I Was Thinking... “It Shouldn’t Work”

With the price of gas, why would people drive miles out into the countryside, park in a field, tote their own chairs and tables to buy an overpriced pizza that you may have to wait a half hour to get?
It doesn’t seem probable or even logical, yet on any given Wednesday evening that is exactly what happens at the Zwingli Church grounds in rural Berne. Maybe it’s the free music? But why would any band in their right mind volunteer to perform for several hours just for a pizza and to a crowd of people that many times seem only half interested?
I’m writing this after getting home from another night at Berne Wood-Fired Pizza with well over 1000 other people in attendance from far and wide. While the procedure for ordering, preparing, cooking, and delivering the pizzas operates like a well-oiled machine, everything else is basically helter-skelter.
Take parking for example. There are a couple of signs stating where you are allowed to park but no one is there to direct you or supervise the whole parking operation. Some park in the field south of the church, some in the east field, others in the field by the highway and others just locate right along the road. There is no directing traffic, yet everyone seems to find a place.
The seating arrangements are just as chaotic. There are no assigned or reserved seating. In fact, there are not even boundaries set up as to where you can or cannot sit. It becomes a haphazard arrangement of chairs, tables, and benches. There are no lanes marked off for people to make their way to order or pick up your pizza. To get there you have to thread your way around, past, and in front of people to make your way.
Once there, you inevitably have to find a new route to try and find where you were sitting. Some groups just set up a table and circle around it. Others spread out in a row wherever there is room. Some groups are so far away they can barely see the stage. Even if you select your space, there is no guarantee someone else might set up right next to you or move into an open space directly in front or behind you.
With this lack of planning, no direction, and overcrowding, some type of conflict is bound to occur. Yet it doesn’t. Despite all the reasons this just shouldn’t work, it does.
So why has this very loosely organized event been so successful for so long? Maybe it is the laid-back approach that is actually the key. Now if you are in the pizza assembly line, there is nothing laid back about it. However, for everyone else coming out to this almost non-existing community in rural Dodge County, the relaxed atmosphere seems to be the draw.
Most people don’t come alone, they come with friends or family. The music, the pizza, and the setting between hay and bean fields are a far cry from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Very few people are even seen on their phones. The music is definitely a draw, but so are the conversations that continue throughout the night. Some dance the night away on the grass in front of the band, but most sit back, eat, drink, and enjoy some mellow time with friends or family.
Nobody seems to mind the price of the pizza either, since they know the funds raised are not going to enrich another chain restaurant, but the money raised will be given back to a variety of local charities. In fact, most people rarely take their change but instead deposit it in the tip jars. There is something special about this quiet rural setting that offers a respite from the troubles of the world on a warm summer night. Why by all rights it shouldn’t work, it certainly does.
Did You Ever Wonder? — If all is not lost, then where the heck is it?