Vibes to Offer Boating Access this Year

In a break with tradition and  bold step toward a new chapter for the best waterfront music fest in the Nation, The Gathering of the Vibes has decided to permit an often made request this year- allowing concert goers to camp on their vessel for the four day weekend.

The 90-acre Seaside Park that sits on the shore of Bridgeport, CT and Long Island Sound has for now some ten years called the Park City home much to the delight of wayward hippies and music devotees alike.  And many a summer has been blessed with soulful sounds bellowing from the Bridgeport beach in late July to the enjoyment of power boaters, sailboaters, kayakers  who bely their boats right up the rocky coast at the high tide for the music fest. But when the sun dropped every other year until this one, the water-based boaters picked up anchor and sailed on home as they were not allowed to access the venue from the water.

Not so this year. If you want to bring your vessel, drop your anchor and come ashore to spend four days sloshing through mud pits or baking in dust bowls to enjoy the dozens of acts that will play July 21,22, 23 and 24, such as my personal favs, Jane's Addiction and Toots and the Maytals- then you can do so. And then when you have sang til your throat went silent, used your last fleeting fleck of energy or just simply need a few moments of rack time to pop a few Tylenol and recharge for another go round on the concert field- then you can hop in your dinghy and row out to your vessel at anchor in Bridgeport Harbor or hop a cab to your boat at Captain's Cove and enjoy all the comforts of ship board camping.

Admittedly, as a guy who has slept in the some of  the strangest corners of Seaside Park and the Park City, there are some awesome shoreside spots to cuddle up in an catch 40 winks around, but nothing beats dozing off enjoying the sway of the boat, the coziness of the the cockpit and the echo of 40,000 decibels of the best funk, rock and reggae blasting over the harbors of Bridgeport, CT.

It's my guess that the Vibes will become a floating fiesta, with boats from across the East Coast making passage to the Park City for this one weekend for many years to come. And when there are a thousand   Sabres and Beneteaus  rafted to another thousand Bertram and Sting Rays for the last weekend of July and 50,000 sailors spend the weekend partying like it's 1999. It is my hope to be handing out CCB brochures by zodiac and telling folks for many years to come, CCB made this happen.

See you on the water this weekend at the Gathering of the Vibes 2011!

Click here to download the rules to boating at this years Vibes