Life Is Good Festival 2011

I headed up to Canton, MA this weekend to attend the Life Is Good Festival, a "fundraiser to help kids overcome life-threatening challenges".  What an amazing event!  Families and kids everywhere, celebrating together with music, food, and fun, and all for an unbelievable cause.  The event took place on the grounds of the historic Prowse Farm with fitting bails of hay and barns galore!  Within the first day of the festival, over $900,000 was raised in support of the cause.  Every ticket, every piece of merch, every hot dog, ice cream cone, everything that you purchased was to help support the kids.  The weather held out, and some phenomenal bands were performing including  The Dirty Dozen Brass Band from New Orleans, legend Levon Helm, and headlining on Saturday night, The Avett Brothers. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band blew the lid off of the main stage on Saturday afternoon - really, a double trumpet player?  How does that even work?!  AMAZING!

The whole festival was extremely accessible for EVERYONE - at each stage, platforms with ramps were setup for those in wheelchairs to have a perfect view of the bands playing.  And in front of each stage during the performances, a person would sign in ASL (American Sign Language) the lyrics to the songs being sung.  Check out this video of The Avett Brothers performing and the man translating the lyrics in ASL at the foot of the stage.

You can still support Life Is Good if you feel inspired, with tee shirt sales and donations still accepted online.  As an annual family tradition, I'm excited to see this festival grow!