Wakarusa Festival will kick off it’s 12th year and The Pier is excited to join Wakarusa as we’re hosting a contest to give away a pair of 2 GA tickets in addition to Meet & Greet, and FREE merchandise courtesy of Dirty Heads, Waka & The Pier. PLUS, the winner will have side-stage viewing for Dirty Heads during their live set…
[Post Updated: June 1st, 2015 @ 7:00pm (PST)]
CONTEST WINNER – JUSTIN & LISA PYBAS
Congratutlations Justin & Lisa, you will spend this weekend meeting Dirty Heads, watching them side-stage during their performance along with a FREE Merch Pack from Dirty Heads, Wakarsua and your friends here at The Pier!
We received a ton of emails with some great stories from fans sharing the time they first discovered Dirty Heads. The one that stuck out to us and the one we choose was from Justin & Lisa Pybas. I’m not going to attempt to sum up their story, but allow you to read it in full – Enjoy:
Dear The Pier,
So my wife, Lisa, and I first discovered the Dirty Heads when they opened up for a Matisyahu concert in Tulsa, OK a few years back. We really enjoyed their music and loved their live show. They put on a killer set and we were thoroughly entertained.
However, it wasn’t until a couple years later that we really discovered the true impact and importance of the Dirty Heads and their music. See, last October my wife Lisa was diagnosed (for the second time) with a brain tumor. Since that time, she has battled through a brain surgery, proton radiation therapy on her brain and chemotherapy drugs to help stave off those bad tumor cells and make sure a tumor never, ever comes back again. It has been a long, long journey over these last 7 months, but our love for good, powerful music and song lyrics is one way that has helped us remain positive during this time. This is where the Dirty Heads come back into play.
One of my wife’s favorite, favorite songs to listen to when she is down, or tired, or just plain sick of dealing with all this brain tumor stuff is “Day by Day” by the Dirty Heads. The lyrics in the chorus are just so powerful and such an up-lifter to me and my wife’s spirit. In fact, my wife has been writing a blog about her journey and in one of her entries from a few months back (January 5, 2015, to be exact) she quotes the lyrics to “Day by Day” in describing how she has to choose to not have a broken spirit and choose to grow stronger “day by day.”
We would love for whoever is reading this email to review her blog posts over the last few months. I personally think her posts are amazingly well-written and give great insight into what it’s really like to battle cancer day in and day out. Her blog is located at Pybas.blogspot.com
Anyways, back to the Dirty Heads. On Lisa’s last day of proton radiation therapy on January 28, 2015, the hospital had a special party for her to celebrate the fact that she was “graduating” from radiation treatment. As we were driving to the hospital for this celebration, our daughter asks to hear the song ‘Sound of Change’ by the Dirty Heads. And as we are sitting there in our car on the way to the hospital I start really listening to Duddy B’s second verse in this song and my wife and I both just start crying because on that day it was the perfect song to hear. The words could not been more tailored for our celebration that day. The second verse says:
‘I can hear it now,
The horns are playing the victory sound,
I live in the now, the sky is my home, and I live in the clouds
Now or never, bound forever
Making a change, I’m making it better
I live for this shit, I love the pain
It’s part of the journey, it’s part of the game
I’ve been alone in the dark and the rain
I’ve seen the end and I wasn’t afraid
I’ve been in tears and I wasn’t ashamed
I hear a sound, the sound that I’m hearing is change’
Wow, such powerful words, especially on the day my wife beat her brain tumor and celebrated finishing radiation treatments. So we will forever hold a special place in our hearts for the Dirty Heads and how their music played a part in getting us through this extremely difficult journey.
Anyways, that is our little story about how we came to discover and fall in love with the Dirty Heads and their music.
Thanks
Justin L. Pybas
Who What When Where:
So the 12th Annual Wakarusa Festival is taking place June 4th – 7th, 2015 on a site just north of the city of Ozark, Arkansas where the event has blossomed to a four-day event hosting almost 25,000 fans of music art and so many other great activities.
The Dirty Heads will be performing on Saturday, June 6th 2015 at 4:00pm. Now you may already have tickets but that doesn’t mean you can’t go after this festival. You now have more incentive for your close friends to buy your other tickets to go with you!
Click HERE to view the whole line-up with more details regarding the Festival.
Contest Details:
It’s really simple…
You have until Monday, June 1st at 12:00pm (PST) to send an email to Contest@ThePier.org with a brief story of how you came to discover the Dirty Heads.
Include as many details as you can – The first song, the date, time-period, the name of your friend that may have introduced you. The best, most detailed story will win a pair of General Admission tickets to Wakarusa Festival to see Dirty Heads side-stage a long with a Meet & Greet and FREE Merchandise!
We’re going off the honor-system – Keep it honest – Winner will be announced Monday at 7:00pm (PST)! We will also publish your story in this very article!
Related Links:
Preview: Wakarusa Festival
Wakarusa Website
Wakarusa Facebook
Watch: Dirty Heads – “Cabin By The Sea” (The Pier’s Live Acoustic Series)
Watch: Waka – A Day In The Life
