The Brewers Guild Festival

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It’s raining now, and Laith Al-Saadi’s band is playing. They launch into Elmore James’s “The Sky is Crying.” We scurry under a tree as the rain turns to a tremendous downpour. Everyone is running for cover, except a big guy in a red football jersey. He’s doing an improv dance performance in front of the band shell, cartwheeling theatrically and covering a lot of ground. When the song ends, he bows before the band, and everyone cheers. As I lift my glass to my face, I see what looks like a fish in it. The cheers drown out my scream of horror.

Jennifer wipes the rain from her face and pulls out the “fish” to show me. It’s a leaf, fallen from the tree.

The Brewers Guild festival returns to Depot Town on Friday and Saturday, July 24 and 25.   

[Originally published in July, 2009.]