As the moon shrouded the sun above the crowds at the Symbiosis Gathering, revealing its shimmering corona in the clear Central Oregon sky, people watched, whooped and wept.
Tears falling from her eyes after totality, Effie Rawlings, 37, said the experience brought home to her how small humans are in the cosmos.
"We are all a part of this huge system that is so much more than we are," she said.
Rawlings was one of tens of thousands at the gathering, a week-long electronic music festival near Prineville.
As the moon inched ever closer to totality, festival-goers gathered on a vast prairie to watch. Whoops rose and fell likes waves across the field, broken by shouts of "I love you" and "We are all unique and beautiful."
Near the festival's main stage, Kinsey Smyth, 20, wept as she watched the spectacle begin through her eclipse glasses. She laughed and cried, tears pouring down her cheeks.
They were tears of both sadness and joy, Smyth said.
"I'm going to let go of a lot that I have been holding on to," Smyth said. "Past pain, problems."
Monday's eclipse was the culmination of what festival founder Bosque Hrbek had been planning for more than two years, inspired by by an eclipse festival he attended in 2006.
Although crowds arrived in droves Thursday for a seemingly endless stream of parties, recreational drugs and dancing, the eclipse was the main attraction.
Overnight, one person was injured when someone ran over a tent. But by morning, people were ready to gather at a spot overlooking a large swath of Big Summit Prairie, a plot of private land in the middle of Ochoco National Forest.
Droves of people made their way to the prairie starting around 8 a.m., laying out blankets, dancing in the dust or chatting. Everyone was then asked to be silent. A shaker and a drum made a light beat in the background, speeding up as the eclipse came closer to totality and the sky darkened. Waves of cries came from one end of the field to another.
Then the sky went dark and a black hole appeared where the sun once was, revealing the sun's corona. People hugged and wept. A man stood and pumped his fist in the air.
It was over almost as fast as it began. As the prairie got brighter, people made their way to the festival's main area across a lake, the notes from "Here Comes the Sun" emanating from one of seven stages. The festival was scheduled to continue until Wednesday.
Zenergy Barraza, 63, beat on a moose-hide drum. For him, the eclipse was a transition into a better world."We just passed through the gate," he said. Wearing just boots and a white cloth around his waist, Barraza said people were now ready to make better choices."This is a new sun, a new consciousness," he said. "We can now begin our new journey."
Reporter Jessica Floum contributed to this report.
-- Fedor Zarkhin
503-294-7674; @fedorzarkhin