Kwajalein Spring Fest 2012!

Spring Fest 2012!

Kwajalein has a number of annual gatherings from talent shows to coffee shops, even Fourth of July, but Spring Fest has to be the most attended event of the year! Each year, during spring break, Kwaj hosts a community festival welcoming spring (without seasons, people need a bit of a reminder!) There's always a variety of things to do from wandering through the two t-shirt vender tents that sell custom Kwaj t-shirts ( a must have if you want to start a conversation in the states), great cookie sales, dunk tanks, burgers and hot dogs, a chili cook off, delicious snow cones, and even a beer tent labeled with the classic pirate flag! Live music is performed on stage all day, which always draws in a large crowd of beach bums with their tents and beers ready and eager to sit in the sand until sun set! 

        
Family and friends were camped in front of the stage this year, mostly to drink cold beers and get a nice tan, but also to listen to Colby, Dawson (Colby's guitar student) and I perform on stage! This was Dawson's coming out day, as well as Colby and my first time doing a serious performance. Colby has experience on stage performing with other bands, and even performed with people last Spring Fest, and I performed with him during the talent show (a very funny rendition of Rock Lobster) which took a bit of the edge off, but this was our first time actually singing (seriously singing) in front of people, so it was nerve racking for everyone!

 After listening to a few great acts, the three of us  reluctantly wandered over to the stage to get ready to go on. Of course we were all trying to tell ourselves we weren't nervous ( which never EVER actually works), but all of us were pumped with adrenaline and excitement when we went on stage. THANK GOD, it was a bit earlier in the day and there wasn't a huge crowd (by six at night there is a HUGE crowd of happy drunk beach dwellers listening to the live bands), so we weren't that scared. Who am I kidding, I was FREAKED! But the performance started and even though I was shaky (singing when your nervous is very hard) Colby kept his cool and sang every note of each song perfectly while Dawson played his solos perfectly on cue! Oh, and we played Paparazzi by Lady GAGA, and Underneath it all by No Doubt.

(it sounded fantastic when we practiced, of course)

Overall the day was a blast. I fianlly got a snowcone, and Colby got a great tan, and Jamie and I got some awesome new shirts (Colby is wearing mine in the pictures)! We performed well and Dawson did a great job on his solos and we recieved many kudos throughout the rest of the day. After performing my dad was hot so we packed it up and went home, but Colby and I got to go back down at night and listen to the rest of the performances (which were awesome). The day was good, the community had a lot of fun, and we got some awesome pictures as well as some good stage experience. Now we're getting even more excited to go busking in the states! TTFN! *spell checked by Colby:)