Freedom & Grace

Trip Start Aug 31, 2011

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of United States Boston, Massachusetts
Saturday, September 17, 2011

Danny & I

Everywhere I saw the advertisements: on Saturday "at high noon" was Hemp Fest, technically called the Freedom Rally. This year was the 20^th anniversary, and as we were right there it seemed a crime (haha) to not at least check it out. I didn't really appreciate the “Repeal Prohibition!” and Abraham Lincoln signs everywhere, but it was a pretty entertaining event. Tons of people, tons of stalls, tons of smoke. People shoved advertisements for hemp shops into your hands, schools were tabling with their groups for logical drug policies, drink vendors sold these colored drinks with white overflowing smoky tops called “volcano sodas”. One of the best parts was getting a call from my cousin to meet him there; I haven’t seen him in months. Most of the music was pretty terrible, so when the sheer amount of smoke got to us we moved to where the Quidditch team was practicing. Mary and I gathered some friends (and my cousin) and walked to Haymarket.

We only had a vague idea of where it was, but we soon found the open-air market. Since it was later in the afternoon, some stalls were packing up, but we successfully got apples and plums and carrots for amazingly cheap prices.

Haymarket

There was a free Mixfest Concert at the Esplanade, so Mary and Danny and I made our way over. We arrived during the end of Sara Bareilles (who I don’t really like but has a gorgeous voice) so we wandered around the grounds after Danny left. I started to feel a little sick, but then Grace Potter & the Nocturnals came on stage (who I love and haven’t seen in forever) so we forced our way into the crowd. Unfortunately, I started to really feel awful so we left before their set ended.