Festival of Colors

Three years ago we went with my friend Jenny to the Festival of Colors at the Hari Krishna Temple. That was the first year it had caught on as a sudo spring break for Utah college students. It went from a fun event, to a crazy event. Because of that we stayed away the last two years.

I really wanted to go again and instead of two times for the throwing of the colors, they were doing it every two hours. I figured that would spread out the crowds a lot and felt it was worth trying to go again. They also have several places you can take shuttle buses so you don't have to worry about the nightmare of trying to just get there.

So Maiken, Lucia, Will and I went for it. We got to the shuttle parking lot just as a bus was getting ready to leave. There was only one seat left, so we said we would wait, figuring there would be another bus soon. We should have taken the one seat. It ended up that there was only one bus making rounds on that stop. It took about 30 minutes round trip. Its less than two miles away.

It wouldn't have been so bad other than it was cold. And windy. And the kids were anxious. We finally got to the temple grounds and made our way up to the hill. Because of the multiple color throwings and people that don't care about waiting for the designated times, most of the people were already covered. The wind helped spread everything around too.

They were scheduled to throw again at 5 and we were there about ten minutes before, good timing. I had read online that they would countdown before each throw, and they were asking people to please wait until those times. Well right at 5 people started throwing. I told our little group to wait, because it wasn't the real time yet. We got a little color on us, but not a ton.

And then we waited, and waited and they weren't throwing. So I said the hell with it and we threw our colors and made our way back to wait for the return bus. While waiting in line for the bus they had the real throw, at 5:35 I'm glad we didn't wait. It was just too cold. And Will didn't want to be there in the first place.

So we wait for the bus. There was a bus right when we got to the line, but we were about 20 people back from making it on. So we waited in the cold wind with shivering kids. Well Will was, Lucia was content just running around. So after another 30 minutes the next bus comes, yet it doesn't stop at the front of the line. It stops just behind us. In situations like that I think you see peoples true colors. It didn't matter to the majority of the people behind us that we had obviously been waiting longer than they had, you know it being a line and all. And we were all cold. We all wanted to leave. But they didn't care.

The crowd started rushing the bus even before it was clear. I went way out of my comfort level and yelled out, "hey do you think maybe we could follow the line that has been waiting for 30 minutes?!" Several other people in front of us muttered, yeah, thanks, exactly etc., but it didn't really stop any of the people behind us from pushing towards the bus. Finally some guy yelled out to let the little shivering boy on and so people actually waited for Will and I to get on. Will totally came through for us!

It will probably take a few more years for me to get up the desire to go again. But it is an interesting experience. I just wish it would go back to more of the fun hippy crowd, and less of the obnoxious college crowd.

You'll probably have to click on the picture to see anything, but in the middle you can see what the color throwing looks like from 9 miles away at my parents house. Look for the pink cloud

At the temple

Best picture ever

Looking down to the mosh pit, no way I would have gone down there

Aftermath. Guess which of these children enjoyed themselves

Trying to keep Will warm waiting for the bus back

The color throw cloud while waiting for the bus

My hair ended up being the only part that really got any color