Gwyn tells me her rear tire has split. I go to check, and there's no way it can be driven home. We ask Zimra if she can help schlep us back to Akron, and call Gwyn's husband to tow her car. Ugh.

There's a break in traffic around 5, I go for dinner. Shanon and I have passes to the catered meal for band crews and members, that requires getting through 3 layers of security. Past the last security level is prime rib, ice cream, salads, braised veggies, fruit, cakes, and scruffy young men dressed in black. Their long hair, tattooes, piercings, conspicuous leather, massive dangerous jewelery and elegantly vulgar demeanor identify them as boys in the band. They look tired. Marilyn Manson, whom I'd met years before, is identifiable by his height, is trying to balance all his dinner on a paper plate, and find a place to sit. I recognize most of the band members from the program magazines that have been left around, but they're not a generation of musicians I know much about. I've gotten fond of the music over the last week, in the way you get fond of jets taking off if you live under an airport.

I finish dinner and get ice cream. I'm so grateful that it's almost over, and that I've had a nice dinner. The Englishman from the office recognizes me and jokes over the vanilla. I'm tired and tell Shanon I'm going to take a rest. I step outside, and find a place in a secure area that I won't fear being mugged for my money. I sit on the concrete and lean up against a rough cement block wall ... secure myself ... and fall sound asleep sitting up. I'm vaguely aware of security coming by me to check if I'm alive from time to time. I wake up, ready to roll, half an hour later.

I get back and Zimra says someone came by with what appeared be fresh PPD black henna! She says the person got it at the Casbah Camel cigarette smoking area. I charge off with my teeth clenched to find out why there is another henna artist, and why they're being allowed to use PPD. I find her and she's got 3 drunk clients, and is doing a heavy black henna tribal on a guyz arm. I ask her what's in her mix. She doesn't know. I rant her on the FDA regulations on PPD, and the health hazards. She doesn't know and she doesn't want to know. I start quoting chapter and verse on blistering, lesions, scarring, long term health damage, and her client starts looking uneasy. I bear down. She gets very defensive, and tells me she's just hired to do a job, and she's never heard anything about black henna being any sort of a problem. Bullshit. I tell her that I'm contacting festival management, and that for her own health she needs to find out what's in her mix and what it can do to her and her clients. The two drunks hassle me all the way, slurring, looking pukey. The client she's hennaeing is very nervous by the time she's done, and leaves FAST. She's about to cry. Tough shit.

When I get back, the main bands are starting up. I want to see Marilyn Manson perform, but the stadium area is standing room only. There are TV monitors by us. I watch, impressed with the local boy made good! He's never gotten a corset to fit right, but the rest of his costume is excellent. Clients continue to trickle in. The concert rocks, fireworks go off, smoke billows, amps roar. It's over. At 11, Gwyn's husband arrives to bail out her car, and we pack up. The band busses load up and flee Columbus for Connecticut. Midnight, at the security kiosk, Marilyn Manson groupies beg to be let in to party with their idols, but too late. The party's long gone. We're done but for the drive home.

Thank God.

~ Catherine Cartwright Jones

Picture pages

1. The gurlz ask for henna hip to hip, front and back.
2. Cleveland girls know what henna is and want it NOW!
3. Oh My God we're doing henna at "Fight Club"!
4. Beer Bellies really shouldn't have stretch marks
5. Marilyn Manson groupies are serious about adornment!

Appendices

1. Catherine Cartwright Jones's Headbanger Henna Mix
2. Many festival organizers require that all their vendors have Liability Insurance!
3. Large festivals require vendors to sign contracts before they will be admitted and allowed to set up!
4. The Money Thing (cha-ching!)
5. Booth and Mats
6. Trust and Teamwork
7. HEAT
8. Pattern Placement
9. Waivers