a grizzly or a big brown bear, your best options during a close encounter are to first find Jesus and then hurry into the fetal position and protect the back of your neck. Black bears like those we have in Arkansas -- even larger ones like the 300 pound or so specimen we saw -- are a little less menacing. The Arkansas State Parks department tells me -- after the fact, of course -- there hasn't been a fatal bear attack recorded in Arkansas. The last black bear attack in the state I could find a news story on happened in 2006.

We knew to holler, and we knew to bang pots and pans together. They were handy, considering breakfast was still warm. As soon as the clamour started, the bear turned and retreated in the direction of the wooded hillside he came from before any of us could get a picture. By the way, if you want to feel strong and virile for a moment, I suggest yelling at a bear and having it run away. I scared a bear! Let's be honest. He scared me, too.

When our yelling and clanging stopped, one of the young men from the a nearby cluster of tents walked in our direction. He immediately knew what had transpired.

"You see the little one or the big one?" he wanted to know. The big one, I suspect. I can't fathom what a larger one would have looked like. And how nice to know there were others roaming around, too.

Yes, Wakarusa, in Arkansas for the seventh time and a music festival for the 12th time, had its share of wildness. Not just the bear, or the skunk that blocked the entrance to my tent one evening or the never-ending cloud of bugs that hung everywhere there was a white light. The skunk might have been worse than the bear. Had he grown agitated, I would have needed to torch my tent where it stood and start over.

How wild was it out there? There was also the naked man swinging from a tree. I don't know what kind of wild animal he thought he was. I didn't see the act in person, but there's a video making the rounds on the Internet I have seen. I don't know if I should highly encourage you or highly discourage you from seeking this video out. I'll summarize: A man without his clothes on swings from the branches of a tree, perhaps 20 feet in the air. He comes down, puts his pants back on and runs, attempting to jump a fence as a way to escape security guards who surrounded him. The security officers push down a fence during the chase. The video doesn't show the recently naked man for a moment, but you get the sense he was captured when you hear the crowd at the stage roundly boo those in pursuit.

Oh, the music? There was plenty of wildness to see on stage. Andy Frasco kicked off the main stage activities by crowd surfing for almost all of his final song. A swarming mass of humanity gathered to watch the back-to-back sets by The Roots and Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Chance the Rapper might have run a sub-4 minute mile as he zigged and zagged across the stage.

And in perhaps the strangest occurrence of the festival, no rain fell on the grounds during the four-day run. That's a welcome change, considering the year the festival walkways turned into a foot of muck that sucked sandals right off people's feet and wouldn't let go.

Would I rather have a skunk spray my tent, a bear eat my bacon or mud make movement impossible?

I'm not sure, but I'll take the adventures and memories and wildness when I can get them. As long as everything remains a close call, and not an actual catastrophe, that is.

NAN What's Up on 06/12/2015

Upcoming Events