When the sun rose over the lush, green fields of Spirit Crossing in Northeastern Tennessee on the first day of Solasta Festival, you couldn’t see it, shrouded as it was by Appalachian mountain mist and cool cloud cover. Volunteers and staff who worked through the night were putting finishing touches on modest infrastructures and installations in the quiet dawn. Campers who arrived the night before took prized real estate along one of the grounds’ lone tree lines, or on the bank of the Clinch River that flows lazily through the grounds. As morning turned to noon the sun began to peek on the festival. For the rest of the weekend - from logistics to music to the familial atmosphere - the presence of the sun was the only inconsistency at Solasta Festival.

Just over 1,000 people settled on the grounds that weekend. In its second year, the gathering quadrupled in size and exceeded the expectations of everyone besides perhaps its young and wily staff. The event was conceived with the intention to do something different. With just a single stage, a niche lineup full of rare international and coveted local acts, a dedicated lounge and performance theater, and a pervasive emphasis on health and self-care, Solasta didn’t stray from this conception.

Strolling and patrolling on Friday afternoon was Officer Larry of the Hancock County Sheriffs Department, the bulk of Solasta’s security force. A law enforcement presence at a music festival without the characteristic firearm or body armor was a rare sight, my colleague noted. He didn’t need that equipment with this kind of crowd, he suggested. His toothy grin stood out from his sun-weathered red skin as he asked, “how do you like Hancock County?”

“It’s different,” I responded. And indeed it was. Spirit Crossing sits on the outskirts of the county seat, Sneedville, home to approximately 1,200 people. The hills - steep, rolling, and frequent - break apart and condense cloud formations and create that unpredictable weather. Although the forecast called for constant rain, the festival saw just one brief, powerful storm and a series of scattered showers.