Thursday, Aug 3, 2023
Today we travel to Sao Paulo, Brazil. I am meeting up with James Carothers and the rest of the band, Renae and Carco Claveria, Joe Reed, Scott Landers and Kurt Olsen at BNA. Everyone arrived on time and ourl flight to ATL is on time, so it’s a good start. Our first leg to Atlanta goes to plan and we have a 3 1/2 hour layover before our flight to São Paulo. Everyone has time to grab a bite to eat and relax before the 9 hour flight.The flight is on time and everyone is all boarded and we’re off to Brazil.
Not so fast…. now we have some kind of baggage issue on the plane. We are informed that we can’t leave the gate until it’s resolved.
An hour later they finally release us from the the gate, and we are second in line for takeoff.
Again… Not so fast… we are informed that the “baggage” situation is not resolved, and we have to return to the gate. It’s not as simple as that, they have no gate for us to return to. We proceeded to wait another hour on the taxi way waiting on a gate. They finally tell us we have a gate, and we leave the taxi way back to the gates. We wait another half hour before we actually pull into the gate.
Now they have to locate the 2 bags and because we have sat for so long they also have to refuel. At this point I’m wondering if Judy has snuck on the plane somewhere because this is her luck and not mine.
After about another hour the pilot comes on and apologizes for the “ unconscionable delay” and that we will finally be on our way. 4 hours of sitting and now the 9 hour flight. I don’t buy the “baggage problem” excuse, something else had to be going on that they didn’t want to tell us. Regardless we are finally on our way.
Friday, Aug 4, 2023
We finally made it São Paulo, 3 hours late, and meet up with Rodrigo Haddad. It takes about 45 minutes to get to the hotel and I get everyone checked in so they can get some rest before sound check. We are supposed to leave at 2:15, but we push it back to 3:15 due to the delay in arriving. Rodrigo meets us at the hotel for lunch before we head over for sound check. The venue is pretty close by, but Friday traffic in São Paulo is no joke and it takes about 40 minutes to go about 5 miles.
Once at the venue we meet with the event producer Camila Fernandez who gets us set up for sound check. We also meet with the event coordinator Felipe Aversa. Everything goes pretty smooth and the guys finish up a little before 6:00. The van comes to pick us up to take us to Felipes restaurant, Fazenda Churrascada for dinner. It’s only about 10 miles away but because of the ridiculous traffic it takes about an hour and a half to arrive. Rodrigo has a table reserved for us and has waited on us to arrive before he and his band perform.
The restaurant is awesome and the food is top notch. Rodrigo and his guys put on a great show. Good food and good music is always a good combination, except for Carco and his “sheep balls”. I will never trust him on food again! After hanging out for a bit we head back to the hotel. Luckily the traffic has died down considerably and it’s a short half hour back. Time for some much needed rest.
Saturday, Aug 5, 2023
Show day. We don’t have a lobby call until 2:00, so I think everyone finally had some time to rest and reset. The festival doors opened at noon, so the party should be well underway before we get there. The Saturday traffic is not bad and it only takes about 15 minutes to get to the venue. We have plenty of time before show time at 8:00 to be able to check out the festival. If you like meat, you’ve entered heaven. There are a lot vendors throughout the the grounds and the aroma is wonderful. The lines to get food are super long so Rodrigo has food brought to us. Camilas crew keep bringing varieties of food from different vendors and each one is absolutely delicious.
The opening band started about a half our late so our show time got pushed back about 20 minutes. The first couple of songs we had some “sound issues” and I was beginning to get frustrated. They got it worked out and everything was fine after that. James and the group killed it. They put on an awesome show and the crowd was having a great time. The guys and gal are great entertainers and brought a lot of energy. I was talking to a couple of girls from Camilas crew and they said it was like watching a movie and that they had never experienced anything like it and were super happy.
Rodrigo and his band joined the group on several songs and were awesome. It’s great to see so many people having such a good time. The group is really interactive with the crowd. People are handing things up and James is taking selfies with the people in the front row. He also has been trading hats with people, he will wear theirs and they wear his for a short time. Unfortunately someone disappeared with his $300 hat. I tried to keep an eye on the person wearing it from the balcony each time. One minute it was there the next it was gone. Super unfortunate.
After the group finished performing some of them wanted to stay and some wanted to go back to the hotel. Rodrigo said he would get the ones that wanted to stay an Uber back to the hotel. I was not really comfortable with this idea, and James made a good call by saying it might take a long time to get an Uber. There might be several thousand people also trying to get one at the same time. With a 5:30 AM lobby call, wiser heads prevailed and all of us headed back to the hotel. Some of the group got some food and headed to bed and James, Scott, Joe, and myself hung out at the little bar in the hotel to have a couple of drinks. We stayed for about an hour or so before heading to our rooms. I’ll get about 4 hours of sleep before I have to be in the lobby to leave.
Sunday, Aug 6, 2023
I get to the lobby at 5:15 and go ahead and check out before the others get down. Everyone is on time and we get checked out and are ready to go when Rodrigo arrives with the van. We have about a 40 minute drive to the airport and because we have such an early flight, check in is a breeze. Before heading through security we take one last group photo and say goodbye to Rodrigo. Him and everyone else involved were wonderful hosts. The hospitality was first class.
Our flight is basically on time and we are headed back to Atlanta. My back was hurting a bit and it was not a pleasant flight. When we arrive in Atlanta there are some storms and everything is backed up. We have to sit on the taxi way to wait on a gate and I start having nightmares about what happened on the way out. We sit there for about 10 minutes and get to the gate. Customs go fairly smooth and once we reach the terminal a lot of flights have been cancelled and there are a lot long delays. On a good note, James received a message that the person who took his hat had emailed the event staff and said she had it. Hopefully Rodrigo will be able to get it back to him.
Our flight is still on time and the plane is in the air on its way. It arrives and once at the gate they push us back an hour. We end up leaving 2 hours late, but I feel we were the lucky ones based on all the problems with all the other flights. We finally make it to Nashville and I thank everyone and say goodbye. Lindsey picks me up and gets me to my car. It was a short but great trip with a lot of new friends made.
Chris