I always jump at any opportunity to travel and explore new places, and to check out innovative new ideas, especially when music and good friends are involved. So when my crewmates in OkiZoo -- the hip-hop band that I was a member of when living in Japan up til about four years ago and am still a member of even though we are now scattered all over -- invited me to meet them two weekends ago in Seattle, Washington with the purpose of joining them in a performance at the still burgeoning Photosynthesis Festival 2.0. festival at Trout Lake, August 7 - 10, I was on the first plane out west from Maryland.

To be honest, I knew little about this festival, which began last year but my crewmates had told me that the lineup included the headliners Amon Tobin, Daedelus, and Kid Koala and that the festival was pretty unique in a summer filled with music themed festivals all around the US. The organizers behind the event are coming from a strictly DIY philosophy and say that the festival's goal is to "take your dreams, ideas and skills and weave them into nature, music, art, and education. The goal is a sustainable community where everyone is simultaneously the student and teacher." The hope for this second year of the North West fest was to "focus on sustainability through permaculture, renewable energy, water conservation, holistic healing, waste reduction, and wild crafting," and it seemed like they accomplished this, pretty much, although the turnout of about 2000 for such a really wonderful event was less than I thought it deserved.

In a beautiful rustic setting near Mt. Saint Helens, Washington's Trout Lake is a relatively short distance outside Seattle. As you can see from the video I shot (above), people were camping out on the grounds and all feeling real laid back and relaxed. When my crewmates and I arrived there at the site roughly around 2pm, people were just waking up. Perhaps they were recovering from the night before. Going by the feedback I received from the people I talked to, there was a huge turnout for the headliners like Daedelus but there were also many other performers playing all types of genres and musical styles. Really diverse! There were also a lot of workshops, classes and discussions on the topics like renewable energy, water conservation, and holistic healing, etc. There were yoga classes too. And as you can see in the above video there were artists doing live painting at the event.

Overall, the setting, the performers, and just the overall positive vibe from all in attendance indicated that there will most likely be a Photosynthesis 3.0 in 2010 with a lot more people attending. For more inside data on the event check out the Photosynthesis website.