Review: Dirtybird Campout East overcomes adversity to stage unforgettable Florida festival – Creative Loafing Tampa

Hannah Montana introduced us to the concept of the “best of both worlds,” sort of. A moniker that carries the weight of fame while the plebeian body gets to live as a normal girl in high school. This is where Barclay Crenshaw used to stand in the world of house music in the U.S., before he broke down the proverbial wall. 
Claude VonStroke. You’ve probably seen the name on the lineups for Okee, Bonnaroo, and Hula this year, as he had a phenomenal year as far as any electronic music producer is concerned. Until last year when he dropped his debut as Barclay Crenshaw (his real name,) he was known to the world only as Claude VonStroke, owner of Dirtybird Records.
But you might have noticed his real name, Barclay Crenshaw, on lineups where Claude is performing as well. Thus was the case for Bonnaroo and Dirtybird East Coast; Claude bringing the house, Barclay bringing the bass heavy hip hop. 

Friday of Dirtybird Music Festival was quiet, quiet to the point where festival workers would walk up to campsites that had music going and say, “Keep the music to the level you would have it with a girlfriend in an apartment.” Needless to say, all was silent in St. Cloud that night. 
But why was this?
Oh yeah, the city revoked the permits after many noise complaints from the pre-party on Thursday night. If this wasn’t enough, the city slapped a double injunction on the festival where if they got their permits back, they would immediately be pulled again.
MENDED WING
Update: After a rough opening day, music returns to Florida's Dirtybird Campout East

At a press meeting following the Friday fracas, Claude (Barclay) explained that he, his wife and the rest of the Dirtybird team got on the phone with many influential people including Pitbull and Marco Rubio, the two people you would most expect to save a music festival in the state of Florida. With the power of Rubio and Pitbull’s lawyer, Dirtybird was able to reopen the music Saturday, mid-day, with a masterfully modified lineup.  

And while the festival was not allowed to let in patrons until 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. Friday due to the injunctions, it didn’t stop attendees already inside from participating in whatever camp games/activities were still doable that day. For instance, Lap Dance For Your Life still happened Friday, but with an acoustic band featuring a stand up bass and banjo instead of a professional DJ. For those interested, Lap Dance For Your Life is musical chairs where the last two to sit have to give each other lap dances for the audience to vote on to see who gets the chair. We weren’t there, but apparently Claude broke a chair giving a dude a lap dance on stage.
NAKED AS A JAYBIRD
Here are the 10 most naked people at St. Cloud's Dirtybird Campout East (probably NSFW)
But these off kilter camp games were the life blood of the festival. In addition to various talent shows and beat box competitions at The Bunkhouse Stage, there was disco themed bingo and giant Jenga. 
Attendees at Dirtybird Campout East are assigned a random team when they sign up at Games HQ on the property. Each team member got their team’s color bandana, as well as a color-themed Red Bull that corresponded with the team color as well. All throughout the festival, teams competed in a variety of camp games to earn their team points and try to make it to the Iron Bird, a playfully named competition between the two highest-ranking teams at the end of the festival. Green team took home the victory over Claude’s purple, but even disqualified teams were having a good time at the final competition. 

Free swamp buggy tours were given to any attendees who signed a waiver. Tour guides showed groups all over the protected swamps the festival was held on, which serves as a sanctuary to both gopher tortoises and the critically endangered Florida Panther, of which they have two that roam wild on property. We even saw an alligator in one of the ponds, which is always comforting when sleeping on the ground in a swamp. 
As far as activities, this festival had more than any we’ve been to in the past. Archery, alligator races, kayaks in the pond, an obstacle course, and much more. One of the best parts of the festival was Claude VonStroke walking around in a boyscott outfit with a raccoon skin hat and lawn flamingo scepter. And while many of the “counselors” wore refitted boy scout uniforms, VonStroke had his uniforms personalized to say “Counselor Claude” and other Dirtybird catchphrases. While Claude did participate in a majority of the camp games with his team, you might have actually seen his doppleganger a few times, Fraude VonStroke, who also looked like a Daniel Boone beanie baby (complete with boy scout uniform and raccoon fur hat.) 
Rain began to fall Sunday night, but it couldn’t stop this bunch of dirty hippies from crunking and shuffling all over the now swampier swamp and watching the Eagles win the Super Bowl at the cleverly named on-site bar, the Superb Owl.

Closing out the final hours of the festival (the new noise permits only allowing music until 10 p.m.,) was Barclay as Barclay and “Just A Friend Rapper,” The Diabolical Biz Markie. Whether or not he played “Just A Friend" is beyond us. We planned to stay the entire time at the BassHouse to see his set, but it turned out he was doing a set behind the turntables and not performing songs from his multiple hip-hop albums. While he was killing it at first, after he put on “I Got A Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas, he lost more than half of his entire crowd to George Fitzgerald, who was killing it at The Birdhouse Stage. George was killing it so much so that the medic at the tent next to the stage that helped me with my tick bite was dancing the entire time she was trying to treat me.
And of course, Barclay laid it down on the Bass Lodge after Biz Markie with his signature blend of fresh, funky, bass heavy hip-hop. Plus the mud made for some of the dirtiest birds of the whole festival. Great times in a tiny slice of pre-colonial Florida. 
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