Wow- was that a great festival, or what?? I can't remember another festival with such great weather (yeah, it was a little hot- but NO RAIN!), such great music and so many friends. OK- so all of the festivals have been great, but this years festival seemed to be exceptionally good!
About 10 of us spent the whole week camping at the site "pre-festival", and had a great time relaxing and visiting. Howard set up a "mist-line" along his shelter, and it sure made his camp the social hang-out during the mid-day heat. The early part of the week was very hot, with temperatures in the triple-digit range (I know, 'cause we had a thermometer hanging from our shelter!) and a good part of those days were spent reading, napping and "shade hunting". After the sun went down, the instruments would come out and great music filled the air! By the middle of the week, temps were much more moderate, and the campground was filling up.
The absence of "Stage 8" brought back the old neighbors to the east (except for Ed- where were you Ed, we missed you!!) The high winds and dry conditions also brought a lot of "the east" into our camp (dirt- I mean!)
I don't think anyone will argue (except maybe- Bill Jenkins!) that the hit of the festival this year was the Australian "Wonder Boy" Tommy Emmanuel. I have never seen anyone who could bend/beat-and caress music out of an acoustic guitar like this guy could. When Steve H. came back from Tommy's first set, he was so excited that he was almost shaking! I think I am still in a little bit of "musical shock" (what a great place to be though!)
I didn't get to see it- but rumor has it (I have connections with Stage 5!) that Tommy E. and friends rocked the pecan grove Saturday night for almost 2 hours, and when they finished, Tommy needed band-aids for his bleeding fingers! I can't wait to see him on the Olympics closing ceremonies. We also really enjoyed the Kruger Brothers, The Wilders, and seeing Dan Crary back again. Once again, I didn't make it in time to enter the band scramble (they need to move sign-up later than 9:00 am- this is after all- VACATION!!) One of these days, I will try that out- it sure looks fun. We did get to see the rat though- dressed in "Rat-White & Blue" this year!
Celebrations abounded this year with 3 birthdays: Marsha Jackson, Bill Jenkins and Joe Eberle, and a silver wedding anniversary for Bill & Judy Johnson. What a good sport Judy was- fixing us all a WONDERFUL dinner late Saturday night (acutally early Sunday morning!!) A great way to top-off an unforgetable week! I'm sure I have not adequatly covered all the weeks events, so if I've forgotten something that you thought was really special- drop me a line and I will add it to my "report"! I miss everyone already, and am looking forward to next year!!
See you at the Iron Horse this winter!
Renee
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