Folk fest

Just a few images from this weekend's Falcon Ridge Folk Fest. Men wearing skirts, "lions" and "lambs" (plushies?) parading about, dancing, lefties, food, music....

I feel so refreshed now, even though I'm still catching up on sleep, I think.

It rained a LOT. We managed to get tent set up while it was still dry; we had arrived around 7 on Friday night. I hadn't seen Richard Shindell in a few years and he was part of the Friday evening song swap along with Lucy Kaplansky, Mary Gauthier, and Marshall Crenshaw.

We ate a quick dinner of already-cooked ribs, beans, and raw veggies that I'd packed, then headed down to the festival area.

Thinking of a weather forecast that had called for 50 to 60 percent rain every day of the weekend, I stuck rain ponchos into the bag we were carrying along with our chairs. We soon needed them. It started raining just as the main act was starting, and by the second song or so it was pouring down in buckets and lightning was crashing nearby in the hills. We bravely stuck it out for a little while, then finally succumbed to human nature and hustled over to the food tent, joining hundreds who had gotten there before us seeking shelter.

It was raining so hard that they postponed the actual show; there had been attempts to block the water from pouring into the stage area but it didn't seem to be working all that well.

So we all huddled together for about 10 minutes until finally the storm subsided. Those still left made thier way back to the field, took up new positions, and the show began.

One of the things I like about Falcon Ridge is that some AA's have started a "Friends of Bill" meeting every morning of the fest in the family stage area. It's 8 a.m., very early, but things start happening after that so that's probably the only time they can do it. People bring in their own chairs, coffee and often breakfast, and there's an hour and fifteen minutes of sharing. This year I made both Saturday and Sunday's meetings.

Saturday morning was hard, because it had continued to rain throughout the night and was raining steadily in the morning, so we had to brave it in order to get out of the tent and go pee. P and I agreed that trying to cook something in the wetness would not work, so we grabbed fruit, got our stuff together and went down to get coffee and scones at one of the food stands. I left him at the food tent to relax and headed over to the meeting.

Good sharing, as well as some of the same BS you always hear, but one lady, a NY'er transplanted from Australia, spoke about giving up her perfectionism. She was speaking specifically about the contra dancing, which can be very confusing -- you mess up, and everyone else gets screwed up as a result. It's easy to feel bad in that situation. But she said no one really cared, and she was the only one it really bothered. Another guy said he just keeps smiling when he's irritated or when other people are irritated. It doesn't get worse if you do that, he said, and it quickly passes. I came out of there feeling I had gotten some real insight into my writing and creative block that I'm going through.

Will post more about the weekend in next post.