Extrava

This Dann Vazquez portrait of Northampton was symbolically true yesterday.

That's because yesterday was the psychedelically themed Extravaganza which is put on each year by the UMass Cannabis Coalition as a celebration of the virtues of marijuana in particular and high culture in general. I took the bus there, and soon encountered a terrible traffic jam at the Calvin Coolidge Bridge coming into Hamp from Amherst.

The traffic was crawling along so slowly, that I and a bunch of other people on the bus decided to just get off the bus and walk across the bridge. While on one side of me as I crossed was the impenetrable traffic jam, as long as I just kept gazing in the opposite direction, then I saw only transcendent beauty.

At last we arrived at our destination, where the traffic jam continued on the street leading into the fair grounds itself.

There was security at the gate, but it wasn't particularly intrusive, in fact, they practically just waved me through. But maybe that was because I purposely did not bring a knapsack and probably looked like some harmless old coot. One of the few advantages I find with advancing years is that I'm often mistaken as much more respectable and much less subversive than I really am. Once inside, old glory greeted the revelers.

The place was really crowded.

When I was younger I used to love crowds, going to concerts running all around shouting "Yahoo!" I no longer do the substances that used to encourage the yahooing, and find that I now appreciate mankind more in the abstract than when they are swarming all around me.

The star of the event was there, actual marijuana plants that you could buy. While purchasing marijuana in a store is not possible until July 1st, it is already legal to grow your own.

I got there just in time for the Terry Franklin & Dick Evans Show.

Conspicuous in their absence were any local politicians, including sorta-Senator Stan Rosenberg and State Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, both of whom face potentially tough re-election races this year and could've used the goodwill their attendance would have generated.

What I also didn't hear, in the ninety minutes or so I was there, was any live music being played. Later I heard that a few bands got stuck on the highway and missed their own gig. In compensation, here's something from the golden age of psychedelia.



My verdict: A good time was had by all