Somewhere Where I'm Not: 5/04/12

First day of Bluesfest today - yay!
Gates open at 2pm so I spent most of the day just hanging out with Freda, reading, playing some tunes and chatting to my neighbours.
We are camped in what I would consider a perfect spot - close to the ammenities but not TOO close as well as being close to the entry gate so it is only a 30 second walk from Freda to the festival - schweet!
I walked over to the Festival at about 3pm and had a bit of a look around to orient myself with where everything is located. There are two main stages, 2 smaller stages, a buskers stage and a small bar/lounge stage.
The first act I saw was Dallas Frasca. I don't think I had seen her play since a band I was in years ago, Rusty Shake, supported her when she travelled through Wagga. Back then it was just her and guitarist Jeff Curran but now she has a drummer which really serves to fill the sound out more and make it more of a rock-fest than blues-fest, which is fine by me.

Dallas Frasca doing her thang...

I then went over to one of the main stages to check out "Trombone Shorty". I had never heard of him but Will has seen him at a previous Bluesfest and said I should do myself a favour and check him out and I'm glad I did.
It was an excellent show, Shorty can certainly play that trombone but the bloke can also sing too! He was a very good showman without being TOO cocky and really had the crowd going.
At the end, all the band swapped instruments (ie the drummer jumped on guitar, percussionist on trombone, Shorty on drums, sax guy on bass etc etc) and they continued to finish the song and it sounded exactly like it did when they were on their original instruments!! Phenomenal!

Trombone Shorty - one of many highlights from Day 1 of Bluesfest

It was then time for some dinner and I was stoked to discover there was a Govinda's here. Govinda's is real simple, wholesome but tasty vegetarian tucker - there are two restaurants in Brisbane and for $11 you get a whole heap of food plus dessert. Tucking into it took me straight back to my Brisbane days.
After dinner it was time to go to the volunteer headquaters or "Vollie HQ" to find out what I'd be doing on my first volunteer shift.
Myself and four other girls were put in the catering section where all the food is made for the performers and crew.
The girls were put on the sinks washing dishes while I was helping more in the kitchen, chopping chillis, cleaning stuff and just being a general "gofa". After watching a few restaurant shows over the xmas break, I was expecting the chefs to be arseholes but they were all really nice and appreciative of our help.
After the bulk of the work was done, we were basically told to just hang out and "look busy" so I grabbed a broome and took it out front, hoping to spot a celebrity or two but nothing was doing.
We got let off early by our team leader Siobohan so I was able to catch the second half of Cold Chisel's set as well as Lucinda Williams.