Michael and I went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival this past weekend. Both of us took off Friday and we headed down in the afternoon to check out the opening acts. Our plan was to walk there, since it’s only 2.5 miles from our house, but on our way walking there a very nice couple stopped and offered us a ride – thanks again Zieglersville neighbors!
Friday at the festival was a blast. The artists were diverse and very talented. David Holt‘s afternoon performance was quite a treat, he played an assortment of instruments, including a washboard. The evening concert was also a lot of fun, I really enjoyed all the performers. Back of the Moon was amazing, and we ended up buying a couple of their CDs. I particularly enjoyed The Quebe Sisters (their websites have a couple mp3s to download, check out “Shame on You” and then tell me I’m losing my mind for falling in love with such old, traditional country music), unfortunately by the time I got around to buying CDs on Sunday they had already left and taken their CDs with them. I enjoyed The Lovell Sisters too, and perhaps the most “wow famous and awesome” part of the whole festival was when Doc Watson played, finishing up the concert for the night. The night itself was beautiful too. A beautiful sunset, a clear moon over the stage, and during part of the evening performance a lightning-filled storm cloud hovered to the far right of the stage and made for quite a spectacle, but never came close enough to rain on us or send lightning our way. Too bad we didn’t have our camera that night!
One thing we did have Friday night was a rough walk home. Two and a half miles walk is cake, but aside from being windy and hilly, it was 12:30 at night and there were few lights on the road, more than once we had to jump to the curb to avoid crazy middle-of-the-night drivers. We decided we’d drive the next two days.
Saturday we met up with our friends David and Kathy to head to the festival. We grabbed some fair food (Kathy has the batter fried vegetables every year and doesn’t consider her trip to the festival complete if she doesn’t have them). And then watched a few afternoon shows, including the XPN Local Stars segment, which was… interesting :) The afternoon concert at the main stage was a bit of a disappointment, a bit too much rock mixed into the folk/country for my taste. We headed out shortly before 6PM and headed out for a nice sushi dinner with our friends.
Kathy and David
The Main stage Saturday afternoon – beautiful day!
Michael sitting at our spot on the hill, he looks so good in that hat.
Me, finally prepared for the sun and wearing my new llama hat!
Sunday it rained, but that wouldn’t keep us away – what’s a little rain going to do to us? Going back was well worth it. we attended the Beyond Celtic presentation at the Camp stage which featured Back of the Moon, Baka Beyond and Zan McLeod. They put on a great show that turned into an unforgettable one when people started dancing and the bands invited everyone to dance in front of the stage. So in the rain and mud there were over a 100 people just jumping up to dance to the Celtic and Scottish music that they kept calling to be sped up. I had a blast, and was dancing during the crazy part, but was able to catch a 6 second video clip of it while it was a bit more calm (but still fun!) see it here. And took some photos.
We bought some CDs and an umbrella and grabbed some food later in the afternoon, but after sitting and watching the afternoon concert for an hour and becoming even more drenched by the pouring rain that we finally resigned would not go away, we ended up packing up our things and heading home. When we got home Michael made a fire in the fireplace and we spent the evening drying off, reading and just chilling out. A perfect way to wrap up the weekend.
Wednesday, Aug 26th, 2009 at 17:25
love the fest
tired of dealing poor incompetent management of the fest I love so much.
Not sure I’ll go back after this year. Too many horror stories and all out rude behavior by management and a total lack of back up plans for mud that was inevitable even if it never rained that thursday. I’ve gone 16yrs most at our encampment have more than that. many volunteer – we’re all getting fed up.