RANDOM THOUGHTS ON FESTIVALS

Philadelphia Folk Festival

The reason I first attended the Philadelphia Folk Festival was because I saw a PBS program showing highlights of the festival.  Specifically it was the showing of Arlo Guthrie singing ‘Coming Into Los Angeles’ with Norman Blake walking on stage to join in.  Then David Bromberg came out and joined.  Wow. I had to see it.  So the following year (1975) I attended the festival with a group of good friends.

The camping area was really amazing.  The tents were required to be touching each other leaving virtually no room to walk to a walkway.  No canopies either.  It is a fair distance from the camping area to the performance hill.  Another big hassle is that you cannot drive your car to the campground.  You must pack your camping gear from the parking lot to the campground and back.  Most festivals at least allow you to unload your vehicle at the campground or provide shuttle service.

That first year I got to see Professor Longhair.  The Professor, a contemporary of Dr. John and Alan Tousaint, would not play until someone provided him electricity to power his organ.

Somebody found a long extension cord.  I discovered David Anram, Paul Siebel, Roger Sprung, and Liz Corrigan.  Of course David Bromberg was there.  He seemed to play at Philly Folk every year, retirement or not.  I specifically remember seeing what I now call a bluegrass novelty act called the ‘Star Spangled Washboard Band.’  I loved them.  They were funny and very tight.  Today I would say they were not especially true to the music, but back then their music was really fun.

Early during the final evening of the festival, a huge thunder and lightning storm rolled through the festival grounds.  Fortunately for us, our camping gear was mostly stowed so when the rain came we didn’t worry about running back to the car right away.  Because of the rain, wind and lightning, we were not able to find Marilyn, who was part of our group.  Like all of us, she lived 3 ½ hours away from the festival and we wanted to make sure she would get home if we were to leave.  Eventually the group decided look out for ourselves and get off the festival grounds to a nearby apartment where friends of a friend lived.  We spent the night there before going home and finding that our friend, Marilyn, had safely made it home during the night, no thanks to us.  ‘Still love you Marilyn.

I took my family to the Philly Folk Festival years later only to rediscover not liking the camping arrangements.  My wife really disliked the event.  The music was okay.  So was Bromberg, again.  Still another year more recently I drove to the festival to attend just one day of shows.  I particularly wanted to see David Bromberg (of course), Tom Rush, and the Wayfaring Strangers.  The Strangers had Tony Trischka, Andy Statman, and Matt Glaser and they were as strange and enjoyable as I expected.  Without camping, the experience was better

There are a few more odd things associated with this festival.  The worst rule is that if you attend the afternoon shows, you may sit anywhere and keep your blanket or chair there until the afternoon shows end.  At that time, everyone is required to leave the grounds to be re-admitted.  This is really dumb but it churns the crowd and they say is a fair way to share the good seats.  Under these rules, the folks who decided to leave early from the afternoon music got good seats for the evening show because they got to be in the front of the evening show queue.  Carry your stuff in.  Carry your stuff out.  Carry your stuff in.  Carry your stuff out at the end of the evening.  Sounds like the campground.

A very nice tradition at the festival is to have the evening show lead off by a bag piper.  The piper begins by marching through the camp grounds and parking lots playing reels and jigs.  Eventually the piper comes into the festival seating area and winds up on stage continuing to play Scotch Irish music.   When the piper finishes on stage, the show begins.  Very neat.

The Philly Festival is unique in that it is attended by fairly affluent fans.  Most are college educated and many trying to manage small children.  Of course there are many older folks who attend this festival too but this one skews upscale more than the others.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival

I am not sure how we found out about Planet Bluegrass and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in particular. Once we  learned about the town located in a beautiful box canyon high up in the San Juan Mountains, Telluride Bluegrass Festival became a must see event.  We were not disappointed.  The town looks like it is right out of the early 20th century mining center.  It is now a large ski mountain and resort and is the winter haunt for many of the rich and famous.  The best part of Telluride is perhaps Bridal Veil Falls.  Water from the San Miguel River falls 365 feet from high altitude lakes that are more than 10,000 feet above sea level.  In the summer, the river flow is always greatest in the evening and at night after the daily melt.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival Grounds

The Bluegrass festival is located on the only flat unused space in the canyon, the local baseball field.  There is a large wooden stage built just beyond the center field fence.  The seating is oriented from home plate towards center field.  We learned almost as soon as we got into town that we should get in line early to get a good spot on the field for each day.  Each morning around 5 AM, either my wife or I would get into what was already a long line waiting for the 9AM ‘run’ into the field to place your tarp.  The running often got competitive with people pushing and shoving to get ahead and claim a spot closer to the stage.  I did not like this arrangement.

Telluride is perhaps the only festival where the temperatures can reach the mid-90s in the day and fall to the 20s at night.  Often there is a soaking thunder storm in between.  You really have to plan ahead to take the right clothing.  At 9,500 ft., the full sun is extremely dangerous too.

This is another festival with no virtually no directly related camping.  There is some close by tent camping and other campgrounds down at the end of the canyon.  Many people rent rooms in local bed and breakfasts.  You can walk to the festival from town.

Telluride is the most eclectic festival I ever been to.  This festival always has a solid line up with local hero and the King of Telluride, Sam Bush.  Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Boulder area bluegrass jam bands like Leftover Salmon and Yonder Mountain almost always play too.  They always try to have one or two artists that are from a very different part of the musical spectrum.   The year I was there, Johnny and June Carter Cash performed.   It was hokey, but it was really great.  Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf apparently has a summer home in Telluride and was an honored guest of Johnny Cash.  He took a bow from the VIP box.

I still vividly remember the Thursday afternoon show when Tony Furtado was great followed by String Cheese Incident who was perhaps even better.  Later that night, Leftover Salmon closed the evening, pausing only to howl at the moon as it fell behind the mountaintops. (Turns out this is a nightly occurrence at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival every year)  That first day was just mythical.  The rest of the weekend was great too with shows like Keb Mo, Taj Mahal, Gillian Welch, and Psychograss.

This is a great festival with proper planning.  Also, if you can attend as a group, the problem with standing in line each night can be shared.  One person is allowed to proxy for 3 others.  Overall the crowd is much younger than other festivals.  This is probably because of the harder physical conditions.  Without planning, this festival could be messy.

 

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