On the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1971, Thanksgiving Eve, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper (no middle B - that was a media error) boarded Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, one-way, from Portland to Seattle. A guy could book a flight with sketchy ID in that pre-9/11 era. He could also smoke on the plane; "Cooper" did. He drank a bourbon cocktail and ordered another. Then he informed the flight crew there was a bomb in his briefcase. A few hours later, he vanished from the Boeing 727 with a parachute and $200,000. Neither he nor much of the money he stole was ever found. My point is twofold: first, Wikipedia is amazing. Second, why the hell not name an awesome music festival in Chehalis after a hijacker's misreported alias? I'll be there. So will Alice Stuart, The Brown Edition, Bump Kitchen, SweetKiss Momma, Curtis Salgado and Vicci Martinez. So should you, assuming you're 21 or older. Happy landings!
Read Michael Swan's full feature on the 2014 DB Cooper Music Festival in the Music and Culture section.
DB COOPER MUSIC FESTIVAL, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 2, 21 and older, Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, 2555 N. National Ave., Chehalis, $35 at Rainy Day Records in Olympia and DBCooperMusicFestival.com, $40 gate
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