The Riveter: "If you build it, they will come"

     As a teenager I would find myself longing to be groovin' and rockin' at a concert or music festival. I grew up just north of Dover, in Smyrna, and as I would watch Nascar fans swarm in twice a year and fill up the stands to watch cars race on the "Monster Mile", I would dream of day when I would see the stands fill up with an audience to listen to music of legendary artists. In 2004, I thought that dream had become a reality, when rock acts Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Creedance Clearwater Revisited, Bo Diddley and Peter Frampton came together for an All-Star concert at Dover International Speedway.  I was finally able to see how this venue could truly accommodate a concert. You see, only half the track was actually used, vendors lined the outer portion, and while attendees like myself, a large portion of my husband's family, and many others (like several teachers I had in high school) rocked out all day quite comfortably. When Crosby, Stills and Nash performed a rainbow appeared in the sky and it was just pure magic, just like their song "After the Storm" says, "After the clouds disappear, after the rainbow has gone, I'm left with a song in my ear, the melody is lingering on, How come I have to explain, music is worth the pain". I was so sure that after such a successful show, that I would finally see my teenage dream come true. My dream seemed short lived, until last year, when Red Frog came to Delaware with the Firefly Music Festival.
     In the words of Alanis Morrisette, "and isn't it ironic don't you think", that nearly twenty years ago
this young teenager dreaming of music coming to Dover Downs right where she first learned to play guitar would finally see her dream come true? Back then, where Home Depot sits today, was a place my friends and I referred to as the "dirt mall". If my memory serves correctly it was actually a "farmer's market", filled with a plethora of Americana, from a booth that one could play Magic, store fronts that sold the latest glitzy fashionable shirts or jewelry, a tattoo shop, a pet shop, and a place you could get pizza by the slice. (Imagine the movie Mallrats with T.S. and Brodie going to the dirt mall, yeah it was like that, nostalgic. Oh and also the place that I got my nose pierced the first time.). Next to the "dirt mall" was one of the few music stores in Delaware, Earle Teat (this store still exists, but has since moved to a different location). It was at this store, where I took my hard earned money, bought my first guitar and learned to play. I bought the closest thing to a grey guitar as I could, because at the time, Counting Crows was super popular and, how could you not want a grey guitar? I bought the next best thing, a silver Gibson Epiphone. Now, imagine saving your money to buy a guitar, but not having enough to buy an amp. So for weeks, maybe even months I learned to play my electric guitar with little sound. What kept me going? Music was my motivation. But there is another irony to this story.
     I also used my hard-earned money to pay for my guitar lessons, which were at the music store where I bought my guitar. My guitar teacher, could have doubled as a stand in for Anthony Kiedis. He of course, hated this comparison, but any of my friends who ever joined me during one of my lessons thought the same thing. He was just as cool as Kiedis though, because he and his band practiced in a basement near my house and allowed me to come every week and watch- these were my personal concerts. I soon got a glimpse of what being in a band was all about...and I will leave it at that, those of you who have ever been in a band know what all of that entails.
     Yeah so imagine the irony going through my head as I prepared to attend this year's Firefly Music Festival with Anthony Kiedis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as the first night's headlining band, when I realized what had occurred less than a mile from the Woodlands. All I can say is thank you Red Frog, for somehow connecting to my dream, and turning the Woodlands into a music lover's paradise! I really couldn't even start to tell you how many mixed tapes of Indie rock music I brought with me to those first guitar lessons back then, but it feels so good to know that this dream is a reality, at least for another 10 years!

P.S. This second year proved that, "If you build it, they will come!"