Music played on despite rain at Big & Hearty Fest

<p>There were hundreds of hearts, but just one love for music and art at the Big & Hearty Music Festival on Sunday at the Alachua County Fairgrounds.</p><p>The festival brought in dozens of bands that started playing Friday night, then all afternoon and all night Saturday. Things got going again Sunday at around noon. Early bird tickets sold for $30, while tickets at the gate were $50 and good all weekend.</p><p>Patrick Fletcher, 28, is working on his doctorate in mathematics at Florida State University, but he came to Gainesville for the weekend “for the music and friends.” Fletcher worked a hula-hoop with expertise as the band Mindrise played on one of two stages.</p><p>In addition, about a dozen artists were on hand selling everything from paintings to jewelry to woodwork to clothes.</p><p>Jarred Trantham set up a small tented art gallery, in which 13 artists painted throughout the weekend — and sometimes on stage, from which their work was raffled. There also were areas where children could make their own leather bracelets.</p><p>“We don't have a lot of money, but we have a lot of art and love to give,” Trantham said.</p><p>He was wearing a “sponion” — a small pillow-like craft with a button face — that another artist had made to raise money for cystic fibrosis. Out of the $10 price tag, the artist kept $5 and gave $5 to a cystic fibrosis charity because her sister suffers from the disease.</p><p>People camped throughout the weekend, enjoying local food, including vegetarian Indian fare from Krishna House. For about $4 a plate, people ate rice, curried vegetables and naan, a type of bread.</p><p>People also enjoyed some substances that weren't legal. One man was selling glass pipes commonly used to smoke marijuana. And People United for Medical Marijuana were asking people to work to “re-legalize” the drug for medical purposes.</p><p>Alachua County Fire Rescue Chief Joe Cox said his men were called out to the fairgrounds three times on Saturday.</p><p>“The calls were for altered levels of consciousness,” he said, adding that three patients had to be hospitalized.</p><p>Despite those incidents and Sunday's rainstorms, people didn't stop dancing as the music continued into the evening.</p><p><i>Contact Moore at 352-374-5036 or kimberly.moore@nytrng.com.</i></p>