The No Borders Music Festival

Sandi and I have a goal (well, multiple goals, but just one of them I will describe here) in life to attend Ben Harper concerts in as many countries across the world as possible. Our first was in Canada when we'd only known each other a few weeks in the Fall of the year 2000 (or as we called it in the late 90's: "Y2K"). We then subsequently attended shows in France, Italy, and Germany. Two weekends ago, while officially the concert took place in Tarvisio, Italy, at the Fusine Lakes Natural Park, if one is being liberal with definitions, we added two additional countries to our list by attending Ben Harper's concert at the No Borders Music Festival which is contained in an area that touches the borders of Italy, Slovenia, and Austria (and our hotel was 10 minutes down the road in Slovenia so that must count).

The venue was rather incredible for a concert. Up in the mountains, the concertgoers were instructed to park at a large ski-jump complex (on "our" side of the border in Slovenia) where shuttle buses whisked us up and away (and over the border into Italy) into the mountains and the concert venue. By the way, did you know that you can ski jump in the summer?

The day started off sunny and warm. We arrived a few hours before the planned starting time and visited one of the many beer/sausage tents scattered around the venue (what is this? Bavaria?). As the fateful hour approached, we checked out the stage and seating area.

One last-minute espresso consumed, and we lined up to find our seats. The organizers had promised very specifically that the concert would begin on time. They were actually a little wrong because unlike all events -- especially including concerts -- that have ever happened in the history of Italy, it actually started about 3 minutes early. I believe they were very anxious to get things going as it didn't take a meteorologist to see that a storm was a brewing. Here is a picture a couple of minutes into the first song:

And here's how things looked quickly thereafter:

Despite the rain, however, the concert was a great success. Ben is as great of an entertainer as ever and he even gained a new young fan. I can't tell you how many times I've heard since that day "more Ben Harper concert!". I wonder where the next one will be...