Miranda Stone [photos & film (all of you, all of us)]

Cornerstone 2000

Our third year here; resplendent with the usual pig-scented clay and straw mixture that coats the footwear of every soul on the 579-acre farm. Mucus membranes are assaulted with a fine orange dust. Ears are assaulted by some of the best music featuring nearly every musical genre you can think of. Now almost 30 thousand strong, festival goers congregate in the middle of Bushnell, IL to camp, re-connect, attend seminars and engage in concerts, sports and arts activities over a five-day span of ruckus. No sleep required. Concerts feature hardcore, folk, R&B, World beat/Celtic, Punk, New wave, Gothic, Dance, Indie, and Rock and Roll. Just a small list.

Please be reminded that these photographs are copyrighted images. That means that you need to get permission by the artist to use them.

Eliza Sullivan, web-grrl, and Joel Blair (who helped us at the merchandise table) in a BEFORE-FESTIVAL shot, loading crates of corn into the van. (We hosted a free vegetarian dinner before our show at the Acoustic Stage. I think we fed around 300 or more folks with stir-fry, rice and noodles, corn on the cob and salad. It was a wonderful moment of community with people volunteering to fetch water, cut vegetables and serve.)

POST-FEST: Did we even get more than 2 hours of sleep each night? Why do we camp beside the road every year? Why do they continue to run hard-core shows until 4 a.m.?

Eliza, at a gas stop in Indiana. I made her add this photo (against her will)

The merchandise table with paper lanterns and water pistol.

One of our tinier fans on the shoulders of her dad.

2 photos of the table, with passing Mohawk (one more reason to love this festival�. I get to add to my growing collection of tattoo photography)

We made Irish steel-cut oats for breakfast one morning over the butane stove, and Eliza got a little crazy with the syrup. One of my favourite shots.

Our good friends in Madison Greene- Lissa, Mike, Bone, Erin and Jason.

Our show on the acoustic stage- this photo and the next by Aimee Wilson

I had been busy over-seeing the vegetarian dinner preparation before I realized that I had only minutes to get ready for the show. It was a furiously hot day, and I remember pulling against the side of the tent, to "shower" myself with rainwater that had collected from a storm the day before. I was joined by a group of sunburnt hand-drummers (friends from some of the other bands playing the festival) and three bushels of fresh rose-petals (collected from my father's rose nursery) were thrown onto the audience during the set. It was wild. Kind of like partying with your extended family.

One of the hand-drummers who played with us.

Neo with his mother, Erin, in a beautiful moment of rest.

The Psalters, an independent band from Philly that creates tribal "hymns" and world-beat glory songs are dear friends of mine. Their shows are always well attended by the wildest of dancers. Two photos back to back.

Another photo of the crowd at the Psalters show.

A circle of dancers gathered for the traditional Celtic band "the Crossing"

Photo by Joel Blair, taken with a Holga camera- The crowd at the Psalters show

Photo by Carol Scott -directly in front of the main stage (a natural hilly amphitheatre filled with thousands of concert goers) don't know who the band was here. Other photos of Cornerstone 2000 can be found under "Fan-submitted Pictures" (Brent and Fur have some really cool ones)

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