OXFORD — Unbelievable. That’s how some of the few hundred Nateva Festival campers packing up to head home on Monday morning described the inaugural Fourth of July weekend event at the Oxford Fairgrounds.

The word also described the eastern fields where thousands camped for three days prior. Instead of trash strewn everywhere, left-behind waste was stowed in orderly row upon row of blue, black, and white trash bags.

Amid it all at 11:15 a.m., two young women wearing only tiny American flag bikinis slowly packed their gear into a car while basking in the 92-degree heat.

One, Rachel Rhynders of Syracuse, N.Y., intermittently stopped what she was doing, closed her eyes, raised both arms and swayed to a thumping bongo and bass rhythm streaming from a nearby campsite.

“It was awesome!” the waitress at the CopperTop Tavern in North Syracuse said of her first music festival. “I definitely loved it. The perfect vacation. It was the most relaxed time and the people here were so friendly, and the size was just perfect. I didn’t even see much people get in trouble.”

It was a nice reason to come to Maine, said her friend, Jordan Parkinson, a CopperTop bartender from Syracuse.

Initially, they were going to spend the Fourth at the annual Disco Biscuits Festival at Mariahville, N.Y. It was closer and less expensive.

However, because it was Rhynders’s first festival, Parkinson decided Nateva would be better-suited for her friend, despite the nearly nine-hour drive.

“This was the one that was appropriate,” Parkinson said. “I think if we went to the larger one, it wouldn’t have been so enjoyable — too many people.”

The pair came to see the bands The Flaming Lips, Sound Tribe Sector 9, EOTO and Furthur perform.

Furthur, which featured two former Grateful Dead members, closed out the festival with “U.S. Blues” at 11:45 p.m. Sunday. Afterward, Parkinson and Rhynders went to the Silent Disco barn, where people listened to music on head phones and danced.

“We danced for four hours afterward and had fun,” Parkinson said, finally getting to sleep at 5 a.m. Monday.

Down the lane from the bikini girls, two men and three women chatted about the experience, showing no signs of breaking camp, despite a nearly seven-hour drive ahead of them. None wanted to be identified.

One woman said Nateva was “the time of my life,” while a man disappearing into a tent said, “A lot of my friends got in trouble.”

Not everyone was happy about the very visible police presence.

One young, heavily tattooed man, who wouldn’t give his name, was busy ridding a hand-painted van of clothing, gear and crushed Mountain Dew cans so he could repack it.

He said the police were “unbelievable.”

“A lot of people got in trouble here that shouldn’t have,” he said. “The music here was awesome, but I’d just like to be safe from going to prison. There was too much on-site security.

“They were doing war games — running around and trying to bust people selling drugs — but this is the Grateful Dead and Flaming Lips, there’s supposed to be drugs. They should work on toning down the police activity. I mean, people were getting searched just for acting normal.

“Nobody’s robbing anyone. If they wanted to bust someone, they should bust the kids selling fake drugs.”

Of the 34 men and women booked into Oxford County Jail in Paris this weekend, 26 were arrested while at or near Nateva, mostly on charges of felony drug trafficking or possession.

Food vendor Shawn Knowlan of Oxford said one woman was arrested while trying to enter with a backpack full of marijuana, while others were caught with nitrous oxide, a euphoria-inducing gas also known as “hippie crack” or laughing gas.

Nateva Festival President Frank Chandler said organizers purposely stacked the deck with police and security to create a family-friendly music festival, safeguarding guests and surrounding communities.

“We wanted a safe environment and we were very clear about that,” Chandler said. “We took actions to make sure everyone who came knew we were serious. Drug dealers are not welcome in our community and we enforced that, and that’s what we’re going to do next year.”

Judy Allen, a nurse supervisor at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, said emergency room staff saw several Nateva participants, but not as many as they’d expected.

“We saw numerous people with drug-related and nondrug issues, and there were a few who had problems with the heat and dehydration,” Allen said. “We planned for extra security because we expected an influx, but it was the equivalent of when the Dead came to town” in 1988.

Back at the bikini girls’ campsite, Parkinson looked heavenward and sighed when Rhynders suddenly called out her name. Her friend had stopped packing and started dancing again.

“We’re never getting out of here,” said Parkinson, who was nearly nine hours away from a 12-hour work shift.

Rhynders smiled broadly and said, “Thanks, Maine, for having us.”

Down Route 26 at Irving’s Lil’ Mart, convenience store and fuel station clerk Megan Annance of Oxford said the Nateva crowd was “polite and courteous.”

“We had a good stream of people, but it died down in the afternoons,” Annance said. “Today, with the exodus, it’s been crazy, but it was good. I’d welcome them back for sure.”

[email protected]