Bluegrass at the Lake:
A colorful adventure
Staff writer
Marion County isn’t generally a haven for flower-children, but that was the vibe Friday at the county lake.
A jangle of guitars and mandolins and a scent of cigars and “herbal” cigarettes filled the cool evening air during the first night of Bluegrass at the Lake.
Huffy and the Night Train, a sextet from Lawrence, Kansas City, and Wichita, got spectators to their feet with a mixture of Grateful Dead-style rock and bluegrass.
Lead singer Clint “Huffy” Dayhuff was plagued throughout the performance by swarms of bugs attracted to the lights on stage.
“I feel bad,” lake resident Mark Wheeler said. “You can see all the bugs flying up above the guitar player.”
Dayhuff wore an all-white jumpsuit and white cowboy hat.
“Don’t open your mouth!” he yelled to the crowd mid-song.
It was a strange directive. As lead singer, he was the one opening his mouth the most.
After Dayhuff and the rest of the band finished their set, they joined the audience to watch the last performers of the night.
Despite bugs, they were in good spirits, passing around a cooler filled with a fruity pink cocktail and reclining in inner tubes.
Dayhuff said the band had set up a tent and planned to camp at the lake all weekend.
“We’re just happy to be here,” he said.
Keyboardist Hank Rischar, wearing a colorful sports jersey, said the band doesn’t take performing too seriously.
“We play three times a year, and we never rehearse,” he said.
Next to the lake hall, vendors packed things up for the night.
Among them was Kristy Korsak, owner of Dr. Kristy Disc Dyes.
Korsak, who sells hand-dyed disc golf discs, doesn’t use a doctoral title just for marketing.
She worked as an audiologist in Wichita and her hometown of Emporia before opening an online disc golf shop.
Wrapped in a blanket to protect her from a lakeside breeze, she described the dye business as “way more fun than looking into people’s ears.”
Korsak fills each disc with lotion and powdered dye. (Most indeed smelled like moisturizer.)
Paint weighs down the disc too much and generally is illegal at tournaments.
It was Korsak’s first time at the festival in more than a decade.
“I’m shocked at how much it’s grown,” she said.
She performed the first time she attended as part of a group named Folk Holler. The trio won first place in a battle of the bands competition, earning a $10 bill.
Members celebrated by cutting the bill into three pieces.
Korsak became interested in disc golf after working briefly as a sales manager for Dynamic Discs in Emporia.
The sport is indeed popular in Emporia, which describes itself as the “Disc Golf Capital of the World,” and Korsak’s business has done well, she said.
“Disc golf is the second-fastest growing sport behind pickleball,” she said. “We’re travelling all over the world. I sponsor Calvin Heimburg, big-name pros. … We ship to Sweden, Iceland, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan.”
MoonShroom, a Lawrence-based band that described its sound as “grassadelic twang,” was the final act of the night.
The band was a colorful spectacle.
Lead singer Lily B. Moonflower wore a floral dress and pink sunglasses, and each band member had cutesy stuffed mushrooms affixed to their instruments.
Julia Johnson of Wichita sold stickers, hats, and beer cozies for MoonShroom from a table barely bigger than her chair.
“I was going to be at that table,” she said, gesturing toward a folding table bearing an electric fan, “but that became the fan table.”
The fan, a preventative measure against bugs, worked well to keep swarms away as MoonShroom took to the stage.
Johnson met Moonflower in high school in De Soto, she said, and was dating upright bass player Zach Bozeman.
Moonflower herself was married to dobro player Jake Keegan.
Her cooing voice lured spectators closer to the stage.
“This is about wood, moonshine, and airplanes,” she said.
As night fell upon the lake, the band began to play.