Chicago! (July 19th, 2007)

We met Chicago!!!!!

Jim & I got the unique opportunity to meet the band, Chicago!!!

(Photo in the Clare County Cleaver)

We got the meet & greet tickets from a friend of ours at 98.5 FM WUPS!
Thanks Michael J!!!!

It was almost a fluke that we got this opportunity! First of all, we arrived late to the festival on Thursday evening. I think we got there at about 9 pm and the festival staff had to find us a camp site, while Jim went to upgrade our tickets to the VIP seats.

Anyway, Jim ran into Mike who works for WUPS (and we also know him because he also lives in Gladwin) and he told Jim to hurry up and drop our trailer at the site and get over to the WUPS tent. He could get us in to see Chicago in person! AWESOME!

Anyway, we got to the gate to get in an see Chicago and they let us in to see them and wouldn't let WUPS in, even though they had press passes. BUMMER! So the UPS crew wasn't able to get in and see Chicago, but they still let us in. It was GREAT!

Thanks WUPS!

Chicago was AWESOME to see LIVE! The sound in the open stadium was FANTASTIC. It was better seeing them live, than listening to them on the radio. The instruments they played on stage sounded great, live.

These guys can still play as good as they've ever played! What a great band!!! We'd love to see them again in concert!

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REO Speedwagon! (July 20th, 2007)

Another absolutely AWESOME Band to see live.

REO played on the second night of the festival.

These guys still run around the stage, full of energy! They put on a great show! I wish I had some better photos. I hadn't mastered taking pictures after dark, with my camera, at this point. What a bummer!

The photo above, was taken of the large screens they had on each side of the stage. I could get better pictures off of those screens, after dark... at this point. Later on in the weekend, I figure out how to take better photos after dark.

After REO was done, they took the time to walk up to the people closest to the stage and shake hands and touch the people. They were so sincere and happy to be there. They took the time to spend greeting their fans, after the show was over.

They also tossed out guitar picks and drum sticks, to the crowd. They were great!

REO Greeting the crowd!

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Grand Funk Railroad! (July 21st, 2007)

I was impressed!

Grand Funk Railroad played on the third evening, before Deep Purple. They put on a great show. The drum solo was FANTASTIC! Their drummer can really play the heck out of those drums. I'd say that he did one of the best drum solos for the whole festival.

They really got the crowd going!

Great show, Guys!!!


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Deep Purple! (July 21, 2007)

These guys are getting up there in age, but can still ROCK! They played late on the third night of the festival.
They look a lot different than they used to. I expected to see all of them with long hair and heavy metal duds on. The singer looked like an every day guy, but they did a great job.

STYXS! (July 22nd, 2007)

I LOVE STYX!

One of my favorite bands to see live!

These guys ROCK! Here's Tommy Saw and Chuck Panozzo!

The sound quality was excellent! They played a lot of my favorite songs. They looked like they had a lot of fun playing to the crowd! I was they could have played longer. They were on stage just before Def Leppard!

Def Leppard!!! (July 22, 2007)

WOW! Def Leppard in the little town of FARWELL Michigan!

Def Leppard arrived with 11 semi trucks full of equipment for their stage show!

When these guys come to play, they bring the whole deluxe show with them! That's a lot of equipment!

Again, I didn't get the best pictures, but it was hard to take pictures with the light show that was constantly going. The photos above were taken when they we up, away from the back of the stage and near the crowd.

Joe Elliot

The show was excellent! The had a large screen behind the stage that had video and lights, throughout much of the show. The still play loud and strong! We hope to see them back!

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Welcome to my Photos Blog for Mt Rock Fest!

Mt Rock Fest was held July 19th to the 22nd, 2007!

http://mtrockfest.com/

Headliners were:

Chicago ~ REO Speed Wagon ~ Grand Funk Railroad

Deep Purple ~ Styx ~ Def Leppard

... and many, many more!!!

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Meet the Bakers!

Here we are, enjoying the music!

Here's Jim, looking cool! Ha ha!

He's getting a little scruffy, after 4 days at camp!

My husband was nice enough to take a picture of me walking out of the Porta John!

Ain't that classy.

Hey, ya got ta go when you gota go!

On the second day, we couldn't resist walking to the top of the Mountain! It was quite a walk up there, but the view was spectacular! This used to be a ski mountain before it was a music festival grounds.


Ivie standing on the mountain.

Wow! That's a long ways down there!

Look at all of the campers on the hill! For many people, setting up camp was interesting! Leveling some of the campers was a chore. Being that this was the first year, the camp sites were still pretty rough. I'm sure next year, they will be improved.

Here's our "Old Timer". It did the job, though. This is a 1970 something trailer with gold shag carpet! Well... maybe dirt colored now. LOL!

The first night we didn't get it leveled out, because we came in at dusk and we had to hurry to meet with the band, Chicago. Jim had to fight to keep from rolling out of his bed at night, since the trailer was leaning. I had no trouble sleeping. I had the wall to catch me. (Sorry honey).

These sites were rustic. No power, No water! We bought a generator before we arrived, so we could have lights at night.

Even though we arrived late, we got a PREMIUM camping spot! We were only about 5 or 6 sites down from the main gate, in the VIP campground. We already reserved our spot for next summer. (YES... We're Coming Back!)

We met several nice folks out there... and some that we hadn't seen in a while. One person we ran into, recognized Jim from over 25 years ago! Jim would have been just a teen then!

I'm sure that next year will be even better... and ever more people will know about Mt Rock Fest! I've already told a lot of people about it, that didn't even know about it!

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