Kiahpalooza

I went to a party/memorial for a friend this past weekend called Kiahpalooza and it was kind of a hippy version of the Irish Wake. In Spring of 2008 my friend Kiah Pickering got sick and after a lot of testing it was found out he had cancer. He was going to try and fight it but within a couple of months of that he was gone. The progression from seemingly healthy to dead was very disturbing to a lot of us. The funereal service was very nice but was not the way we wanted to say goodbye. Getting all dressed up and being in a church was not Kiah. We had talked amongst ourselves and decided a big party was the best way way to see Kiah off.

The name Kiahpalooza was decided on almost from the start because he had a party of the same name years ago. After some searching they found a place to have the party. It was in a small town east of Memphis in a town called Saulsbury, TN in a big open field. Many of Kiah's closest friends were there to enjoy a day of music, food, booze, and good times, and was the perfect way to memorialize him because he loved to travel and camp to see music. Most people seemed to have a good time and it did not get overly sentimental or sad. It was just a group of friends saying goodbye to someone they missed. The weather co-operated because it rained Friday and Sunday but the rain stayed away most of Saturday. Central BBQ donated some food and Saturday Dabney and I packed up the car, picked up the bbq and headed out to the event. To get to the place where the party was we had to drive on this long and very muddy dirt road. At one point we thought we become the victims of some elaborate prank but we reached the place where the party was being held. People were milling about and chatting, it mostly the people they had come Friday night to set things up. After we got settled a bit we set up our tent. The bands started playing late in the afternoon. We hung out, ate food, listened to music, and just enjoyed the scene. After the bands they had a girl twirling fire which was pretty interesting. They set a big sheet and showed one of Kiah's favorite movies The Big Lebowski but Dabney and I went to bed before they showed the movie. The morning we woke up and it was raining. From the looks of things a lot of people left over the course of the night. We drove back into Memphis and had breakfast with Austin, Ted, and Jode. We went home bathed all the field muck off and took a nice long nap.