When I got the call from my boy Cedric McDougle asking me to come and cover his weekend event "Summer Oasis", a musical glamping tent festival that was being held at the historical Paradise Lake in Idlewild, Michigan, I had to make it happen. 1) Cedric and I go back so I had to have his back, 2) I had never been to Idlewild and 3) I had never experienced glamping, which is luxurious camping in a tent. You can bring whatever you like to enhance and make your tenting adventure enjoyable, from luxury bedding, sofas, big screen televisions and someone even had a microwave. Now of course your boy THE REEL HUSTLER was not rolling like that, but more like Bear Grylls out there about to straight be roughing it. Now also what was invitingly tempting was the musical lineup which consisted of some of Detroit's and Chicago's hottest house DJ's starring Raynard Hines, Ray Bone Jones, Rick Wilhite, Stacey Hale, Kevin Dysard, Nigel Gieger and Joel Oliver, Seth Carter, Todd Perrine, Mike Grant, Keith Worthy, Mike Clark, Groove Temple, Drake Phifer, Celeste Alexander and Karizma from Baltimore. Oh yeah it was going down and THE REEL HUSTLER was granted the exclusive to this kickoff event.
Cedric who originally started this event eight years ago as a private backyard type affair with friends wanted to go even beyond that so he along with friends Lynn Ford, Shae Seaward and Sheri Walker, to name a few formed Summer Oasis Festival to be held August 19 - 21, 2016 for the first time at Paradise Lake in Idlewild, MI. From the time I hit the campground I knew this was going to be something special. Everything was well organized from tenting arrangements, to the stage and light setups, it was hooked up nicely and everyone was so pleasant. It was all just about having fun and good house music.
Now Friday, the first day of the festival the weather was beautiful and the DJ's had the music bumping and the grills were hot and popping with all types of meats as people were still pulling on the site to register there tent. It was all good! But come that Saturday, from the beginning of the morning it rained and not light rain, it was a hard, junior monsoon type rain but that did not deter Cedric from still providing his patrons with the musical treats that he had in store for them as he made arrangements for the DJ's to be setup inside of an old store front that had been turned into like a local bar that is owned and operated by Idlewild residents Joe and Fredna Lindsey who also owns the property where the festival was held. The show went on and the DJ's still showed out. When an event organizer hosts any event pertaining to the outdoors the weather is never predictable and they must be able to provide options and Cedric did that which showed great planning on his part. Outside of that, hey that is what tent life is all about, enjoying the elements.
Although my intentions were to get around to do some video interviewing with the DJ's,unfortunately the weather changed up my plans so I had to settle to mostly capturing the event by still moments. But trust me this was an event that you would have had to be there to enjoy the full effect. There was not one person that attended that I talked with that gave any negative comments or reviews, even despite the rain. Everyone had a great time. So great job Cedric McDougle and thanks for the exclusive invitation. If you don't know, you better get to know "About that tent Life"!
This is my life, the life of THE REEL HUSTLE!!!
#aboutthattentlife
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